The last couple of years, my home life has taken some
seriously major turns. So has my professional life. And since both are connected
to my social life, this pretty much rounds things out into feeling a huge ball
of oh-my-goodness-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into? Every. Single. Day.
Being that I’m the creative type, this feeling can get a bit
overwhelming at times. Overwhelm tends to send me in one of two directions.
Either I dive into my creative side and hide there for an endless amount of
time (basically shutting out the rest of the world as I write like mad) OR I
focus on the more practical side (like my family, home, etc.) and do NOTHING
creative for, well, what feels like an endless amount of time. For me, there is
really no happy medium.
This is a problem, given my chosen profession, because if I
want to keep my readers happy and interested, I still have to produce books.
And if I want to keep my family alive and happy, I have to do things like laundry,
and making dinner, and homework and doctor/dentist visits, and driving to
school and…you know, I should probably shower and stuff sometimes, too.
It’s a dilemma. And yet…through some of the craziest months
of life, I managed to get through editing and releasing DESCENDANT, and then
re-releasing it, and then somehow a miracle must have occurred, because I also
got BIRTHRIGHT done and released as well. I’m not going to lie. They both took
everything I had in me at that time, and then some. To this day, I’m still not
sure how BIRTHRIGHT actually happened.
I won’t say I forced it, because that’s not true. But I must
have managed to dig deep down and find that hidden box of creativity that was
cowering inside me. I wish I could tell you how that happened, but it’s still a
mystery.
If you write, at some point, you will hear (probably a
million-billion times) people tell you that you should write every day. I’m not
going to agree or disagree with that. I think it works for some people, and for
others, not as much. I don’t write every day, even though I do try. But for me,
there is serious value in having a deadline. A goal. Something to push me
forward. Otherwise, I might hang around waiting for life to calm down, which
might mean I never write anything new again.
It’s been a few years since I managed to participate in
National Novel Writing Month, but this year, I have not one or two, but THREE
huge projects (and a couple of smaller ones) to finish, and my creativity has
hit a low again. I think November is just the thing I need to kick me in gear.
50,000 words, 30 days, and half a million other writers urging me to keep
going. It’s good incentive.
And maybe somehow, I will find my shovel and dig deep again.
Because my books are not going to write themselves.
What about you? What motivates you when you’re just not
feeling the creative vibe?
**Stay tuned for a possible very exciting announcement,
coming soon. If you haven’t already subscribed to my newsletter, that’s where
you should go to be among the first to find out! Also, I may, or may not, be
giving away free stuff this holiday season. You can sign up on the sidebar.à
