Punctuation is in no way my strong point. The rephrase is nice and clear.

ETa: does not seem awkward to me, fwiw.

-t, insent. Take a look when you have the time. No rush, seriously.

Susan, this is just a question, not a criticism or a suggestion. I'm just curious about your process. Do you ever write little things that have nothing to do with your current project? Just as a change of pace, or a way to loosen up, use your writing muscles in different patterns, blow some different-colored balloons through the headspace?

Frankly? Not very often. I think that tight focus is mostly natural inclination, since it's an aspect of my personality even when I'm not writing--I tend to focus on whatever I've decided is most interesting and/or important and get snappish when someone tries to distract me or change that focus. So when I'm presented with a writing exercise, my first instinct is to funnel it through my current project.

But I've definitely become more this way since going back to work full-time. I have to fight hard for every bit of my writing time, and I've made a point of bringing the world of my WIP into the rest of my life just to keep me in the right emotional and mental space to be able to write productively during that limited time. So, yeah, I do use drabbles to explore aspects of my characters and plot in a different format because it's another way to keep them alive and in the forefront of my mind when I'm not sitting at home with the WIP file open on the laptop.

t shrugs I know it's not the only way, but I think it's the best way for me, for now. And it helps that I really do love the world I'm building and the characters that populate it. I feel like I don't get anything like enough time there.

Wow! I haven't been in here in a while. So many GREAT drabbles!

Hey MM, if you want another reader, shoot it over to me. I'd love to read what you have so far on this goofy fantasy novel. Who knows - I might even have a suggestion or two.

Hey MM, if you want another reader

ditto this. checking profile addy now...

Backflung, MM.

Uh...Nicole, insent to profile addy.

-t, caught, opened and backbackflung.

Sox, er...in process of flinging assuming profile addy good.

Whew. It's like playing badminton with four octopi.

addy is good.

Whew. It's like playing badminton with four octopi.

hmph.

I prefer nautilus. but whatever.

Oh, dude, I totally should have said nautilus.

I'M A HACK!

...

Over it now.

After my whole speech on why I only write things related to my WIP, what did I do but come home and have an inspiration for a personal drabble:

None of Your Business Casual

There’s nothing wrong with the blank pants and gray sweater. They fit. The cut and color flatter. But all day I’m uncomfortable and out of sorts. My clothes are a costume for a role chosen out of dreary necessity, not passion, a role I’ve been trying to shed for almost a decade now.

I come home, turn on Noggin for my daughter, head upstairs, and change clothes. The moment I put on my jeans is sensual pleasure--the denim soft yet heavy, scratchy yet good on my skin.

Until the alarm goes off tomorrow morning, I am myself again.