What do you do when the writing muses escapes you? When the desire to write is high but the inspiration or fire to put words on paper just isn't happening? I'm there and have been there for almost forever. This from a woman who penned six books inside of eighteen months and spent almost eighteen months post stroke trying to write one book.
The realization hit me the other day when I was to the point where I wanted to scream out of frustration of wanting to write...no check that, needing to write and not being able to. Right now, I need the escape factor that writing brings to my troubled mind. That's what writing is to me, a chance to escape my everyday life. While writing I can breakout of reality and dabble in different locales, be someone else, and have a scathing comeback right on the tip of my tongue to be directed at the person that deserves it. I can get lost in research and search for over used words. But I'm needed in reality and don't have the luxury of this escape.
So what did I realize? Sometimes, you just have to let some things slide to the back burner of life. When my mind and body have to be alert and present in the now, my writing just has to wait. Not that I have to like it, but it is what it is.
My daughter recently opened a photography business. When she had to pick a name for her company, she hesitated, and then she came up with the perfect name...Time is Precious Photography. Why is it perfect you might ask... a baby (wedding, friends and loved ones) is a baby a very short time. You can't go back and redo it. The only things you might have are pictures that jogs your memory in the future. Pictures document a life the way a diary can. Isn't that what reading and writing does? It captures moments and highlights in your character's life.
When we indie publish, we are saying we are breaking the mold. We are inventing a better mousetrap. We are blazing our own trails. We are controlling our own destinies as authors. Yep, all of that and more. When we don't write because real life interrupts us there has to be a pretty important reason for it. For me, it was having another tiny stroke, spending time with my grandchildren (they are growing so fast), and having a husband moved to hospice care for his final month or two. In my particular case...being in the time is precious mode is more important that committing words in my WIP. I make no excuses. It's a choice. So while real life takes up all of my should be writing time... I'm making every moment count.
Y'all keep writing and loving the Lord.
I get it: Writing, like reading provides a great escape for me. I revel in creating characters who are fresh, whether behaving or misbehaving, although the misbehaving ones are more fun.
ReplyDeleteMy husband told me yesterday that he's grateful that me having a stroke actually made me focus on writing; I think I can now because I DON'T have all that life crap interfering. Pre-stroke it was hard for me when I put writing in front of other important things in my life; I believed I was prioritizing correctly, but, for being a writer, I did very little writing. Not now.
All the best - in your life and your writing.
I hear you on the needing to write. But I agree that sometimes the choice not to write must be made.
ReplyDeleteLove the Precious Photography name!
Hi Jo - it's good to see you here still blogging and I guess writing is such an essential part of your life - it's lovely to read your posts ..
ReplyDeleteTime is precious at any stage - good luck to your daughter with her business .. with hugs Hilary