Friday, September 21, 2012

Transition, Another Word for Rebalancing

A year ago I thought that I was just coming out of a transition in my life.

Life had something more to teach me!

I look back--it's been exactly one year since I lost my writing-groove. I've had ups and downs, have taken my laptop out to write, then put it back down. Little spurts of creative drive did come out occasionally, but not in the copious amounts I had become accustomed to in the three straight years I'd been writing. Up until then, I'd never given a thought to writer's block.

On a Richter Scale this block would be somewhere in the 9's. In three years I had written over 300,000 words, manuscripts that were either finished or in progress. This year, less than 20,000.

I talk to writer friends and they tell me to relax, let it come back when it comes back. I've had to rethink career options because my creative well is, for the moment, quite dry. I started an Introduction to Medical Transcription course at the local community college thinking I will eventually support myself comfortably that way rather than keep working at a dog boarding kennel with limited room to grow.

But there's this part of my brain that keeps saying, "It'll come back. Life just had to take over for a while, that's all."

In the last year I moved out of my parent's house, creating a 45 mile commute to work one-way. I started making friends, started being much more social. Kinda fell for some guys that weren't for me, apparently...which could have jaded my visions of Great Love. Then I moved again, and despite the same mileage to work and back, I now have a place I feel at home (unlike living with my parents!).

So this Fall, I'm welcoming the transition back into writing. I've had to straighten certain things out, get my life in line. But there is such a thing as balancing what you love to do with what is necessary for your survival/sanity. I've definitely realized I cannot always be devout in regards to any one thing, like I had been with writing.

Cheers to anyone else out there making the effort to regain the groove:)   

4 comments:

Paty Jager said...

Courtney, I hope you find your groove and happiness. I'm not happy or in the groove unless I'm writing. And knock on wood, the only time I've had writer's block was when I wrote myself into a corner and once I discovered that, I was off and running again. Good luck!

Judith Ashley said...

Courtney,

I can empathize, I think. I've three completed ms and am now going through them with a professional fiction editor (very different from a professional technical editor because I'm getting more story input which I asked for).

This has been a strange year with much more chaos (changes minor and large, ups and downs, etc.) than I can remember. I've had to be the most flexible I've ever had to be (even with a case load that covered the State of Oregon!).

I still write post for this blog. I've written a few very short stories for our Free Reads site, and I've reworked the 1st 100 pages of the 1st ms. Considering that my goal was to have these 3 published this fall and a 4th in the hopper - well, you can see I'm not even close.

I'm in trust. Trust that this hiatus from my normal writing life is and/or will serve me in some way. I'm sure the OMG moments will find their way into a future story. lol

You've accomplished a lot this past year and I, for one, look forward to your posts and am so very glad you are a Genre-ista!

Unknown said...

Sometimes the "Groove" is a hard thing to maintain. I've had lost and found my "Groove" for writing several times. Now life tends to throw up little detours. Today, I was going to write in the morning, and instead ended up going to the hardware store not once but twice to purchase and install a part for my mom's toilet. Sigh! There's always tomorrow morning right, to write?

Sarah Raplee said...

Hi Courtney,

There are gonna be times when life gets in the way of writing. The important thing is to accept that fact and get back on the writing horse. It's like sticking to an exercise plan. If you go off for a day or a week or a month, the important thing is to get back to it as soon as you can. And set reasonable expectations.