Motivation and Spiders This morning I was up a ladder with a sweeping brush, attacking age-old cobwebs that have happily lived on our wooden ceiling for years. But today it bothered me. OK, that’s a lie. Today I was looking for something to do that didn’t involve sitting down at my desk.
It hasn’t been a great week writing-wise. I squeezed out 500 words on Monday; Tuesday was bit more successful, but yesterday I gave up altogether and spent the day doing other things.
And I had a great time – chatted to Ryan Tubridy on his radio show live from the Dead Zoo (opening again today – hurrah!), read the new Patrick Ness (best yet – Monsters of Men – amazingly fab book) in bed in the afternoon, met some book friends in the evening for an early dinner.
And then. AND THEN – went to see Rufus Wainwright in the Grand Canal Theatre. Quite the showman. Very strange first half – Rufus in a theatrical coat with feather ruff and 17 foot train, very jaunty and touching second half, complete with lots of stories and asides. What a sweet, funny, talented man he is.
Anyway, today I have my writing mojo back and after this quick blog I will get straight to it.
But here’s the thing - sometimes you can’t force the writing. If you’re exhausted, if your spirits are low, if there’s too much going on in your life to concentrate you just have to take some time out and replenish your writing soul. But take too much time off and it’s hard to get back in the writing saddle.
So if you haven’t been writing in a while, stop chasing spiders up ladders and get to it.
Back to your desks, people.
Yours in writing,
SarahX
PS Jodi Picoult gets up at 5.30 every morning, walks for 3 miles, sends her kids off to school and then writes until they get home. But I bet she has off days just like the rest of us!