Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Getting into the Swing of Things

Tip of the Day: not only is the WriterOnCon going on right now, but Cynthea Liu is offering a Free-tique Round through the end of the day. Lots of great, free resources to help writers out!

Since going on vacation last week, I'm definitely dragging this week, trying to get back into the swing of things again. Seriously, how does a mere week's vacation make you feel like the whole world has changed? Or that getting up out of bed after a trip feels like a Herculean task complete with fits of throwing your alarm clock at the wall because you don't want to return to work and feel that magically getting rid of your clock will make time disappear (thankfully I'm not prone to that much literal dramatics, but you get my drift)?

Does anyone else get this way or is it just me?

Some of it has to do with playing catch up with all the things you missed from the previous week, but most of the feeling for me comes from just wanting to still be on vacation.

Unfortunately, that same things happens to me when I take an extended writing break. And sometimes that can mean even just 5 or 7 days off.

Trying to get back into my book always seems to take a minimum of a day to reprocess the story and characters. And when you have a busy life and writing is your second job, then sometimes taking 5-7 days off occurs more than you would like.

And then jumping back into the book constantly feels like you are running back into circles trying to play catch up. I think that's why the first three chapters of my book probably get read 10 times more than the rest of the book. Not only because they are super important pages, but also because I constantly reread them when coming back to my book after a break.

I haven't really found a way around it, so I've just decided to embrace the fact that my beginning chapters will get read and edited way more than anything else and hopefully wanting to avoid having to play so much catch up will continue to motivate me to work continuously on my projects without taking many breaks.

Any one else have any great ideas on getting back into your projects after a break?

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

5 comments:

Jennifer R. Hubbard said...

All I know is that a body at rest wants to stay at rest. ;-)

DeenaML said...

What Jen said. :)

Also, I need to leave the house sometimes to get some solid work done after being a slacker! Then I won't go do the dishes.

Kate Fall said...

I use music to get me back in the mood. Set up a playlist for your characters. Mostly, though, it's a matter of mapping out time where I'm not supposed to do anything but write. I find it harder to bounce back after being sick, actually. Then I really fall behind on life stuff.

Emily Marshall said...

Very true, Jen. I guess that's why they also say a body/mind in motion wants to stay in motion.

Emily Marshall said...

Good thoughts about getting out of the house and scheduling time for writing. And music is a good idea Kate. I tend to make playlists and then forget to listen to them when I could use them!