June already. And after that initial success in May, everything fell apart. “The wheels fell off the cart,” as my mom would have said. Or, “It all went to H*ll in a handbasket.” Don’t you love old sayings?
Oh, I edited, and I wrote a bit of new material, but I got nothing new finished. I critted works for others, but my own editing went whirl, swirl, stop. *sigh*
But it’s a new month, with new goals. A derailment in the past is not a dooming of the future. And I have some interesting ideas percolating, things that ought to get my fingers clacking away on the keys with a vengeance. There is no making up of lost time, exactly, but a burst of highly creative output can make up for a week’s inactivity. Hubby will be gone for nearly two weeks on business, so I’ll have plenty of free time to write and write and write some more.
There are good things that happened because of the lack of writing. For one, I got lots of reading done. I finished “A Dance with Dragons” (finally!) and “The Broken Kingdoms.” I don’t know about you, but reading something really, really good gets my creative fires burning brighter, hotter. It makes me want to write something. Anything. It starts an itch that can only be scratched by doing writing.
Second, I finished up some quilting that’s been lying around for wa-a-ay too long. I listen to audio books while I quilt, making this my version of multi-tasking. I finished a wallhanging, which I machine quilted myself (machine quilting is not my forte, which is why this lingered so long, I think.), and I’m nearly done attaching the binding on the back of a bed quilt that I had someone machine quilt for me just before we moved. It’s beautifully quilted, and I can’t wait to lay this on the bed when it’s totally finished (I’ll post a picture of it once it’s done). Another creative outlet, well-fed.
And now, I feel rejuvenated. I feel a clean break from the old stories that were lingering, clinging to my ankles, cluttering my mind and stealing my time. I think I needed to step back, away from it all and take a deep breath. I don’t like abandoning stories. I like to finish things, to see them through to a publication. But I needed to see it was time to let these darlings go, to move on. They are “finished,” even if they’re not published. Or publishable. And that’s okay. (deep breath) Really. I’ve moved on, these stories can’t. It’s okay. (taking a step away) They’re a step on the path, but they’ll become a barrier if you let them. (another step away) There are more stories to tell. Many, many more. And these, well, they’re not really dead. Just resting. Until I need to scavenge them for parts. Mmmm, zombie parts. Unicorn zombie parts. In space …
What are you writing?
Everyday Magic | M. E. Garber 