MESSY BED, MESSY HEAD

I like to think of it has finding my happy place, clearing my head, every morning before sitting down to write.

Making my bed. Doing the dishes. Sweeping the kitchen floor. Vacuuming.Throwing in a load of laundry. Changing the kitty litter.

Anything that keeps me from facing the most terrifying moment of a writer's day -- the blank computer screen -- is what I do every morning before turning on my laptop.

Procrastination, you say? Moi?

Heavens to Betsy, no!

It's merely the  "messy bed, messy head" writing theory I subscribe to these days while attempting to complete the spring session of the 40 Days Of Writing challenge.

It's Writer's Blockade Management 101, really.

For those not familiar with the "messy bed, messy head" school of thought, it's the idea that beginning one's day with the simple, nay, mindless, act of making one's bed, tidying one's bedroom, sets into motion an organized, productive day. A calm day. A happy day.

As a writer, I need to clear my head so that the productivity, the creativity, flows.  Hence, I clear the clutter from my immediate surroundings before honing my craft for the day.

It applies to anyone, of course. Not just writers. Who doesn't want an organized, productive, calm day?

The only fly in this "start with a clean slate" ointment for me? I only have an hour or two of free time each morning before I dash off to my grocery store job, and I do tend to putz about the house too long. By the time I actually sit down to write my old nemesis, deadline pressure, rears its ugly, anxiety-ridden head.

My stomach knots, my blood pressure soars, my mouth goes dry as the Sahara Desert.

Suddenly, I am subconsciously transported back to my newspaper reporter days. Why, there's my former co- news hound, Pat Kinney, pounding out yet another mile-long story on city sewer repairs while I, the education reporter, can't seem to scrape up even a nut graph regarding the school board meeting the night before.

Bupkis. Nada. Nuthin'.

And the deadline clock ticks, louder, louder, louder!

Somehow -- most days, anyway -- I managed to pull a news story together, just in the nick of time.

It was absolutely horrifying, and quite frankly, I would give anything to  relive, if but for a moment, my newspaper reporting  days. There is nothing quite like the rush, the sheer exhilaration, of facing a blank computer screen one minute and cranking out a story on deadline the next!

Oh, my! Look at the time! Gotta go schlepp groceries.

Day 6! Nailed it! WOOHOO!!