Okay, so let’s talk writing and productivity and, more specifically, the lack of it. Ever since I published Tales of a Stranger Sister, I’ve been trying to make real, substantial progress on my next book.
Results have been… well, not great to be honest. I’ve attempted to start three separate projects in that time and while I penned several thousand words across these three projects, I wouldn’t exactly say I’m satisfied with much of it. I think I have three interesting and fun ideas to write about, but what I don’t have is a single story amongst the three, and certainly not one that would fill a novel.
As I said in my last post, this last year has been interesting. Between finishing the debut novel, jumping into promotion and marketing mode (“BUY MY BOOK!“), career changes, family health issues both human and feline, and the state of the world being what I could charitably describe as “a radioactive septic tank fire”, it’s possible that it all might just have been a touch too interesting for me.
But beyond that, I spent over two and a half years straight working on Stranger Sister. Every day. It became a habit, a part of my daily routine and, frankly, it’s been hard to break free from the mindset of needing to sit down and tweak that text just one more time.
Lastly, and to be at my most blunt, I’m tired. I’ve been adjusting to a new life routine that is very different from the life routine I had while drafting and editing Stranger Sister. It just feels exhausting to force myself to tack on trying to create a new story every evening. It’s starting to become where I now resent the time I set aside every evening for writing. A time which I normally love but am growing frustrated with because nothing I writing right now feels like it’s moving me toward my goal of having a second book.
I am well aware that resentment than easily morph into hate and loathing and I very much don’t want to hate the time I spend writing. So, knowing that, I have made some decisions on what my next moves will be in both the short and medium term.
I’m going to take a short break from writing. Not a hiatus. More like a vacation. Possibly even a working vacation.
Until the end of August, I’m taking some time for myself. I’m not stepping away from writing 100% during the next 5 weeks or so, but I’m also not going to force myself to sit at my laptop for 1-2 hours every night trying to force words for a story that just isn’t coming right now. If I get ideas about one of my premises that might finally blossom into an actual story, I’ll take the time to write it down. If I do nothing writing related that day, I won’t angst about it. No pressure. No writing or creative obligations for 5 weeks.
I plan to catch up on some media I’ve backlogged for the last 4 months, play some games on our new gaming rig, and even read a few books from my TBR pile that I’ve neglected for far too long. In other words, expose and immerse myself to other stories and let myself get inspired again. Get out of my head and let someone else steer my imagination for a while. Honestly, that usually helps a lot when I find that I’m spinning my wheels.
As I said before, this will be a bit of a working vacation. I still plan to promote Stranger Sister during this period, and indeed I have some plans in the works for late August in terms of both promoting and expanding the availability of my debut novel. So, I will obviously have to still dedicate time to that, but I’m feeling optimistic that it will ultimately be productive for me as a creator.
Now, seeing that this is day one of my self-imposed writing vacation, that means I managed to write 1200 words of notes on a story premise I backburnered five years ago and an entire blog post today.
…
Because of course I did.
Tomorrow. I’ll start my writing vacation tomorrow.
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