Whether it's the letdown after a recent release or just in general, I don't know. I just know I need to do something to get out of it. I have work to do. Though I don't have deadlines (aside from personal ones) I do have work that needs to be done, words that need to be written.
So a few days ago, I thought about how far away I'd veered from my usual routine. Sitting on the couch balancing the laptop and mindlessly staring at the TV had become status quo. For some people, that works. They can still write and be effective at it.
I can't.
So I grabbed a trash bag and headed up to my office. Spent the next few hours cleaning, dusting and reorganizing my desk and office space. I'm one of those people who hate, hate, hate housework but I absolutely must have a clean desk. Clean being a relative term - it doesn't have to spotless. But I do need to be able to work.
So last night, house quiet as the rest of the family was off, I sat down at my desk and worked. It wasn't completely interruption free. I'd still pop on the 'net or TweetDeck from time to time. It's a practice that I need to get out of as well. I used to shut off the 'net on my computer and work for several hours without interruption. While I only worked on revisions for a work-in-progress last night, it was still work. More than I did in the entire month of April.
It's a start.
Anyone else find they have similar situations? How do you get out of it? Or do you?
To celebrate Paranormal Romantics new digs, I'll give away a copy of my backlist (2011 releases and older) to one lucky commenter today! Winner will be drawing Monday, April 7th.
5 comments:
Last summer I hit a wall. It was like I forgot how to write. Burn out? Possibly. I took a couple of weeks off and then spent about a month writing garbage. Any old thing that came to mind just clear my head. It hurt and it worked. I came out a stronger writer.
Sorry about your funk, Sara. It's hard to climb out of those, but I agree with Annie, taking some time, reading some good books, and then writing whatever hits you. Sometimes those are the best stories! The ones that are quirky, a little bit off the wall, and just fun. Stop caring about what it is and let it pour out.
So when I hit that wall, I'll just come back to this comment and remind myself of my infinite wisdom. Ha!
Hope you're more inspired now with that clean desk!
Sounds like you did the right thing!!
For me, I recently came out of a funk. Finally a friend suggested that I just write like I had no series to write, like I had no list of what I should write next. But, instead, write like I used to write before I was published. When I just got to write what I wanted when I wanted.
It worked. I wrote something entirely new, which was really really fun.
I've been in a funk lately too. The longer we do this, the more pressure there is and the more voices we have telling us what is due next and when. It stifles creativity.
I think the best thing you can do is power through it. Write something new, just for you, or write crap until the good stuff comes back. Keep writing, that's the ticket.
The new paranormal romantics digs rock, don't they?
And bummer, sorry to hear about your funk. I just got out of one of those... and basically I did the same as you. Put my foot down and told myself to get on with it. I did a boot load of housework and made sure all the little jobs were done. Ha. No more excuses for me. As for the twitter and facebook thing between writing; I need to pack that in too. I need a writing program that works like office BUT disables all over functions of the pc when open. Ah, that probably wouldn't work, either. I use the online dictionary and thesaurus.
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