I've been away from blogging due to a family medical emergency, so I thought it fitting to return with
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| Tissot, The Dreamer (1871) |
Maybe some writers have uninterrupted careers. I don’t know
any, and I certainly don’t qualify. Sometimes it seems that my writing life has
been one uninterrupted series of interruptions. If it’s not one thing, it’s not
another. Then I have to wrestle not just with getting back up to speed on the
project du jour and making up for
lost time, but wrestling with guilt, regret, and self-doubt.
Guilt because I should
have been able to keep focused, keep writing, No Matter What. Isn’t that what a
professional writer does? If “those other” successful writers can churn out
2500 words a day, come rain come shine come conventions come weddings, then I
should be able to. Right?
Regret because of all the moments spent checking my email or
playing Scrabble online or anything else but writing. If only I’d resisted the temptation, I’d be well ahead of the game
when an interruption happens.
Self-doubt because the present interruption will only prove
– publicly and conclusively – that I don’t have what it takes. Everything else
I’ve written (12 traditionally published novels, somewhere around 60 published
short stories, award nominations, etc.) was smoke and mirrors. Hand-waving,
nothing more. And now everyone will find out. It’s called the imposter
syndrome, and I am far from alone in experiencing it. My version is that
because I’ve been interrupted and I’m having trouble getting back on track, I
never will. That’s all she wrote. Literally.
Before I run the risk of turning into a blubbering mass of
self-pity, I do have some defense against the aforementioned demons.
For one
thing, this has happened to me before. Big interruptions, little ones,
emotionally overwhelming ones, delightful ones. Crises and celebrations,
injuries and vacations-without-computer (although to be fair, for most of my
writing career, my idea of a vacation was undisturbed time with my laptop). If
I can get myself calm enough to listen when I say, “Been there, done that,
remember? This too shall pass,” then I’m well on my way to conquering the
heebie-jeebies.
Knowing I’m not alone in having difficulty diving back into
my writing routine is helpful, too. This is especially true when I think of
writers I admire and the similar challenges they have faced. (That’s also one
reason I’m writing this blog, passing it on!)
One of my favorite co-panelists at conventions, Maya
Kaathryn Bohnhoff, talks about “writer’s gap.” That’s her way of looking at
“writer’s block.” She says you know where it is you want to go (in the story),
you just don’t know how you’re going to get there (yet). This is such an
encouraging concept, I have applied it to the difficulty of getting re-started
after an interruption. I don’t have to know exactly which strategies and
micro-strategies are going to work for me this time around. All I have to do is
have faith that something will work, that I will be resourceful in coming up
with that something, and this too shall
pass.
Strategies? Did I say
I have strategies for dealing with
interruptions?
Strategies sound so formal, like roadmaps etched in granite
or super-sure-fire remedies for Doldrums-Of-the-Muse. Speaking only for myself,
I have never found a magic bullet or a guaranteed cure. What I have done is
flail about until something works. Maybe the thing I thought helped actually
made no difference, it was simply time for me to move on. Maybe I got so
frustrated with struggling and getting nowhere that it was easier to sit down
and write. But maybe each thing I tried brought me that much closer to success
in a sort of cumulative, synergetic effect.
Maybe each time I tried something, I became more determined
to break through the stalemate.
Here are some things that have helped me:
- Admit that I’m stuck and remind myself that it’s something that happens to great writers.
- Using blog posts, emails, paper letters, or other “ordinary” writing as a warmup.
- Calling or emailing a fellow writer, one whose sympathy and discretion I trust.
- “Getting a running start:” reading back over the last thing I worked on to get my head back into the story. Then: adding one sentence. One paragraph. One page.
- Setting achievable daily goals (see above.) I can almost always slog through one sentence. If I do enough “just one sentences,” I sometimes find myself back in the zone.
- Start something new, often something utterly frivolous and self-indulgent. Indulge in my literary guilty pleasures.
- Type out a chapter of a book I adore.
- Read aloud. Sing the words.
- Listen to music from movies I love. Movie music is especially inspiring because it has narration, just like written words do, and that makes it easier for me to visualize scenes. Romantic pieces like Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade would well, too.
- Take a long walk where I won’t be overheard and say dialog aloud.
- Draw portraits of my characters. Chart genealogies. Draw maps or plot flow charts.
- Buy a new journal to keep writing notes in.
- Do things that re-charge my creative batteries: play, get out in nature, listen to or make music, talk to folks I love, visit museums, play with my pets, dance, visit the ocean or the redwoods…
- Make sure I’m ready to resume writing. If I’m not, what do I need?
What works for you?
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