It’s time for me to get back into the swing of writerly things. I am not sure where to begin. Never have I taken so completely a break from life in general, let alone writerly life, and I didn’t even get too, too far from either real life or writerly life.
Of course, it’s hard or impossible to separate my ordinary life from my writerly life anyway.
While we were soaking in the healing hot springs of Pagosa Springs, CO, I had an idea for a scene in my back-burner work in progress. At the moment there was no way for me to record it, but the spontaneous dialogue that made up the crux of the scene stuck with me until I could get back to our room and get out the laptop.
I’d purposely tried to give all things writerly a break. But I wasn’t entirely successful with that. I still checked email (even though I refrained from responding to them for the most part), watched my Twitter feed (and again, refrained from Tweeting as much as possible) and watched the happenings on my blog from afar and tried to leave it alone.
That was not easy and I don’t feel that I was very good at taking a total vacation from it. Maybe with another week I could have weaned myself further.
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So this update is bringing me back up to speed as I try to figure out where I am at the moment.
I don’t think much has changed since the last update. I still have three submissions out, one short story and two photo essays. When I get a better camera I’ll be able to submit to more photography markets and I like the combination of writing and photography so it’s a good diversion from the novel-writing when I need to take that sort of tangent.
Tonight I’ll try to work on editing Symbiosis for the first time since taking my vacation. I hope the break makes it easier to see necessary changes. It’ll be a good opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes to see if I really do like the POV change I’d made.
It’s time to begin working on my career plan, too. Tonight I’ll start reviewing my thoughts on that.
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Have any of you ever taken a complete and total break from writing, including all the peripheral writerly activities? Were you successful at it?
Yes, I stopped entirely for more than 8 years, because the “peripheral” activities almost killed me.
But shutting down is not the same as stepping back, I guess.
I need to take a large step backwards from the attachment to the peripheral stuff, how I feel about it and how upset it can make me. But writing? Maybe not now.
I think ‘shutting down’ may be an un- or sub-conscious reaction to stress overload. Sometimes it’s the best route to take. Depending on what you need and want from life, it’s a good or a bad move, but not always a conscious choice. That’s not exactly what I meant, though. ‘Stepping back’ from time to time is good. It helps to reassess situations or to gain perspective because sometimes being down in the nitty-gritty of everyday life makes it hard to see where you’ve been or where you want to go. Kind of like climbing a tallest tree in the forest when you’ve been hiking for days and aren’t sure where you are. Then you can get a good look around you. That’s the sort of ‘stepping back’ I had in mind. This particular vacation didn’t offer me many tall trees, though, because it was more an escape for enjoyment than an introspective retreat. I need both kinds of escape but have been unable to take either until now. I can do the retreat kind in less time, so I’ll try to find a way to fit that in on a weekend soon. As far as stepping back from peripherals, I do feel that I got a good break from the need to be ‘engaged’. Which is funny because on this break, I got ‘engaged’ in the real-world way
I took two pretty significant breaks from writing fueled by personal tragedies in my life–my brother’s death at the age of 44 and the break-up of my marriage two years later. I’d just gotten back into writing when my ex decided he needed to drink himself to death rather than maintain our relationship. It was NaNoWriMo in 2008 that broke that three-year “sabbatical” and got me back into writing again.
I am presently taking a break from writing and I HATE it. All I want to do is write, but I am a lousy multi-tasker and I find that I cannot get other things done because I fixate. I’d love to get away for about a month and be left alone to write. Three kids and a job keeps that from happening, unfortunately.
Madison, I think you did very well. I can’t imagine being totally disconnected. ouch. i’m proud of myself that i’m goign away this week and leaving my work blackberry at home. it will be the first time in 5 years i haven’t worked while ‘on vacation’. thanks for the reminder
I am the same way. It’s so hard to move onto something else when loose ends are dangling on the project I’m leaving.
Wow. I can definitely see how those events would cause you to step back. Glad you returned.
I am not sure I could leave my phone behind. If someone I fully trusted with the homestead was there then maybe I could. That would just be so hard but I’ll bet very good for me. Maybe one day. Good luck and enjoy!