I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. When a writer purposely decides to take time off and not write, it definitely feels weird. On the one hand you’re enjoying some mental time off, watching movies or catching up on tv shows, or reading that book you put aside a few months previous, or maybe even just goofing off on the internet for hours at a time. On the other hand, you’re itching to get back to work as soon as possible and work on that next project.
So what have I been doing all week? I mean, aside from goofing off on the internets?
A lot of offline stuff, really. Cleaning the apartment. Doing some shopping. Practicing a bit of guitar playing. Continuing on my daily personal journal. In short, living life outside the Next Book. I even skipped out on updating this blog. Okay, I may have browsed over at Shutterstock to decide on my next cover, but no real work was done. I purposely gave myself a week off to unwind from that crazy five-week blitz of line editing and doing all the backstage work for A Division of Souls, before I jumped in on the probably-longer blitz of line editing and backstage work for The Persistence of Memories. [And there’s also the fact that I will need to continue paying attention to the release of ADoS so I can figure out various ways to promote it.]
It’s not to say I never take an evening off…I definitely have, here and there. A day where I’m feeling under the weather, or just had a shitty day at the Day Job, or whatever. I’m not chained to the writing, I’ve just turned it into a healthy addiction. When I first wrote TPoM back in 2002-3, I was dedicating two hours daily (including weekends, when I’d dedicate more) to writing at least a thousand pages a day. The words just flowed, I was in a good frame of mind, and I wasn’t about to let that pass me by. But I did take a few days off here and there, either to sickness or personal plans, or just plain wanting to take a day off and read comics instead. Sure, it felt odd, but I wasn’t feeling guilty about it.
That said…I’m going to be jumping back into the fire tomorrow. TPoM is nagging at me to be edited (this current version clocks in at 180k words, so I’m sure there’s going to be some serious deletion going on). Added to the ADoS promotion, the cover art, this blog, the Day Job, and maybe even other non-Mendaihu Universe related writing work, I’m going to be a busy little worker bee for the next few months.
Wish me luck!
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