Why I Haven't Been Writing

To say that I've been busy would definitely be an understatement. I've had an idea tickling at my brain for months, but I didn't get a chance to work on it at all until just recently. There were many reasons why I didn't write, and some of them could have been helped by writing.

1. I had a lot of homework. It was my last semester this past April, and I had the two toughest classes I'd ever had my entire bachelor's degree. A lot of things slid to the side. Writing was, sadly, one of them.
2. I had a lot of personal issues come up. Everyone except me, my husband, and my daughter ended up losing their mind. Some of them impacted us personally, and some of them should have been more of a side impact and weren't.
3. I've had a lot of stress going on. These personal issues and homework caused a lot of stress, and being a wife and mother added more stress on top of that. Stress on top of stress causes more stress, which only caused more stress. My stress is usually relieved by writing, but I felt too stressed to write.
4. I've been depressed. All of the above sent me into a deep, dark hole I didn't feel like I had the strength to get out of. Writing will usually combat this, but what little time I did have was immediately dashed aside by homework or personal issues or husband or daughter. So, I stayed in my hole.
5. I had a LOT of homework. I know I already mentioned this, but I really feel that this needs to be stressed. Homework is always in my life, but this homework was by far the most I've ever had. It was tough, and it was a lot. I hated it.

So, as you can see, I had a lot on my plate for these past few months, and I've just recently gotten back into the writing groove. So, expect more blog updates and more writing stuff.

How to Avoid Writing in 5 Ways or Less

So, lately I've been really wanting to write. My brain is filled with the desire to put words to the page. My body (and non-creative brain parts), however, is doing everything it can to keep me from this desire. So, here are five ways (or less) that my body and non-creative brain pieces are distracting me:

1. The cat box needs to be cleaned. This is usually a chore that I save for the end of the day before bed so that the cats can do whatever they like in it all night long without doing their business in other places of my home. I did this about 30 minutes ago.
2. The calendar needs to be updated. Okay, it really did need updating, but it didn't need to be updated right that second. It's a dry-erase calendar that sticks to my fridge, and the weeks are separated. All you have to do is pick up the old week and move it to the bottom of the calendar, erase it, and fill it in. Should be easy to do once a week, right? Well, I still had most of December still listed and hardly anything of January. I did that about 15 minutes ago (but it did have to be done!).
3. I needed coffee. Now, this one right here kind of went with the track of getting myself in the writing grove. I wish I could say that my Prescription Coffee Cup and Vanilla Caramel coffee led to more words being written, but alas, it did not. Not in the creative sense, anyway.
4. Dragon Age Origins is far more interesting than my novel. Yes, it is true. Why? Because it's already a written story! All I have to do is create my character, make a couple of choices, and the game pieces together a story for me. Wouldn't it be great if all stories could be written like this? Sadly, I still want to play more Dragon Age Origins.
5. I could write a blog post about how my body and non-creative brain parts are distracting me. Hey, wouldn't you know it! I'm doing that one right now.

Usually, to combat the writing blues, I'll play a little music, sit down with some coffee, and write in a way that's different from how I usually do it. For example, if I've been doing a lot of typing, I'll write by hand instead. If I've been doing a lot of handwriting, I'll type instead. So, I put on some music, got myself some coffee, opened a notebook, uncapped an awesome Papermate InkJoy 100 purple pen and wrote hardly anything at all. Perhaps it's because I went to bed at 2:30 and woke at 6 and had coffee, or maybe I'm just making excuses for myself. Either way, I'm going to have to buckle down and get some words written sooner or later. I've got people I need to answer to, especially if I want to earn certain prizes from a certain fellow writer.

3 Pages Down, X to Go...

Lately, as I'm sure you all remember from my last post, I've been doing a lot of journaling and very little novel writing. Well, just recently, I've started reading Walking in this World by Julia Cameron as well as We are all Writers: How to Use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now by Mari L. McCarthy. The first focuses a lot on how important creativity is for our inner artist and encourages us to practice that creativity daily. The second focuses on lifting writer's block mainly from your journal, but it can be applied to any writing project, I think. At least, that's how I use it.

Anyway, so what I wanted to let the blogosphere know is that I have begun work on my novel once more. I wasn't liking the beginning so I started over with a couple of chapters from the MC's life before being a vampire, during her early days as a vampire, and during her early days as a Krusnik. I'm hoping these will eat up some of the timeline so that I can reintroduce Leonard in the story, though she won't know it's that Leonard until much later.

I know, and some of you are going, "Who's Leonard???" Just read my novel when I release it, and you'll know! Novel excerpts will likely be posted on my website that I'm creating for my novel. Link will come soon.

A Book for Writer's Block

I'm sure you all remember my entry regarding writer's block and how much it sucks. Well, here's a book that I have found helpful. You can click on the image to download the ebook from Mari's website for free. This is a helpful book from my friend at Create Write Now. I also have a blog about her other book with 85 journaling tips in it. I have several of her books, and I really enjoy each one. But this one was specifically about writing and curing writer's block so I felt it was appropriate for this blog.

A Response from Writer's Block

Okay, so I wake up, and I discover that writer's block has left me a wonderful response to my letter from yesterday. Here it is for the rest of you:

Dear Me,

Do you not remember those many days and nights in which writing at night was the time when you would write the best? We tried to force you to a daytime schedule; we would battle with your creativity at night knowing that one day your life would demand sleep at night. And now, you're a mother, wife, and college student who needs her nights to sleep, but what have you done? You've gone and messed up your schedule by strengthening your creativity with night time writings all your life. There's only so much we can do when you always send your little creativity minions after us. You write and write and write nonstop. Writer's block can only help you fix your schedule so much. You're the one that trained your body this way, not us. If you want our help, I suggest you start trying to write during the day. And for goodness sake, go to bed at a decent hour!

Trying to help,

Writer's Block 

 

Writer's Block has Horribly Excellent Timing...

I hate writer's block for a number of reasons. For one, writer's bloc always chooses the worst times to attack me. Like when I'm wide awake and wanting to write. Once I lie down to close my eyes and sleep, writer's block is lifted, and ideas flow through my brain like water through a strainer. I can't stop them, and I lie there tossing and turning, itching to write yet too tired to lift myself from my bed. So, as a little exercise to try and get writer's block to go away, I am going to write it a letter. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow's post will be writer's block's response.

Dear Writer's Block,

What gives? You are always bothering me at the worst times, and you affect EVERYTHING I do, not just writing. EVERYTHING. You make it difficult to work on homework because I read something for class, have to write something to reflect on it, and I have no reflections because I have a wall blocking me from my words. Then, the very moment I declare exhaustion and go to lie down, you sneak off like a wicked thief who's gotten away with a prize. At that very moment, my brain is flooded with ideas for this story and that story and "Oh, I should've written that in my school paper!" Why? What have I ever done to deserve your wicked punishment?

Sincerely,

Me