While I'm Away...

That's right. I'm leaving. Not forever, mind you. But for a while.

See, here's what happened.

My oldest son graduated. From high school. (Never mind telling me I'm not old enough to have an adult son—I already know.

And right before that.

My husband got his Master’s Degree.

Also.

My oldest daughter got her license to drive.
My younger daughter graduated from 8th grade.
My baby boy graduated from elementary school (which is 6th grade in our school district).

And I…well, I guess I raised them (including my husband).

*sniffles* I'm so proud!

All this is cause to celebrate in our family, so we’re taking a vacation, during which I will have zero internet access. Because of this, I will not be blogging for the last two weeks in June. (June 17-30.)

Please forgive me for my lack of new content and come back to read again in July.

In the meantime, here is something to inspire your creativity. (And yes, I did take this picture.) Have a happy June!

When it’s Okay to Quit

Yes, I said it. That horribly offensive, terribly bad word I’ve spent so many years warning you to avoid. And I’m going to say it again in this post. But don’t worry, it’s not what you think.

After seven years of writing, submitting, querying, rejections…last week, I decided to quit.

Granted, I’m not crazy enough to even pretend to believe that I could stop for good. But I gave myself permission to take a much needed break. No matter that I didn’t realize (at the time) that was what I needed most. After an epic meltdown, I realized I was being way too hard on myself, and that I was requiring more than I could give, physically or emotionally.

So I quit. And I haven’t written anything (aside from email, and now this blog) since.

I’ve caught up on some sleep, seen The Hunger Games movie twice, finished a book on my to-be-read pile and started another one, washed all the clothes in my laundry room (a major feat, FYI), mopped my kitchen floor, and had lunch with some really incredible friends. Also, I threw my daughter a huge birthday party.

All that in a few days. And guess what? I’m feeling better. Maybe not quite ready to dedicate myself to writing the way I have been, but better. I’ll get back to it. I will. You all know I’m really not a quitter. But even the most determined of us need to take mental, emotional, and physical breaks every so often.

And you know what? That’s okay. It’s okay to be human. Because, really, being robots doesn’t sound like much fun.

So tell me. When’s the last time you decided to take a break?

Floodgates to the Return of Brilliance

Do you ever feel like quitting something you love? I did. This summer, I decided to take a break from writing. Summer is crazy busy. Especially July. And I just wasn’t motivated to write at the time. I had no good ideas, no thoughts on how to continue with certain works, nada. Zip. Zilch. So. I did it. I quit.

Wouldn’t you know it, during the craziest, busiest months, months when I don’t even have much reading time, I end up with my best ideas. New ideas, ideas on how to fix old manuscripts, ideas on ways to cut in more polished ones…IDEAS! Hooray and yay and happy dancing for ideas.

The notebook by my bed has been recently used in the middle of the night, without a light (also with a pen that ran out of ink, apparently). The notes feature on my phone, my voice recorder, and also napkins and receipts in my purse have been handy. And I have had some computer writing time. Just not as much as I want.

Three weeks ago, I told my critique group, some family members, and a number of other people that I was taking the summer off from writing. And when I made that claim, I meant it. I needed a break. My brain was stressed. Fried, even. So I gave myself permission to stop (temporarily).

And I did stop. For like, four days. And then the floodgates opened. And now that I’ve scheduled myself almost no writing time, I really wish I had some.

The moral of the story? The next time you’re tempted to temporarily quit, do it. Sometimes all it takes is to relieve a little bit of pressure before the brilliance returns full force. And let me just tell you now—that brilliance is as bright as the summer sun.

*sings praises to the elements* Hallelujah!

Gotta go. I have manuscripts to work on.

Take a Break From the Break

When I went to write my posts for this week, I found myself coming up blank. This is a problem I have regularly after an extended break. I get out of blogging mode, out of writing mode even (gasp) and then when I open a new document, find myself staring at the blank page for a long time, wondering how I ever thought I could fill it with beautiful words.

As a solution, I hopped around to a few blogs. Not many, mind you, since my writing time was already pretty limited due to the whole staring-at-the-blank-screen thing. But as always, reading a handful of posts by other authors got my brain moving again.

I think the same can be true for writing short stories or books. Whenever I find myself coming up blank, I head to my TBR stack (otherwise known as “to be read”) or the library, and find a book in which I can lose myself for a while. If the story is good, I find that my brain is humming, my thoughts spinning into storyteller mode. Then, when I open the document again, my fingers start typing of their own accord.

My friend James Dashner has said this same thing about movies. In fact, he makes seeing movies an integrated part of his full-time-writer workday.

So. If, like me, you’re having a hard time jumping back into your computer (or your housework, or job, or whatever thing from which you’ve recently taken a break) here’s a suggestion. Don’t jump in. Read a book. See a movie. Visit a friend. Go for a drive. Do that thing that most inspires you FIRST. Then get started.

It works! It really, really works. That is all.