That’s how I write. Always have, and always will.

They say that people who write every day for even a few hours accomplish way more than people who write the way I do, some days for hours on end, some days for 5 minutes, many days not at all. I believe them.

Still, I have managed to finish some projects: various college papers, a Ph.D. Dissertation in Philosophy. I even published a few things: a textbook for college students called Thinking Things Through and a few book reviews and short essays in philosophy. 30 years ago I took a fiction writing class that morphed into a writing group I attended weekly for 20 years. I am now writing a novel. In fits and starts.

I wondered when I retired in 2004 from over 20 years of teaching whether I would continue to write in fits and starts. I found out it was not the demands of students and colleagues or those of family, friends, my love, or my cat that kept me from developing a writing routine. It was me, how I work.

On September 27, 2013 I will be 67 years old, and it only just now occurred to me that I have wrung my hands long enough over my inefficient writing habits.

I reviewed a list of inspirational quotes from Write Attitude — Inspiration for Writers. One hit home: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”—George Eliot. I love Eliot’s work. And, yet, I do not plan to become the writer I might have been. Instead I’m taking a step inspired by Buddhism: It’s never too late to accept yourself as you are. And so, instead of trying to change my writing habits, I decided to start a blog to honor them.