Photo by Josefa nDiaz on Unsplash
Not Today. What happens when you really, really don’t feel like writing?
Well, what happens on your dayjob when you really, really don’t feel like dayjobbing? You go to work, don’t you.
If writing is your dayjob, then you don’t get to wait for the muse to strike. You pick him or her up and sit her down at the computer and get to work.
But what happens if writing is your second or even fifth job? What then?
Two questions – how much do you want it to be your dayjob, and do you have ANYTHING left in the creative stores?
I recently have been on a blogging run, 18 days in a row catching up on missing blogs. Then dayjob pulled a 13-hour day and I had NOTHING. I tried, I really did – but no-braining was happening. I looked at the 18 day streak and, as much as I hated it to end, I forgave myself the need to sleep.
John Hartness facebooked a “no interest in writing day” and many authors – some dayjobbers and some writing-primary-income – responded after his initial response to himself – mortgage doesn’t give a single fuck about what I feel like today: doing the book bible because don’t have the creative in me today; I figure some days I hate drafting divorce papers for my lawyers and some days I hate drafting books for my publisher – if I want to be taken seriously as a writer, I got to do it whether I feel like it or not; I find writing in chunks works – just get 500 done … and suddenly at 4,000 (or at 500, but, hey, 500!); playlists help.
I know I posted a lot of “don’t beat yourself up,” especially during the pandemic. That is taking a lot of energy and creatively away; basically we are all in mourning for what we used to be.
At the same time, you want a job as a writer, you write.
To balance all the self-care and forgive yourself, today is the just write day.
WRITING EXERCISE: Write 500 words. For a blog, a scene for your WIP, a character background for your D&D group. Doesn’t matter, get the words down today.
My attempt: 399 words here plus 101 words for a different blog.
