Anyone who has read this blog for a while will know that whenever I have a period of successful writing, it’s often followed by a period when I struggle to produce anything.
This week is one of those less successful weeks. In terms of hours worked, I’m really far behind and have a lot to catch up on. In writing terms, I am not fluid and I am not happy with how things are coming together. All in all, writing has been a stretch.
It’s not exactly writer’s block – more writer’s detour. In other words, I’ve known what I want to write, and when I should be writing, but it’s been hard to focus my attention on the target, and the ideas themselves are as insubstantial as fog.
So I spent some time reflecting on the good things that have happened this week, to give me a bit of a boost. Things like my Christmas tree going up, and the first flakes of snow, and the plans for family gatherings over the holiday period.
It often helps me to think about positive things, and this has been no exception.
OK, so I’ve only added a few hundred of my 15k words to the novel – but it’s a start, and now I’ve had a break I can go back to it refreshed. And the poem isn’t going as well as I’d hoped; but now I’ve spent some time thinking about family, and love, and I can go back to it reminded of the mood and tone I wanted to convey. Most importantly, I’ve thought about how far I’ve got with both pieces of work.
The key thing is not to give in to the bad writing days, but to accept them, learn from them and move on. And – sometimes – you can use those feelings of frustration in a story or poem…
With all this positivity in mind – I’m going back to work!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 