I tried to take a day off from writing recently. I needed a chance to retreat from all the things bedeviling me in other areas of life. I mean, one day off wasn't too much to ask, was it? I'd definitely earned it with all the work I'd done, not to mention plotting and analyzing and multiple blog posts.
It was a great plan. It just didn't work.
I was relaxing in the bathtub, thinking how brilliant it was to escape from all the mental activities. However, my brain kept tapping me, saying, "You know, if your heroine heard this, she would realize that. And she needs to know that, in order to grow before the HEA."
I kinda waved my hand, sloshing water everywhere as I answered, "Yeah, yeah, contact me later. I'm not working today."
But maybe water works on ideas for the WIP like it does on those movie gremlins – you don't want to get them wet, because then they multiply. Pretty soon I was mentally editing this scene, and adding a line or two to that scene, then right after that an idea for a blog post appeared and. . .
There went my planned day off.
Not that I'm complaining. It just made me realize how integral writing is to my life.
Writing doesn't go away. It may disappear for a while, but it always comes back stronger, kind of like the tide going out and then returning as a tsunami. There are other days when the urge to write is like a sneeze that keeps building up but never actually turns into a sneeze, as if the words are stuck inside.
If writing is in your blood, you will find a way around all the obstacles, especially the ones YOU erect, consciously or unconsciously.
If it really matters, you'll write, whether the conditions are just perfect the way you like, or whether you have to ask the restaurant hostess for a box of crayons when an idea hits.
The words will come forth, and in their own perverse way, they're likely to choose the moment when you're drifting off to sleep after an exhausting day, or when you're stuck in a grocery line without a scrap of paper (until you get your receipt).
It's a sort of madness, writing is. If you're a writer, though, you learn to embrace it, and you welcome all the crazy, wacky insanity it creates.
Even when it's your day off.
My brain ALWAYS chooses those moments before I drift off to plot and write and throw all sorts of brilliant ideas my way. Which is why I have a notebook on the nightstand. Though sometimes I'm too far into the nod off to bother taking notes. Those are the nights that annoy me, because the brilliance is rarely still there in the morning.
Oddly enough, I'd like to take a day off the day job to spend it writing. But then I know I'd spend it the same way I do at the day job. Playing online. :) At least I get that all out during the day!
Posted by: Terri Osburn | January 06, 2012 at 10:55 AM
I'm pretty sure I could never get my brain to take a day off from thinking about writing, but my pattern has been to do the actual writing between many days off for so long now that I don't know any other way. I definitely have those days of saying "contact me later" and I try to take messages that will jog my memory. Most of the time I can't even make sense of my own notes and think I missed the important stuff. But I hope what I miss is just being reprocessed. My Muse might get mad when I don't ask "how high?" when she says "jump!", but when I get those days of actual writing, I think she must eventually decide she'll take what she can get! LOL
Posted by: Melissa | January 06, 2012 at 04:08 PM
Terri, I don't keep a notepad nearby, because I know I'd be too lazy to turn on the light and start writing. LOL I tell myself, "Oh, that's so great, I know I'll remember it in the morning." NOT. LOL
I completely understand wanting to take time off from work to write. . .and then writing is the last thing that gets done! I can't really do any internet stuff at work, so I spend too much of my "off time" online. I need discipline!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | January 06, 2012 at 08:45 PM
Melissa, I do think the information gets a second chance. Or at least it seems so. I know several times I've come across something that seemed absolutely BRILLIANT when I wrote it down, and then I find out I'd written it down a month before that, but I'd forgotten. LOL
I'm guessing our muses like all that time off too. :) That may be why they cooperate when we finally get a chance to work in the writing amongst the other things. Heck, they may be bored, waiting for us, so they're excited to get to work. LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | January 06, 2012 at 08:48 PM
Oh yes. My life is quite boring without all the extra "visitors" in my head. In fact, the more I get away from the pressures of my real life and job, the more the characters start chatting it up.
Posted by: Kari Marie | January 07, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Kari Marie, you're so right about the characters getting a lot more chatty when the real-life pressures dwindle. I wonder if the characters are being kind to us, leaving us alone, or if they're absorbed in their own stuff. LOL Maybe if I checked in on them more often, I'd find out the answer!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | January 07, 2012 at 08:10 AM
I think that lazing in a hot bath with all the extras like bubbles and scented oils is the perfect escape for an exhausted girl. Showers just don't compare!
As your body relaxes your mind first clears and then dreams will occupy the space.
You must resist any temptation to respond.
Just bask in the glory of your latest achievement.
Consider the dreams an accolade from the subconscious.
I do it all the time ... sans bubbles of course. LOL
Posted by: Quantum | January 08, 2012 at 03:58 AM
Q, I like the sound of that -- "an accolade from the subconscious". I think that's actually one reason I find it difficult to deliberately take time off from writing, is because I'm afraid I'll miss something important my brain is trying to deliver regarding a WIP. LOL
But then I avoid writing in order to have some free time, and then I feel guilty, which is not conducive to dreaming. Mmm. I think you've convinced me this is the route to go! (WITH bubbles of course! LOL)
Posted by: Donna Cummings | January 08, 2012 at 08:35 AM