Why do I always write better at the pool?

Today is Tuesday. (Okay - it's Wednesday. For you. For me, writing this, it's Tuesday)

Crud. I lost the momentum there. Let me start over.

Today is Tuesday. You know what Tuesday is in my house? It's skip-the-gym and stay at home and write a wicked-lot-of-words-on-my-new-book day. It's the day I ignore the increasingly small amount of milk and the dust on the piano and the dishes in the sink. It's the day I stop fiddling around with my new website (I'll let you know when it's ready). It's the day I try to forget I'm heading into a marketing blitz and waste countless hours trying to figure out how to get my name out there.

It's the one day of the week I ship my kids off to school and for five hours do nothing but write.

So at 8:40 the last of my kids climbed on the bus, and, already two and a half cups of coffee down, I refilled the coffee maker, turned on the computer, and sat to write.

Let's just say I did more sitting than writing.

At one point I got up from the chair and did some stomach crunches. I thought it would get the blood flowing a bit, with the added benefit of loosening my pants.

I reheated soup and critiqued a writing partner's query while I ate.

And I wrote a little.

About 900 words.

Seriously??? I've got five hours and that's all I can eek out?? You gotta be kidding me!! What the heck is wrong with me?? How many writers would kill for time like that to spend uninterrupted? How many (and I know who you are) could practically start-to-finish a book in time like that?

At 2:30 I finally put the computer away, sighing, and went to pick up the kids, one at one end of town and the others forty minutes later at the other end. We set off for swim lessons, and about half-way there, I thought: Troy should be there. In this scene. He would totally show up there.

So after getting my youngest changed into a swim suit and safely dumped into the pool, I scrounged around the car for a pad of paper and a pen and sat to write.

I wrote until my daughter suddenly was standing over me dripping chlorinated water all over my notebook and asking for her towel.

450 words in less than 20 minutes. And that's writing by hand. On practically post-it note sized paper.

I won't dare tell you how many adverbs might be in those pages. Probably more than in my entire last book. But they were necessary! And the scene was awesome!

So the lesson learned here is...?

Either I should be writing with pen and paper instead of on the computer.

Or Troy should be in every scene.