I wouldn’t say that I exactly take them off. Maybe down the road I will, but I still work on Saturday afternoons. They are when I work on other things.

Like taking out a car engine, building a cedar chest, running a marathon . . . Just kidding.

No, Saturday afternoons are when I work on other projects.

Back when I could only write part-time, I needed to spend most of my free time working on the project at hand. And I still found that I never had enough time to do that.

The wonderful thing of writing full-time is that it allows me the slight luxury of being able to focus on other things. I say slight because it’s not like I have hours and hours of freetime. No, the last couple of years have shown that to be the opposite. But there are times when I can focus strictly on other things.

What are these other things?

Future stories, of course.

Ones that may or may not see light of day.

I’ve always been a writer who has a drawer or notebook or folder full of story ideas. I have all of those in plural form. I have tons of ideas. Saturday afternoons give me the luxury of working a little on some of them.

For instance, a horror novel I wrote last year that I was going try and get published under a pen name, the same novel that I need to rewrite sometime in the future–that’s something I can work on. Or my big series idea. Or other stories.

I don’t do any physical writing. The past week has tapped me for the most part. Instead, I’m working on character sketches, or plot ideas, or story maps, or bits and pieces on the thing.

This is still work. Yet it’s also fun. It’s still creative but it’s different than working on the project at hand.

It’s time worth spending, too, because I feel it’s similar to a pro athlete working out. Strengthening some muscles and practicing plays in order to get ready for the big game coming up.

There’s always a big game coming up. That’s the way I see it in my mind anyway.

Happy Saturday afternoon.