At the beginning of June, summer stretched before me as three peaceful months with absolutely no commitments, no goals or deadlines except what I should choose for myself. I planned to spend as much of every day as possible outdoors, swimming, relaxing, and reading or writing on the pool deck.
Instead (as John Wayne’s character in Stagecoach once put it), things happened. Various unforeseen and stressful family circumstances basically swallowed my summer whole. Coupled with that, and I’m sure partly because of it, I also struggled with a dreadful case of creative block which kept me from writing anything worthwhile. Part of the time I was simply too exhausted physically and mentally to even think about writing; but other times, although I could generate ideas and scribble down notes for future reference, every time I sat down with a pen and a blank notebook page in front of me, or a marked-up page of manuscript to edit, my brain just seemed to shut down and refuse to produce words. It was writer’s block in its rawest and most crippling form.
It wasn’t an entirely unproductive period. I did get a chance to do a little organizing and planning on the business and tech end of this indie-author-entrepreneur endeavor, and I’m grateful for that. But by and large, creative block the way I had it this summer is not fun.
It wasn’t till the middle of August that I began to find a little more breathing space, to be able to order some more books off my summer reading list from the library, to spend two or three consecutive days mostly outdoors, the way I’d planned at the beginning of summer. And around the same time I began writing again. I picked up a partly-written project from last year and continued it, and even though I’m only writing little bits at a time and it may not be the greatest work I’ve ever done, at least it’s a step in the right direction. I just reached the halfway point of the book today, which feels like a huge accomplishment, and so to celebrate that milestone I’ll be sharing some snippets from the manuscript here on the blog next week.
The rest of this project is already outlined and a few key scenes planned in detail, so I have a feeling I ought to be able to pick up some momentum from here. I’m kind of holding my breath, hoping and praying my word-producing-ability doesn’t desert me again. But I have a pretty good feeling about this project, so my outlook is cautiously hopeful.
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