Round Robin Blog Fest May 2022

 

Welcome back to another Round Robin Blog Fest! 

This month's topic is:

What are your favorite things to do when you need to get away from stalled writing? Does it help you to resume with new ideas on the book you are writing?

Stalled writing has definitely been a thing for me lately. Between work and life, I haven’t had the same kind of flow I’ve enjoyed in the past. Most of the time I find there are a few great ways to kick my creativity back into gear:  

• Going for a walk is a great way to get things moving again! Fresh air, sunshine, and who knows what kinds of inspiration you might find along the way?

• Focus on something else for a while. Doing dishes, painting, baking, house repairs, anything that keeps my hands busy and lets my mind wander. Next thing I know, I’m ruminating about what’s next for my characters and have to drop everything to make notes.

•       Getting out of the house and away from my laptop. A change of venue or even a change of routine—especially when you have no paper handy—can trigger the arrival of fresh ideas.

•       Take a shower or a bath. No idea what it is with water, but it always relaxes the body and allows the mind to simmer. It’s the one place I have no distractions. Unless my cat decides he’d like to hang out and play with bubbles in the tub.

•       If I’m really struggling, I’ll print a copy of my book and sit somewhere quiet to read/edit. That’s when I’ll find a monkey wrench to throw at my main character or a new character will come along who shakes things up.

•       Sometimes, I’ll work on something else for a while just to get a new idea out of my head, then return to the stalled book and be able to move ahead. In the worst case scenario, a project gets shelved for a month or so then I can come back at it with fresh eyes.  

Let's find out how the other writers in the group make it through their works in progress! Hop on over to meet the Round Robin crew!

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2CG

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Rhobin Courtright http://rhobincourtright.com

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Ridding myself of the deadwood

After a wonderful vacation, which included a lot of driving, I came home to nearly a hundred emails - most of which I deleted. From those emails, I got the sense that I was being sent things that I shouldn't have been sent. Disagreements between other people that I was being indirectly involved in. I decided to lighten my load and rid myself of two volunteer positions that were dragging me down and taking away from my creative time and energy effectively giving me Writer's Block. One of these positions, I was unclear about cutting ties from until today.

Earlier today I was in the local library and stumbled across a copy of Psychic by Sylvia Browne. I read it in pretty much one sitting. One passage she wrote particularly jumped out at me:
As sometimes happens when I'm overwhelmed, I begin sinking into a deep depression. Since I know that's not uncommon, it's worth mentioning that I later learned to call it a "psychic attack." Please don't let that conjure up an image of me on a rampage through Cleveland with a machine gun. The term refers to an attack on the psyche when we involuntarily begin hearing and believing all the negative, debilitating, confidence-shattering "tapes" that play over and over and over again in our minds when we're exhausted, ill, and/or far too busy for our own good. The tapes are the insults and insulting thoughts aimed at us by the dark entities we've let into our lives.
She goes on to say that everyone has those same tapes playing in our heads and they all sound remarkably alike.

This paragraph struck a chord with me. I've been miserable and suffering "psychic attacks" for a long time now. From both volunteer posts which have nearly driven me to drink and a friendship that I've been struggling to free myself from. As fate would have it, one of the volunteer jobs came to an end of its own accord. The other I was driven out from out of sheer frustration. And the friend is moving. To help life return to a better balance, I have a permanent post at my job which lets me work two days a week and spend the other three pursuing my dreams of being a writer.

Sometimes Writer's Block, isn't a block at all. It's a sign that something has to give to make room for the creative self.