I shouldn’t be writing while I’m at work. I should be working. I have things to do. But, for some reason, I get my best writing done when I should be doing something else — preferably something with a deadline.

When I get home from work, I don’t really want to sit in front of my computer all night. I want to spend time with Partner 1 and my dog. I want to relax. I don’t want to activate my brain and force it to create things.

What I should be doing is working at work and writing at home.

Last week, I wrote 4600 words while at work. On Monday I had a couple of meetings unexpectedly cancelled, leaving me with “nothing” to do. (I put nothing in quotes because there’s always something I could be doing.) On Tuesday, I had a couple of meetings moved to Wednesday and Thursday, leaving me with an open hour on my calendar. Each day, I wrote 2300 words on Kayfabe and Kink #2. One day I wrote a spanking scene; the next day I wrote a conflict scene.

I work from home on Thursday and Friday. Those are the days when I can really get away with writing while on the clock. Even though I have so many meetings that my calendar looks like a veritable rainbow (I use different colors for different projects and tasks) I still manage to find time to do other things.

But not writing.

I wonder if it’s because I like the pressure of trying to avoid being caught.

What’s really interesting to me is that I have five projects I currently am working on, and somehow I don’t have enough work to fill time that isn’t filled with meetings. I see my peers who always seem to be working, and they all have fewer projects than me; am I doing something wrong? Or am I just that efficient? I don’t know.

When I really should be writing is when I’m on vacation — like when I’m visiting my parents, which I do at least twice a year. But I very rarely get any writing done at their house. Not because it’s chaotic or anything, but because there’s no pressure. I have written things at their house, especially during the Holiday Heat process, but I don’t usually do very much. I usually sit there and get bored (which I shouldn’t, because I have plenty of writing time), and then in the evening when they put on the news I put on my headphones and watch Chopped on my computer.

I wrote the entire first Kayfabe and Kink book at work — or, at least, that’s how I remember it. I might have done a little of it at home. But the preponderance of it was written at my desk, on my Bluetooth keyboard. (Oh, and just in case it was the keyboard that was making it work, I bought another one for my desk at home. It didn’t change matters.)

I shouldn’t be writing at work. But if you’re a fan of my fiction, you should be glad that I do.