How to get back to writing after a break? My mental switch-off started well before Christmas when I took a holiday that turned out to be both self-indulgent (manicure and massage for madam?) and tiring (two night flights). Then there was the supermarket sweep (or three) to prepare for influx of visitors, ending in that all too familiar Boxing Day need to eat chocolate with a mind as empty as Santa’s sack. So while others are getting back to the grindstone, I’m shuffling my feet. I have lost any desire to write short stories. My stop-start novel is in stop mode (again). How can I call myself a writer when I haven’t written a word in weeks and feel no desire to do so ever again?
Well, just a minute. I am, as usual, hanging out on Twitter. That’s writing, isn’t it? Or if you find that hard to swallow, it’s at least a way of being in contact with writers and the writing world. Today my time there threw up small stones, a writing challenge that could be as little as one sentence (but a good one) each day. Sounds like a plan.
Which reminds me. The best antidote I know to writer’s block is to have more than one iron in the fire and knowing how slothful I can be when daylight disappears, I was clever enough to set up some tasks before December which might get me back to work. A Kettle of Fish has been promised to some new beta readers by the end of January, so I had better finish off those edits. Yes, it’s a bit of a chore, but if you can’t be creative, be productive.
And my new fiction project might not be progressing as I hoped, but it has spawned an article soon to appear on the excellent Victorianist blog. Like I said, if you can’t be creative …
And finally, from January I have a new writing job! An online golf retailer has asked me to return to the blog I used to write on their behalf. That’s a regular writing commitment with a bit of financial reward.
So one way or another, it looks like I am a writer, whether I like it or not. So time to knuckle down and do some writing. Which of course I just have.
(Like how I did that?)
Ali Bacon / Books Etc 
Oh Alison, how well I know that feeling of being all written out. Since being home full time in Feb, I haven’t written one word to any of my novels. But I have been writing other things, blogs, interviews and articles, tweets and letters. So yes, you don’t have to write books to be a writer. And now, after so long, my fingers are itching to get back to the books. And wishing you every bit of good luck and success in 2012.
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Hi Kit
I don’t know why those other things don’t feel like ‘real’ writing. – because we lke doing them? Because we don’t?
Best of luck with everything next year – I’m sure some of those babies of yours will come home to roost.
AliB
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Yep, I’m feeling all written out too but I’ve also signed up for the Small Stones project so I’m going to be tweeting them and will probably incorporate them in a couple of blog posts and, like you so rightly say, that’s writing, isn’t it!
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Good luck getting back into it. I’m sure once you’re back in the habit things will start to flow again.
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Hi Pete and Rosalind
Thanks for your support. Good to know I’m not the only one struggling! AliB
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