Oil Change and a Heated Mug

I had trouble falling asleep last night, which meant I wasn’t particularly productive. I took the car in for an oil change at the dealership and brought my laptop with me. They have a nice little waiting area with lounge seats and a tv that had the Olympic Winter Games showing. They also had a white bar with three high stools designed to be used by people with laptops, all decked out with outlets and free Wi-Fi. 

I brought my Happiness Heated Smart Mug and made myself a Lungo coffee. I never want to be without a temperature-controlled mug ever again. With the seating, a beverage, and my laptop, I was able to pump out about 400 words while they changed my oil.

Using time that would otherwise be wasted to get in some writing is my idea of heaven. Imagine people asking you how you found the time to write, and you call up all these otherwise lost moments. These little snippets of time that you used to create something. 

It made me feel good. And writing in a public place with all the sounds of the mechanics and salespeople milling around, not tp o mention the TV noise, still felt like a comfortable place to write.

Here’s hoping the same feeling will greet me when I am travelling a few days a week on the train to work. I already know the seating won’t be nearly as nice.

I am nearing the end of the novella I have been working on for a few weeks now. There isn’t much left to tell but the ending. Specifically, I need to write the validation. Wrap everything up and trim all the loose ends.

This story will need plenty of revisions. I know I didn’t cycle back as much as might usually do when writing a story. I think the push to get 2026 words per day may have had something to do with that. I am also learning what things oi need to work on thanks to the comments and input from my mentor.

I think much of the things she is pointing out comes from my desire to get through it. To not waste the reader’s time. To get the word count, when I should be focusing more on what I want the reader to think and feel. How I want them to move through the story.

And I know this story needs more descriptions when it comes to secondary and tertiary characters. There are some scenes that deserve a more cinematic treatment, not the quick brush strokes I might have used. Being aware of these things is have the battle.

I’m also curious to see if I can tell which sections I dictated versus typed. Is there a quality shift? I’ll find out after I finish this runaway short story.

Tomorrow night I am travelling to Toronto to attend the wrap party for “Vida the Vet,” an animated children’s show I worked on during 2025. It will be nice to see the old crew and catch up a bit. It’s being held at a bar downtown that has all kinds of games and things to do, like foosball, stand-up arcade games and pinball machines. I don’t think I’ve ever been to this place before. But other than seeing some colleagues, the most important thing is snacks and food. Or is that just me?

Attending this event means I’ll likely take the train into Toronto. This will give me a chance to test out some writing gear whilst on the train. I may have a few tweaks to my setup to make it more comfortable. Picking the right seat makes a big difference as well. During rush hour that can be a bit difficult as they are sometimes almost full by the time they get to my stop. But I am looking forward to forty-five minutes of writing time tomorrow.

As for the BYOK distraction free writing tool, it appears to have left California. A new local tracking number became available, and it states to expect delivery in the next 3-7 business days.

I bought my wife one of those bed pillows that meant to be used for reading while sitting up or for post surgery. I gave it a try, and it turns out it’s a real game changer. We both love to read in bed to wind down from the day. We will often will watch an hour of TV from bed as well, more on the weekend. And boy, does my back appreciate the cushiony support. It forces me to sit at a better angle. And even right now I am in bed writing this blog post, the upright position paired with a lap desk for my computer and mouse is a winning combination. Sometimes addressing small things in your life can lead to massive gains overall. Just like cleaning up my end table area and my painting studio. Small things that lead to bigger gains.

I’ve been watching a lot of videos on YouTube recently that feature writers trying famous writer’s routines. I am always jealous of the writers that can get all their work done by noon and take the rest of the day to go do other things. One thing that stood is the amount of average time spent writing. It turned out to be about just over 5 hours. Which make sense. The average writer can chicken-peck out about 1000-1200 words an hour. If you are doing this as your day job most writers aim to get about 4000-6000 words a day.

This number doesn’t include breaks, of course, just time spent at the keyboard or notebook.

And that’s what I am about to go and do. Get in some hours.

Have a good one.