State of the Writer
Where has the time gone? It's been another week and a half since I last posted. Rest assured, I have not sunk into such a deep depression that I am hiding in my bedroom. (Though the thought has occurred to me once in a while.) In fact, since Thanksgiving things have been slightly better. I'm feeling a little more normal, so that's a good thing.
So what is going on? Once upon a time I used to blog a lot more frequently. In fact, it was pretty high up on my list because I felt like I needed to write. The compulsion to write, fiction or blogging or letters or even facebook statuses, has ebbed quite drastically. I still get a twinge here or there. (This week after finishing a good YA novel I actually thought about taking up my own story again for about five minutes.) I still do write (here I am doing so right at the moment!), but it doesn't feel like if I don't sit down and get words out onto the screen I will go stark, raving mad.
It's a bit frightening, in a way.
Being a writer is so much a part of me that I wonder what happened. Who am I if I don't write? Will the scribbling mania ever come back? Will I ever finish another novel? What will happen to those stories in my head if I don't?
Maybe I'm just too busy juggling responsibilities. However, I finished Corizen Rising when I had four kids and was trying to keep sixty million things afloat at the same time. All my free time went to writing because I just couldn't help myself.
I can help myself now, obviously, or I would be writing more. So where is every minute of my free time going?
I think I'm spending it reading. I joined Goodreads quite awhile ago but only started regularly visiting this year. I decided to join the 2013 Reading Challenge and set myself a goal of 100 books. I've reached 90-- 10 more books to go in two weeks. Hopefully I can manage it! But anyway, as part of this reading challenge I started a course of personal study in the classics. (I even joined a classics book club.) Needless to say, some of these books are very challenging. (I just finished the plays of Aeschylus.) Not exactly light, easy reading that I can just fly through. I've had to set myself a reading schedule, and so if I have any free time at bed time I don't sit down to write, I try to finish my assigned reading for the day. It's almost like I'm back in school again.
That's on top of trying to keep up with kids, school, piano lessons, exercise, my responsibilities at church, etc.
When I think of it that way, I'm not surprised I'm not writing anything more than the bare minimum. Thank goodness my personal "school" doesn't require term papers!!
I'm going to look at this optimistically. The compulsive writer in me isn't dead and buried. She's just on a sabbatical, doing research by reading compulsively instead. Though I seriously doubt anything from The Illiad will ever make it into anything I write!
So what is going on? Once upon a time I used to blog a lot more frequently. In fact, it was pretty high up on my list because I felt like I needed to write. The compulsion to write, fiction or blogging or letters or even facebook statuses, has ebbed quite drastically. I still get a twinge here or there. (This week after finishing a good YA novel I actually thought about taking up my own story again for about five minutes.) I still do write (here I am doing so right at the moment!), but it doesn't feel like if I don't sit down and get words out onto the screen I will go stark, raving mad.
It's a bit frightening, in a way.
Being a writer is so much a part of me that I wonder what happened. Who am I if I don't write? Will the scribbling mania ever come back? Will I ever finish another novel? What will happen to those stories in my head if I don't?
Maybe I'm just too busy juggling responsibilities. However, I finished Corizen Rising when I had four kids and was trying to keep sixty million things afloat at the same time. All my free time went to writing because I just couldn't help myself.
I can help myself now, obviously, or I would be writing more. So where is every minute of my free time going?
I think I'm spending it reading. I joined Goodreads quite awhile ago but only started regularly visiting this year. I decided to join the 2013 Reading Challenge and set myself a goal of 100 books. I've reached 90-- 10 more books to go in two weeks. Hopefully I can manage it! But anyway, as part of this reading challenge I started a course of personal study in the classics. (I even joined a classics book club.) Needless to say, some of these books are very challenging. (I just finished the plays of Aeschylus.) Not exactly light, easy reading that I can just fly through. I've had to set myself a reading schedule, and so if I have any free time at bed time I don't sit down to write, I try to finish my assigned reading for the day. It's almost like I'm back in school again.
That's on top of trying to keep up with kids, school, piano lessons, exercise, my responsibilities at church, etc.
When I think of it that way, I'm not surprised I'm not writing anything more than the bare minimum. Thank goodness my personal "school" doesn't require term papers!!
I'm going to look at this optimistically. The compulsive writer in me isn't dead and buried. She's just on a sabbatical, doing research by reading compulsively instead. Though I seriously doubt anything from The Illiad will ever make it into anything I write!
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