Establishing a daily rhythm is difficult for me because, as a tutor, I work swing shift hours.  In my ideal world, one wakes up, gets one’s work done, then enjoys the rest of the day once the work is done.  A childhood of farm chores will do that to a person.

So in my ideal world, I do my paying work first, my me work next, and watch TV at the end.  But if my tutoring, the paying work, starts when school gets out, the only way to maintain my preferred schedule is to go nocturnal.  Which I often do.  And it can be a nice pattern, until one has to interact with the regular, diurnal inhabitants of the world.  Sigh…

Worse is the fact that doing me-work after tutoring  is rough, because I’ll finish each day at 8 or 9, and want to go sit in a coffee shop and write for the next three or four hours.  So, perched as I am from this perspective, I can point out a symptom of our current economy that other might not see: Coffee shops are closing earlier and earlier.  Once I could count on a place or two to stay open till midnight, at least.  No more.  Ten o’clock closing times have become nine 0′clock.  Nines have become eights.  Stupid economy.

Also it means fewer jobs for writers.  But I’m focused on the immediate.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a place to get writing done in L.A., preferably on the west side, that stays open late, I’d love to know about it!

I’m stressed out.  The number of tutoring hours available seems to be slipping with the economy.  Even if families were lining up to hire me, I’d have a hard time scheduling it.  It seems like every to-do list item I cross off for BrevityTV creates three more.  Meanwhile, a nasty virus crippled my main computer, and I’m having a hard time getting my old files back.

I have a vision for this blog, for my screenplay consulting, for BrevityTV… but they all need hours upon hours of investment, and let’s not forget that I’m supposed to be actually getting my own writing done.  Writers write.

In order to get it all done, something has to go.  It’s going to be television.  Part of my strategy as aspiring TV writer has been to watch everything relevant, staying up to date on all important shows in case I get an opportunity to impress a gatekeeper with my encyclopedic knowledge.  But gatekeeper meetings aren’t happening, partly because I’m not getting enough writing done, so the encyclopedpic knowledge is moot.  Time to clear up the schedule and make things happen.

I just removed Life on Mars, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, The Daily Show (grudgingly), Saturday Night Live, Samantha Who?, House, How I Met Your Mother, and Two and a Half Men, Big Love, and the United States of Tara from the DVR.  If I get a meeting, I’ll need to do some emergency catch-up, I guess, but in the meantime, that will give me an extra 9.5 hours a week.  Netflix subscription reduced.  Commence world domination.

Is now posted at BrevityTV.

And no likelihood of sleep any time soon…  I’m loving the fact that I’m involved in BrevityTV.com right now.  I can pitch a ridiculously difficult idea to my friends, and they jump in and help me make it real.  My week:

Saturday night:  all-nighter completing the lyrics to a comedy song about Sarah Palin.  It’s essentially an open letter to John McCain saying it isn’t cool for him to have chosen her, and not really a “Country First” thing to do.

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Call them “skits.”