If I could stop sleeping, I would.

Sleep takes up a lot of time.  Eight hours a night, on average.  Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

Most nights, I tell myself I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable hour, only to end up staying awake reading until 3 or 4am.  This, typically, results in sleeping until 10am, at which point I kind of feel like I've wasted precious hours of the day.  I refuse to give up reading, because it's so magical- each night I get to go to a different place, some of them don't even actually exist in this reality, and experience things I don't get to do on an average day.  I love getting lost in a good book.  Hell, sometimes I love getting lost in a not-so-good book.

I plan to get up at a reasonable hour and write more before evening activities begin with the family, which will be around 4pm.  If I sleep until 10am, that'll only give me eight hours to write, get dressed, have lunch, take a shower, and do anything else that needs to be done.  Unacceptable.

A friend of mine, Kevin, has challenged himself to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.  He's on a roll so far- every day, he has been above his word count goal.  I'm proud of him, and I can't wait to read his manuscript.  Follow along with his progress: Watch Kevin write a book in a month and mock him if he fails.

I have a gift for writing fast.  In high school and college, I could churn out a five-page essay the night before it was due in just an hour or two and get an A.  When I sit down to write stories, I can easily do 500 words or more in an hour (which, if I work eight hours a day, would give me a total of 4,000 words a day), IF I take away distractions, such as:
-FaceBook
-Twitter
-Failblog
-Text messages
-The strange desire I have to collect all the stars in Cut the Rope
-The cat
-My need to sing and dance to my favorite songs when they come up on shuffle

I figure I could probably write a novel in a month if I actually spent the time I intend for writing, writing.  So here's my resolution: from this point on, minimal distractions.  This means that when I'm writing, I'm going to keep my phone in another room where it won't be a temptation, and only play movie soundtracks quietly in the background instead of listening to other music or having a movie on in the background.  It also means that I am going to have to discipline myself to ONLY use the Internet for research on whatever I'm working on.

Okay, that's all I have for now.  I'm off to bed, so I won't sleep in so late.  After I read, but just one chapter... I promise, just one... unless it's a total cliffhanger.