SquarePeg Books

Someone recently asked how my writing goals for 2020 and Summer 2020 specifically were going.

BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHhahhahhheheheeehhewehewahwaaaaaahhhhh!!!

(a descent into hysterical crying)

*ahem*

So, yeah. 2020 has not been so awesome on the writing front. I’ve been getting other projects done that have been hanging over me for a while (in some cases–years), and I am STARTING to feel a little lighter now that I’m about halfway through that pile (Please don’t ask how big it is. It’s embarrassing and I really don’t have an answer, but I have been counting them as they are completed so maybe I’ll have a frightening number for you in January.) but the stress of everything else isn’t making things easy with an already difficult writing project.

The kids (school was moved from an August 17 in person startup to an August 24 online startup for the first 2 weeks, with possible changes coming the 11th or 12th based on the latest COVID numbers), the plague (duh), the husband (can I dig a ten foot deep grave in the backyard, fill it with a body and then dirt between the times of 11pm and 3am?), and my own inconsistent brain. Should I stockpile in anticipation of another shutdown or no? Is this a good idea to write about? Ah, crap I have to do X today or it won’t get done at all. Self-study for certifications, pretend to clean, cross another done item off the list, did I leave the stove on?….whine, whine, whine. (I do sometimes wonder how much of my stress is my own manufactured blend created to distract me from other things.)

Neil Gaiman suggests that sometimes the well has to be refilled. Sometimes, you just have to take a break from writing to refresh your brain. Some authors agree, some do not.

That’s another problem with writing–it isn’t like science where there’s a set of procedures one must follow in order to get a safe and consistent result. The procedures you must follow to create your work are individual and may not work for someone else. Which makes it all the more irritatingly impossible than trying to find a single, affordable ice cream flavor the ENTIRE family enjoys.

I suppose I’m letting my stress run wild in different directions without a leash on it. I mean, I can’t even go to the store with a list anymore and actually frickin’ focus.

But as I said, I am starting to feel lighter after completing 26 and counting since March 23rd. several UFO’s, so perhaps I just needed a year to get neglected things sorted. I mean, the wall I posted about last month is done (now it just needs about 300 cubic feet of fill dirt…), so perhaps that means I’m getting ready to move forward?

We’ll find out.

Check out the Insecure Writer’s Support Group to see more writers dish about their concerns, their solutions to various problems, or just general proditiophobia.