The urge to write arrives at the most inconvenient times. The urge to write often settles on me when there is too much to do at work. When there are already too many unfinished projects and too many dishes to wash and too many clothes to fold. The urge comes when family members are sick, when the child needs my attention, when things are already impossibly complex and there are too many things competing for my focus.

My wife used to write her best poems in math class. She took math three times. She wrote great poems.

Right now, I am stretched too thin. I am pulled in too many directions. I don’t have enough time. I am always tired and feeling exhausted.

And still, in the midst of this, I start writing. I am tired of the usual formula for my unfinished short stories, one character reflecting on a conflict with another character who is somewhere offstage. And so, I turn to face the maelstrom. I do the thing that seems most inconvenient. I begin telling a story that has dozens of characters, two entire worlds and layers upon layers of conflict. My goal is to put as many characters into as many conflicts as quickly as possible and see where this goes.

This isn’t the best time for me to be starting something so ambitious. I have enough work to do already. I can’t seem to help myself. Perhaps it is a perverse flaw in my nature. Maybe it is justhuman nature. Either way, the urge to write comes when it will. Be grateful. Be ready. It is always inconvenient.