Back to work after the holidays. Writers like everyone else have to remember what they have been doing for the last month of the holidays but unlike other people there is no easy system to plug back into. Most people return to the office and slog around and talk about the long holidays and slowly get back to work. Writers return to their garage or their basement or their attic or the desk in the corner and sit down with their coffee to find the thread again. And if you have taken off a lot of time then that thread is elusive.
It is a different way of thinking. The system is created by you and only you enforce it. You are the taskmaster who must demand the work be done. No easy thing in the dog days of January where the sun only shines for a bit and we return to the darkness of a Northern Winter. But the writing must continue. So you open up and start typing, looking for that magic of about a month before. Maybe you wrote through the holidays, but most people have to put it down for a while to satisfy family and friends and themselves.
It is the routine that has been obliterated and for the working nine to fivers the routine starts again on the commute. But the writer has no armor and since routine is self imposed then it must be started again like an engine that has been cold and out of gas for a good month in the shed. Usually it takes about a week for the cobwebs to clear out and the engine to run again efficiently. The first few days are just blowing out the pipes with the promise it will get better. By Friday you should be back to where you were.
If not, maybe the next week. Or the week after that, but the muse will return... probably just in time for Easter.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Hemingways Attic...a writers survival guide
It is a different way of thinking. The system is created by you and only you enforce it. You are the taskmaster who must demand the work be done. No easy thing in the dog days of January where the sun only shines for a bit and we return to the darkness of a Northern Winter. But the writing must continue. So you open up and start typing, looking for that magic of about a month before. Maybe you wrote through the holidays, but most people have to put it down for a while to satisfy family and friends and themselves.
It is the routine that has been obliterated and for the working nine to fivers the routine starts again on the commute. But the writer has no armor and since routine is self imposed then it must be started again like an engine that has been cold and out of gas for a good month in the shed. Usually it takes about a week for the cobwebs to clear out and the engine to run again efficiently. The first few days are just blowing out the pipes with the promise it will get better. By Friday you should be back to where you were.
If not, maybe the next week. Or the week after that, but the muse will return... probably just in time for Easter.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Hemingways Attic...a writers survival guide
