Apologies to readers; I promise I have not forgotten you.
This is just a quick note to readers to let you know that I haven’t forgotten you. For the last two weeks, I have been lagging under the weight of a really nasty flu bug and yesterday was a really bad day, and it’s on that note that I write this post.
Let yourself have a break. Nobody is going to sack you and tell you to clear your desk you for not feeling up to it. Writing should not be a chore we have to force yourself to do no matter what. If it is, then you are doing it wrong. I’m guessing, due to the fact that you are reading this, that you are creative people. That creativity is not going to fade because you took a day off to recover from being ill, or you had to look after a poorly child. So if you need to, take a step back, do what you need to do to enable you to be able to come back with a fresh head and enjoy what you are doing.
One of the first stages of Harry DeWulf’s Readworthy Fiction Course (Fab course. I highly recommend it.) is to look after your personal comfort and finding the best set up for you to write in. To me, this includes allowing the writing process adequate head space. If you have a list of stuff that you have to do niggling in the back of your head? You are not comfortable. Go do that stuff, get it out of the way, and use the boring housework time to think about your story. Some of my favourite ideas have come while clearing up Lego (I have 3 boys under 8, therefore I am doomed to do this for at least the next ten years). If you are full of cold and feeling rubbish? Don’t even try to do more than scribble down ideas. You are best off looking after yourself. Have a bath, dose yourself with hot tea and cold cure and, as Joanna Penn would say, do something to “fill that creative well“, (I love that phrase). Believe me, trying to write with diminished concentration will not do your work any favours.
Look after yourselves. With any luck, I will be back to feeling up to writing two posts a week from next week. Thank you for your patience.