I know that I love my job when I kind of want a long holiday weekend to be over so I can just get back to writing already. I started my holiday weekend Friday at lunch and worked very little on Friday morning, if you must know the truth. I was feeling kind of stuck and pushed myself through rewriting a couple of scenes, but didn’t feel like I accomplished much.
So on Tuesday, I was super excited to get back to the book. But I felt like I’d been a little slow last week and the story had started to get heavy in my mind. I spent so much time on that awful middle part of the story, I felt drained. I made progress in that section, but I was unsure of what was ahead of me when I opened the document again.
Apparently I was so frightened, I never opened the document up yesterday. Not even once. I read a lot though, so that was nice. So this morning, full of guilt and determination, I opened the document up as soon as I got up. And I started rewriting.
And things are just not that bad. The ending is pretty solid, at least that’s what I think right now. Getting through the end of the book actually feels possible. So I’m trading in my guilt and saying I really needed a break from the story to recharge my writing batteries and see things with a fresh perspective.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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I love revision but if I ever start dreading writing, it's definitely time to take a break.
ReplyDeleteOther tricks to get through those days: 1)limit yourself to a certain amount of time, 15 minutes or 1 hour; 2)give yourself permission to write badly; 3)start a new piece of writing 4)maybe the well is dry and you need to fill it up by purposely closing the writing shop and getting out and about, on the internet or out in the world. Often my brain will solve a problem as I take a walk.
Sorry to go on so long-
Happy writing,
Cynthia
Cynthia, thanks for the tips. It's always nice to have a fresh perspective on different ways to take a break. And it helps to hear encouragement that breaks are a necessary part of the writing process!
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