A Writing Posts with a Few Random Links (It's Scary in my Brain)

LibelSanRo via Pixabay

  I started writing this post yesterday -- one of my typical the-semester-is-over-and-now-I-can-write posts. I was struggling a bit with what I wanted to say, though, so I switched gears and wrote something else -- something that had a deadline -- and it wasn't until last night that I realized that I'd never finished this one, let alone posted it.

Yeah. That about sums it up.

The semester is over, and I want to do all the things, as my friend Sarah says. I want to write. I want to read. I want to sleep in. I want to wrap presents. I want to organize actual and virtual things. I want to watch random television and videos, like the YouTube video of David Schwimmer on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off I found completely by accident last night. 

I want to shrink my pile of magazines by actually reading them instead of just recycling them to get them out of my way. I want to finish the jigsaw puzzle that's been on the table in the sunroom for too many months. I want to spend time with the people I love but, truth be told, I also want to have stretches of time where I can revel in the peace and quiet that allows my creativity to flow. 

I suspect that somewhere, in the recesses of my brain, I actually believe I can do all these things -- maybe even in the same day (okay, maybe two days). My rational brain tells me this is ridiculous, but the pleasure circuits in my brain extend their little neurons and beg for massive doses of neurotransmitters (kinda like that plant in Little Shop of Horrors). 

And so I start things and finish a few. Others get abandoned or curtailed by some annoying necessity like making dinner. And writing, which is a bit amorphous at the moment because I'm between projects, gets set aside in favor of something else. 

The space between projects is an odd one. Sometimes, it's a barren landscape, which is terrifying. Will I ever have an idea again? If so, will it be different enough from what I've already written to stand on its own?

World-fly via Pixabay

Happily, I have a couple of ideas, along with finishing touches that need to be done on the novel I'm ready to submit to agents and the middle grade ebook that needs a cover. But the ideas right now are just that -- ideas -- and not even the Not Ready for Prime Time Players (to steal a phrase from SNL).

I'm not yet sure how I want the next paragraph to start so please excuse me while I move laundry from the washer to the dryer.

I'm back.

As the space between semesters collides with the space between projects, I'm slowly realizing that I need a transition period -- one that allows the productivity-seeking part of my brain an opportunity to shift gears. This is a tad challenging during a season that comes with more than its own fair share of lists, but allowing my writing to emerge instead of scribbling it down as one other item on a to-do list might be a great way to afford myself that luxury.

So, what will my writing look like? Most likely, it'll be a bit like the recipes I'm dusting off for the holidays. A cup of reading, which immerses me in someone else's words and often leads me down the what-if road so essential to fiction and idea generation. A cup or so of journaling, where the ideas can run free, rather than being confined to a particular topic. A pinch of writing prompts and sprinkle of writing exercises to add some structure, but not the strictness of paragraphs and chapters. 

And finally, perhaps most important, time spent among characters -- the real ones that surround me and the fictional ones taking shape in my mind and, eventually, on the page. They are, after all, at the heart of whatever this is I'm trying to do.