When I’m trying to write lately, I feel like nothing fits smoothly. DH says I’m trying too hard and over-thinking everything. I’ve tried to back off and let things ferment, but so far that’s not working either.
I’ve had a week where I was pretty much away from the computer and didn’t even write out my journal entries by hand for 3 days. I feel like I should be bursting with the need to write something down, anything. I have done nothing concrete but think about the critique from the beginning of the month. No, I haven’t been fixated on what people were saying, but more on how I’m going to fix the issues brought up.
I did go look at how I was trying to outline my other WIP, and was chagrined to find that most of what I’d been thinking of as “plot points” that the story must hit along the way, were really emotional points and described in those terms as well. I keep meaning to drop a note to Jodi about this, as I think she’d be amused too. Of course, then she’d whap me upside the head and ask why I hadn’t done it for Revealed yet. *sigh* That’s probably why I keep conveniently forgetting to tell her.
My main problem is that my attention span is about the same as that of a gnat. I know I’m still under a lot of stress, not just from trying to resettle back in after the fires, but also with other commitments that are coming due this week. Stress is not conducive to wanting to write. It may help generate topics for journal entries, but not creative fiction.
The books I’ve been reading lately also haven’t been a source of motivation. The majority of them haven’t even sparked the “I could do that better” energy, that’s how little I liked the premise or how completely derailed I am.
Don’t mind me, I’m just feeling blue and in a funk. I think I’m going to go reread Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer. She’s always good for some inspiration and motivation. If nothing else, she makes me want to be able to write in that easy, free and encouraging voice of hers.
Yep, stress can pretty much mess with one’s creative juices. Some people force themselves to write. Others take a time out and then reassume it later. Do whatever works for you.
Thanks, Tempest! I’ve been keeping up with my daily journal entries (except 3 days while we were evacuated) and knowing that I’m doing that much helps. I think rereading Dunne’s book on
Emotional Structure with the Divas will help. Just rereading the first two chapters (yes, I picked that up again instead of Dorothea’s like I said I was going to) this afternoon made me want to cozy up with the characters from that story and see what I could do to make telling their story something achievable.