Transition Girl

Why transition girl?... Best answered by a quote from the Iliad....."The soul was not made to dwell in a thing; and when forced to it, there is no part of that soul but suffers violence."

Saturday, November 22, 2014

rebooting the writing mojo

It turns out I cannot serve two masters in a 'day' job and find the space and time to feed my writing habit. A few week's shy of six months leading a different team of highly creative people took all I had to give. My physical tank, so empty at the end of each week, I barely had time to recover to start fresh each new week of the gig let alone sit at a computer screen to will myself to escape into and play in my story world.

The second job is now done. I finished on Friday, after two days of long goodbyes. Don't get me wrong. It was an amazing period of growth and mind stretch, with the folk I met along the way wonderful in so many ways I lost count. But my body simply could not handle the frenetic pace over the long haul. In farewelling the crew, I really felt their appreciation. The team needed some TLC and I gave it in spades. I came home with every muscle of my body aching from exhaustion and I am still in the recovery position, recuperating, hopeful that my body will heal itself after the bucketing of the months past that came with working 12-14 hour days.

Writing my first blog in a few months, I am starting the journey back to the discipline of dividing my life into one (and only one) 'day' job and the rest of my time beyond that job undivided creating the sixth novel. I wanted to spend my afternoon today writing a pivotal scene where a character delivers some troublesome news and then faces the receiver of that news tripping into meltdown. The proverbial Pandora's Box opened and nothing is going to put what pours out back into its formerly contained space. I can feel the scene coming, it's right on the tip of my fingers, but it's not quite ready to spill out of my head. It will be the first time anything decent has gushed out of me (beyond the odd micro-story here and there) for far too long.

I've been procrastinating for almost two months now. The Aerogramme Writers Studio knows my routine as if they have been living inside my head (as shown in the picture below).


So I have decided I need to pace myself. (I have convinced myself it is not procrastination as it will be a productive use of my time.) I will read over the detailed storyboard in the coming days (the roadmap for the novel) and rework the timeline, as well as spend some time fleshing out a scene-by-scene sequencing of the rest of the story. Four parts written, five parts to write, almost half of the story written, almost half to write. It will be a good way to reboot my writing mojo, figuring out where I need to head to build the crescendo as the rest of the story unfolds.

I have three weeks to find what I seem to have lost. Having a 'staycation' (mostly at home for a holiday) so plenty of time to spend immersed preparing and then moving the drafting forward.

I will not overdo the dvd binge viewing, tempted though I will be to slip away from the desk for short breaks...