I have been on a massive writing kick for about fourteen months. I wrote:
* a screenplay
* an entire novel
* a novella
* a short novel
* a treatment of a screenplay
* a rewrite of an existing novel (twice)
Plus numerous blog posts, articles, query letters, essays, letters, you name it. I wrote it. Plus I got two backlist books ready for publication and put them on Kindle. And put the novella on Kindle. And learned to do cover design and typesetting. And I submitted two children’s books to an agent. And I took the screenplay to a conference and found a producer for it, and for my novella. And edited about a dozen books for friends and clients. And figured out how to use CreateSpace and published my first tangible published book. And spoke at conferences and in classrooms.
It’s been a whirlwind.
And then yesterday morning I went back to work on the novel I’ve rewritten numerous times, and I was just dry. Like the well where the guy failed to prime the pump. I stared at the words on the screen and thought, “What do those jumbled up letters even mean?” They meant nothing. I couldn’t do a darn thing to them. It was a weird feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Which made me realize something: I need to go back and fill my reservoir.
I think one reason this season has been so productive was it was my first year with all my kids in school (at least for half day, four days a week). Suddenly no one needed my attention for this short four-hour block of time each day, and so I cranked out the word counts. I think I felt like if I didn’t do it all in one day, this blessed moment might end.
But it’s time to refill the tank. I need to read. A lot. I need to study up some writing tomes. I need to start fresh on some ideas that get me excited again. The book I’ve been stirring and messing with for almost two years needs to be put back into cold storage until I know what to do next with it. (It’s stressing me out! And since I write exclusively as a hobby, it’s not fun. And when it’s not fun, it’s not a hobby. It’s a job.) I need to take this time to update my website. To do some genealogy. To go see some friends. To clean my poor, neglected house. To play a few rounds of Monopoly and Uno with my kids. To research how to teach my daughter to read music. To take my son shopping for better shoes. To clean out my fridge (ew.) To outline a couple of stories. To decide what direction I want to go next with my writing–substance or fluff? I gravitate toward fluff. But I feel guilty about that and think I should add some substance. Sigh. Overthinking it, and not putting any words on the page. That’s a big part of the writers block.
And so, I shall regroup and come back to the page again later.
Like, maybe Monday or Tuesday.
