The Lake House Effect

I’m back from the lake and happy to report that my productivity far exceeded my wildest expectations. I’m not sure how many pages I wrote, since I was writing in long hand and I haven’t typed it up yet, but I’m now feeling much, much better about being able to meet my deadline.

I’m not entirely certain what aspect of the experience contributed to such a steady outflow of creativity. I can’t say it was the lack of distractions, since while I was up there I also managed to unpack, wash, and put away all the kitchen stuff (of which there is much; Steve had enough glasses and plates in storage to outfit half the restaurants in the French Quarter). Lack of the Internet undoubtedly helped. The calming inspiration of the beautiful lake contributed. Being able to write through the late afternoon and evening, late into the night—always my most productive time, but normally reserved for family—surely played an important part. Perhaps it simply all came together with a strong sense of obligation to focus that came from the knowledge I was taking time away from my family and the house.

Of course, the experience was not without hiccups. A house deep in the woods of the dark wilds of Louisiana can be a scary place late at night for those of us with overactive imaginations and memories of Deliverance. One night I came to the scene where someone sneaks into the house to try to kill my sleeping hero, and thought, umm, I’m skipping this chapter!

This week will be spent typing up my outpourings—and of course trying to bring calm to the chaos that is this half-rebuilt house we’re living in. But at least that sense of creeping panic is gone. This book WILL get done.