Over the past two months I have felt as if I had run into a road blocked sign and was forced to follow the orange detour arrows. They took me in a whole new direction from where I was going and at points I even thought I was lost. I am finally starting to see the familiar road back and soon I will once again be on the path that I had previously been following.
This may sound a bit confusing unless you were on the journey with me but it translates to the fact that I took a new job two months ago. In the past two months of trying to acclimate to the new job, and the new company and work schedule, my writing has suffered. Suffered is not really the right word. Ignored would be the more apropos word. I had a clear path where I was writing and editing constantly and then I excitedly took a new position but my writing had to be put aside and I was sent down a new path. A path that was exciting and exhausting, challenging and stimulating, different and unusual, and all encompassing. For a while even my own internal GPS could not get me back on track. My writing lay inside of my bag untouched, unseen and incomplete.
Of course a couple of weeks ago I started to notice how long it had been since I was able to write and I started to feel the familiar urge to go back and look at the last chapter and put in those edits. I started to think about my characters again and to plan out the next course of action of the story. Yet, as anyone who has ever stopped going to the gym for a long period of time knows, the hardest part is starting again. The main obstacle to starting again comes in the forms of excuse after excuse. My top three favorites lately have been:
Excuse One: I am too busy. I can't really devote a good amount of time to the edits and writing like I should so I will just leave it. We all know that to be a writer who works full time this is always a great excuse to prevent the work. It is also important as a writer to fit in some time to write even if it is only five or thirty minutes during a lunch break or on the commute home or even just before you go to bed at night.
Excuse Two: With the new job I really need to focus more on my current work since that is my bread and butter and not focus on my own personal pleasures like writing. Again, this is just another way of putting off something. I have found that the more I write on my book the better it makes me as a writer in my own career. I have freshened my creative writing juices so that I am better able to write in different manners and for various audiences. Again, it does take work and a struggle to fit in writing of a personal nature when you do have a career or you are a single parent. Yet, fitting in the personal writing can also benefit you in ways that translate over to your career and make it worth the exertion.
Excuse Three: I am just too tired. That has been my go to excuse over the past two months. I was too tired because of my new job. I am too tired because I have to learn a new culture and new ways of doing things and so many new people. I have no more energy to devote to writing and being creative. The truth is that writing for me is a passion and I become energized and more focused when I am able to fit it into my day.
With those three excuses though I almost got lost on the detour road. I am a directionally challenged person and I had to stop and take a moment to listen to my internal GPS. As I sit and post this I realize that I am not lost after all. I just took a round-about way to get back to the path ahead. I am typing in the edits for Chapters 22 and 23 and by the end of the week may even be able to start writing Chapter 24. I am again energized by my writing. The imagined journey of writing shows me the path in front of me stretching out far and clear and in my imaginings I look to my right and see a large sign in bold, black letters saying, "Welcome Back!"
