At least, I think that’s what happened.
I have done next to no work since the end of October, so that probably qualifies. Lesson learnt: I should never, never, have downed tools. One thing leading to another, I turned around and I hadn’t done any useable work for three months. To be fair, someone close to me passed away, and Christmas was a sad affair.
This is obviously a tough hole to climb out of, but from dithering to procrastination, I have eventually succeeded in dragging myself back to my writing chair.
Opening the laptop felt far too much of a commitment so I stuck to the 3 Ps: paper, pencil and post-its.
I cautiously returned to social media as well, as this helps to keep myself accountable.
I’m not ready to set myself a work schedule yet, but in my wildly optimistic moments, I dare to dream that I could make up for lost time and publish before Easter.
Putting a word in front of the other…
A string of letters at a time, I need to restore my confidence and rebuild my writing habit.
I must remember that I love what I do, that I’m a confident person and that no matter how rubbish the day’s work turns out to be, it is better than doing nothing.
I have been thinking of my plot and characters a lot more, and my inbox is filling up with the little emails I send myself when I need to capture an idea. (Super easy to retrieve all my notes by searching for my own name, tadaa!)
Every creative struggles with blah days, weeks or months. As JK Rowling puts it, ‘the trick is to stop for a biscuit just before your sugar levels drop to ‘every single word of this is worthless.’
I will heed that advice!
A big virtual hug to all the lonely writers out there in need of a bickie.
Awesome article.