I remember the first time it happened: I was sitting in my parents’ computer room (yes, we call it that) in high school. I remember my mom coming to the door to ask me something, but I didn’t hear her. Why? I wasn’t there. Not really.

Where was I? I was at Camelot High (for the record, I wrote this novel before Meg Cabot wrote Avalon High #justsayin #ishouldhavesubmittedittoanagent). Lance and Arthur were in the middle of a huge fight over Gwen. The bookshelves in the computer room didn’t exist (nor my mom’s request); all that was real was the fight on the porch.

I eventually had to leave the world to go to a party with a friend. I remember feeling like my friend and her car were from my imagination and what I left behind was what was real.

This is the feeling writers live for.

Unfortunately, it gets harder and harder to feel the older I get.

Why?

I think there are two major reasons. 1) I am more worried about what other people will think. I know I am sending my next manuscript out to agents, so I am very aware of them reading it. 2) I don’t have the same stretch of uninterrupted time that I had as a kid.

While I have been doing mindset work for the first problem, I have made some room in my calendar to help fix the second problem.

Yesterday, I spent three hours working on my book. You know what? The feeling returned. I felt like I was sitting in a booth at a pizza parlor playing a video game instead of my sunroom with my corgi.

I know people preach about writing in fifteen minute sprints (heck, I do it myself), but there really is value in letting yourself get lost in the world of your book by chunking off a good portion of time to write. You don’t really get that magical feeling in fifteen minutes, but you can in at least an hour.

I challenge you to block off at least an hour in your calendar to write. Then go into the comments, and let me know how it went!