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The Daily Post sponsors the #weekendcoffeeshare. Twitter is also using this hashtag. If this is something you’d like to do, whether it be weekly like it’s supposed to be or the way I do it, once a month, I hope you will join in.
[This month I am doing straight prose for this post.]
While the weather is still fair, I imagine us sitting someplace outside enjoying the gentle breeze with our wax-coated paper cups in hand. Today, for reasons unknown to me, I prefer an empty table at a park where I feel some physical openness and a bit of emotional solitude.
My writing is at a snail’s pace these days. In fact, it has been this way for many months. If I can get 300 words down in a session the last two months, I feel I have done well when, actually, I have not. In reality, it is shameful.
I could try to blame my lack of stamina on health issues. It would be believable for some days. However, I cannot honestly say it is true for all days. I could try to attribute the slowness of words to household problems like our roof needing to be repaired and not being able to get the crew moving on it. I do not understand why service businesses move so sluggishly in this part of the country. This does cause me some anxiety–sometimes to the point where I want to pull my hair out–but writing is good for getting rid of mental tension. Right?
Truth be known, some of the time, my shortage of persistence is due to a feeling of apathy and lethargy. And all of it is of my own making. Although it is good to gaze out the window occasionally to collect my thoughts, there are too many times when I am staring at a little bush in the front yard, watching its leaves rustle in the breeze and my thoughts are numb. Some may go as far as calling this a sign of depression. Sorry, but I am not disheartened easily. I want to blame it on the time of year but when this season is over, what would I blame my lack of motivation on then?
A couple of years ago, I took a sabbatical from blogging and the media sites to do more writing. Believe it or not, it worked. I wrote over ten chapters that month. Could it be I need another one? Chances are it is exactly what I need. However, until I get the preliminary work done and the roof is fixed, I rather doubt any time off from my blog or the media sites is going to do my writing any good.
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How do you deal with your obstacles of writing?
“Many times we are our worst enemy. If we could learn to conquer ourselves, then we will have a much easier time overcoming the obstacles that are in front of us.”
― Stephan Labossiere
A Scripted Maze 
I do other things, some of it creative, some just work I dislike. I wish you could join or start a writing critique group or even a book reading group. Just to sit and talk about writing is helpful. I understand that you feel where you live isn’t going to grace you with the people who could support your work. Sending you good thoughts.
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For reasons having nothing to do with our relationship, my brother and I were not very communicative for a number of years. Recently things have changed though. Although he lives three states away, his phone number is safely tucked in my address book. He is not a writer but he most definitely is a reader and a chatter box. We are calling each other more often now and two of our topics are books and writing.
Thank you for the good thoughts. Much appreciated. ❤
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I’m with Shari on this. I’ve been dragging through edits for my next book, struggling for force myself to do them though once I start, I enjoy it. Luckily I have other projects that keep me busy. I’m just waiting to get reinspired.
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Probably one thing I could do is drag my husband away from baseball and football on TV and take me to the used book store. Reading would be helpful, I’m sure, while I wait for motivation to write to kick in again.
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Like you, I like to take sabbaticals – which I think is a good way to make us come back and see our work in a different light, and if we love what we do enough, that time away will remind us why we decided to do it in the first place. I have not worked on my book for two years, and lately I have felt the need to go back to it. Hopefully I get some time up my sleeve too. Hope your health gets better.
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After I get the preliminary work done on all my main characters and have some summaries of the first few scenes, I will probably take the sabbatical to get a good start on the actual writing.
I have a clinic visit scheduled for the first of September. Hopefully, the doctor has an answer that will help.
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To get real writing done, I have to almost quit blogging. I may blog once a week and write the rest of the week. To be honest, you sound a bit overwhelmed. When I have too many responsibilities, I sound exactly the same way. Not depressed. Just overwhelmed, which really stifles my creativity.
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Rosemary, I am glad I am not alone with all the going-ons in life and the havoc they cause. Knowing that you live right north of me in Kentucky, it makes me wonder if this overwhelmed feeling has anything to do with the region we live in.
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Glynis, since I live in a very rural area, I have to go to Lexington (I’m sure you know where that is) for all my appointments (doctors, dog grooming, vet, anything of consequence). Sometimes even groceries. It eats up huge amounts of time. So, every time I go to. Lex, that day is shot. Living in rural KY is not always easy – lots of home maintenance, etc. So, yes, you may be on to something regarding the overwhelmed feeling. Life is definitely not easy. Add to that the fact that family and friends tend to think writing is a HOBBY as opposed to a profession….and you have overwhelmed! I tend to get some of my best writing done in the middle of the night when my world is quiet….then I’m exhausted the next day. 🙂
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My home is not set so much in rural as yours but it is a mile from the city limits of the little town of Crossville, almost centered between Nashville and Knoxville. Husband and I have one car, which means I am affixed to the homestead during the work week. Getting house repairs done required some cerebral juggling sometimes because some of it has to come from over an hour to two hours away.
Unlike you, Rosemary, I have time alone to write but inspiration is thin where I live. What do you do for writing support?
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When I feel uninspired and sluggish, I divert myself with other activities; but always I experience feelings of guilt: How can I not want to do something I enjoy so very much? Usually a brief hiatus works and I wake up one day ready to write again. Having deadlines like my self-imposed deadline of a new post on the 1st and 15th of every month and the imposed one for my newspaper columns — every other Friday, both helps and hinders my attitude. The deadlines help because I tend to distract myself less when they loom; but they also hurt in that I can feel overwhelmed, especially if other things are going on in my life like the leaky roof in yours.
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The deadline for my weekly post usually helps me focus. You would think the same motivator would help with my WiP but it, instead, makes me feel overwhelms, thus I ‘run away’ from my comfy chair at the keyboard. As the season of summer nears its end, I can feel myself being drawn to my desk without the fear of a blank mind. Definitely a good thing. Maybe I need to use the summer months as my hiatus.
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Such a great read! I really enjoyed reading this blog.
Cheers,
BlissPinkCo.
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Such a great read! I really enjoyed reading this blog.
Cheers,
BlissPinkCo
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Just so you know, Bliss, I have decided to follow your blog for a while to satisfy my curiosity.
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