Hi.
I have a blog. I know this. Tis mine and I will do with it what I please, which, apparently, lately has been nothing.
Strangely, for a few months now, nothing is what I have been doing with creating of the new words. No new words.
I worked pretty hard to get my last ms ready for querying. Oh the joys of querying, I have missed you. When I started on the road to gathering rejections and self-doubt, I gazed at the blank page, at the stacks of notebooks full of ideas, at the shelved manuscripts waiting for help…and my brain shut off.
I see the tweets of the writers who go from one project to the next with reckless abandon. I see the people working on multiple projects. I APPLAUD THEM.
I…am not one of them. Nope.
My creative brain takes breaks. I let it. Because when I try to force it to think up all the made-up stuff, it shuts down. No more making up stuff for me.
I’ve learned to relax. Read. Do nothing. Watch the world pass. For eventually…the creative brain reawakens.
It’s happened again. After trying to force myself onto the next project and failing…I gave up. Let my brain off the hook.
And I have a new idea. Well, not new exactly. A short story I never wrote let me know that maybe it’s supposed to be a book. Perhaps that’s why I never wrote that story.
So, if you, like me, can’t seem to go from one thing to another…if you, like me, sometimes yell at yourself for not doing all the things all the time…if you, like me, have to let the ideas form on their own, I offer a giant cheer.
Writers work in their own way, making the world an interesting and crazy place. Find what works for you and do it. Don’t fight how your brain works…it never ends well.
I shall now go prepare for the sending of more queries. Send chocolate.
Kathleen Palm 