This post is approximately 400 words. Weirdly written, stream-of-consciousness words.

The title is a synonym for being exhausted. Not to be confused with a dragon wagon, which is a concept I’ve been trying to fit into a story for years. But I digress before I’ve begun.

The household was restless last night. My wife caught whatever cold our youngest has. Our big dog, Atticus, seemed to be rotating his body on our bed in time with the hands of the clock. The smaller dog, Scout, scratched her bed regularly, looking for comfort. I’d moved 800 pounds of retaining wall bricks, so I had some complaining muscles that I forgotten were muscles.

This morning, I was in a fog. Honestly, it lasted most of the day. I buried myself in reporting at work, which meant minimal human interaction (i.e. fewer people to question whether I’d been replaced by a malfunctioning mandroid).

Can you tell I’m a bit punchy and sleep-deprived?

So, the point of this post is this: when your brain’s in a fog and you’re in the middle of writing a book, how does a person put forth the creative energy to work on the manuscript?

You don’t. Or you probably shouldn’t. It will be a terribly frustrating experience for most of us, though I’m sure there are some who can fall into a somnambulant trance and produce manic quantities of text. And while I’m generally not the latter, I’m over 200 words into this post and somewhat energized.

Or it’s because I originally wanted to write this five hours ago and won’t let myself go to bed until it’s completed. Potato, po-tah-to.

Perhaps you’ve already guessed: this post is a substitute for the manuscript writing today. It allows me to do some of the project work (marketing), but it takes other parts of my brain to deliver. As such, I can suddenly hit 300 words without taxing myself like I would trying to overcome a challenging piece of my story. If I’m lucky, I’ve also managed to engage and entertain an audience.

With a smidge of brainpower, I still feel like I took a step forward today, which I wouldn’t have expected this morning as I struggled to remain upright. Your writing day is still successful, even if you didn’t add a single word to the manuscript.

–Michael

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© Michael Wallevand, May 2016