Simmering...Just

My life as a writer seems to be 'on the down low' at the moment. Hence a really long blog post filled with my ramblings :c)

I don't have Writers' Block', as I can (and do) sit down with my current WIP with no issue at all and while doing so, I still have lots of ideas and make changes and add twists, etc without too much thought. The creative juices are still there. I'm just not doing it as often. My nightly slog of three or more hours at the keyboard has reduced to a couple of sessions a week. Maybe winter has just worn me down and I'm fed up waiting for the warmer weather...or I could just be being slack.

I've not looked at writing any new short stories for a while now - hence the final product of not having written a new one for some time - but I'm working on the YA book so that's kind of okay as well. Ideas pop into my head, but I tend to let them pass through (lots of space in there). Nothing is demanding to be written other than scenarios for the WIP which are more than happy to keep me awake at nights.

I'm not really enjoying my reading at the moment either. I think the addition of the Dexter Omnibus has thrown me off kilter. I'd planned to read six books in two months and than had the Omnibus added to my list, which increased my required reading from 6 to 9 novels in eight weeks. Burn out was inevitable. I have two books left out of those nine and I'm struggling to find the enthusiasm to get to them. The deadline passed last week. I've negotiated an extension till the end of this month but even that will be hard to meet.

Slush reading has commenced once more so I have four stories I need to get to (hopefully tonight). This gives me yet another excuse for not writing.

I'm also suffering from a weekend with not enough sleep (on top of my constantly seeming to be tired anyway) so sudden bursts of energy are fleeting and infrequent. Reading of epic fantasy sagas are more likely to put me into an unsatisfying doze, and leave a negative impression - not really fair on the author so it gives me another reason to abstain (like I needed another one).

Add all this up, and I'm not full of the joys of writing or anything related to it at the moment, which naturally leads to a drop off in output. Discipline is required to get back into a routine where work will be produced, but a level of enthusiasm is required to put that discipline in place and I just don't have that currently.

I have a case of the blahs.

This is dangerous as I have been known in the past to throw my hands up and say things like 'why bother?", and drop whatever it is I was doing and move on. I can't see myself dropping writing as I enjoy it so much, but I need to get things sorted into some sort of order.

If simmering is where my writing has to currently be, then so be it, but I need to own that situation, not just allow it to be and shrug my shoulders, or I could be in danger of that slipping further, and writing once or twice a month would just be depressing and would lead ever closer to me saying 'why bother'.

Writing is full of ups and downs and as a writer, we need to deal with them. Personally I need to take ownership of the situation and admit my failings, expose the whys and wherefores into the harsh light of day, and then implement a solution, otherwise things drift and usually become worse.

We've talked in the past about where you find inspiration, but what do you do when you're off finding inspiration, aka living life, and not writing? What do you do when that situation becomes all the time?

Most of us would say something like 'make myself sit down in the chair and just write', JA Konrath would remind us to 'treat it like a job - be disciplined', which is all well and good, but other writing advice to: not coop yourself up, get out into the world and experience it, watch movies, read books, do courses, but don't neglect your day job as writing is highly unlikely to replace it as the major source of income - leaves very little time left to devote to writing. Oh, and don't forget squeezing in a normal family life with all that.

I guess, in the end, we need to decide, with the input of our significant others, exactly how much time we can put into writing. Influencing this is the perceived correct amount a writer, particularly the new (unpublished - as in no book deal) writer, should be allocating.

I've heard these mantras a lot:
You must write every day.
You must try to write at least 'x' amount of words every day/week
If you have really tried to make a go of your writing, you should have at least one agent interested in your work within five years!

And lots of other extraneous types of things littered about the place in the guise of solid gold writing advice and thank you very much for praying at my alter of wisdom.

Lots of writing advice out there is good, but many people are repeating the same stuff over and over again (I unashamedly put my hand up in this category) - worse, some people are charging people for the privilege of hearing it! Two things to remember here: (1) Money should always flow towards the writer (so check the Internet, and/or ask your online writing friends before paying for anything) and (2) there is nothing new in writing. Getting over that second little gem is a big step to moving forward.

So let's blow the myths out of the water. Don't be shy. If you write 10 words, or 10,000 words a day. Whether you write once a month, crafting a paragraph at a time with an intended first draft completion date of your 75th birthday in 2050 (as long as December 2012 passes in much the same manner as the Y2K bug did), tell me.

What are your writing habits and how strict are you in keeping to them. How is your significant other about this writing time? What do you do when life starts to get in the way?

Or am I asking these questions because I'm not a real, dyed-in-the-wool, can't breathe without it, writer?