It’s been a rough couple months. When the virus finally arrived in my country Trinidad and Tobago in March, just like the rest of the world, our government responded by shutting everything down and closing the borders.

This really broke my routine, and a routine is what keeps me working, doing all the projects and hobbies while drudging through the sludge of life.

So an average weekday usually involves an early morning commute to the office. A good breakfast came before work started. There’d be some gym/endurance training somewhere in there, and writing would be around 5-7pm before heading back home. If I’m lucky, some writing could even get done after 11pm when my son’s asleep (hopefully). The following day everything repeats. Friday evenings might see a visit to the local watering hole to decompress, and weekends involve some manner of chore/physical labour. Then we start all over again on Monday.

The damn virus broke all that.

All schools closed. All gyms closed. All endurance activities ceased. Those like me fortunate enough to keep their jobs either reported to site or worked from home. I’ve tried to keep my morning routine of waking up early and getting a good breakfast. My four-year-old son usually allows me to get a couple hours work in until lunch time while he’s on his tablet. Then he gets so idle that it’s all about him until night, doing writing activities, reading, play a game, maybe ride his bike. Trying to keep him productive is a job all on its own. The little guy usually puts me to sleep these days.

So ultimately that meant no gym, no exercise, and no writing.

Well that’s how it’s been for the past couple months. Now most of the country has finally opened back up, and things are slowly operating again, but differently. It’s like coming out of a bunker after nuclear war and dealing with the fallout. Well, sort of.

My schedule has had to adapt for this new normal. Still haven’t gotten exercise down to a routine yet, but I have found a time for writing during the day around lunch.

I’ve gotten my draft back from my editor Jesse, and currently hammering through that. This will make it draft 7. I really like how the story has evolved, with new characters, places, and religion. It’s about 40 chapters, so if I cater for 5 chapters a week, plus another week to review, it should take me about 4 months to finish draft 7. That should be complete by October.

Then it’s off to a final polish. I’m confident this novel should be ready by mid next year. Can’t wait for it to hit the virtual shelves.