Had to bust out the Marvin the Paranoid Android quote.
Things have not been going well on the writing front, guys. The Husband had minor surgery three weeks ago, and because he's The Husband there were freak complications, which led to him getting a virus, which led to an aggressively nasty sinus infection. I started a whole 50-hour Editing Month Challenge on Absolute Write, and I've only done like 3 hours for the month.
So now I'm stressed out, with a sick husband out on disability, trying to keep the household running and meeting my work obligations while filling out forms and chasing down doctors, PLUS I feel like crap for not just sucking it up and working on the book anyway. I mean, that's what real writers have to do, right? No matter what shit life throws at them, they still have that deadline to make. This is something I need to learn to do.
I guess that for now, I just need to accept that this is my reality. I'm married to a guy with a chronic illness. When he's sick, my ability to motivate and focus on my writing goes to shit. Eventually everything goes back to normal, and I go back to the book.
At least I've been reading a lot. I need the escape!
That sounds really hard! Don't beat yourself up about not writing while you've got all that going on. I have been reading along just completely blow away by your writing work ethic and your day-to-day focus. Frankly, I'm jealous of it. I think, if I'm to be completely honest, I am one of those writers who really doesn't like to write very much,or at least, I do sometimes, but it is perilously easy for me to just drop it for months, years at a time. So, really, Lianna--you are doing great!
ReplyDeleteMy romantic suspense novel has basically been finished for months now, save for some minor tweaks and incorporating some of the small changes that my mom suggested when she edited it for me a few months ago. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a self starter, so the only way I know of to jump start my motivation is sign up for another retreat or workshop. This week I screwed up the nerve to submit it to two of the agents I pitched to last year, so now I wait.
Do you have a critique group that you belong to, or at least another person that you can exchange feedback with? Let me know if you have any interest in doing that--it's nice to have that outside motivation, at least it is for me!
Kristin McHenry