Where has my writing energy gone?

I’ve fallen out of love with writing.

My writing energy evaporated. There one minute and the next, vanished into the mist.

I have an addictive personality and rode the reading, writing and blogging wave for several years. All waves crash in the end.

I opened my scrivener file recently and saw that the last piece of editing I did was TEN months ago. Not good.

It’s not that I’m finished with the stories and they certainly don’t appear to be finished with me. I continue to carry a notebook wherever I go and make copious amounts of notes on plot and characters.

I’m still having fresh ideas, some related to my current WIP and others brand new. My wife is encouraging me to write some children’s books based on stories I come up with.

Sitting down to write seems harder than ever and I know I need to treat this like I would any job. I don’t particularly want to do the day job, but I drive to the office every day. Do my hours. Put in my best efforts.

I’ve never been good at focusing on the editing. I know it’s an essential part of the process and I do know that I need to take the hit and force myself to finish the damned book!

There are some plot holes that I want to correct. Some issues or clichés that I must correct before I take the next step.

I wonder whether fear of failure is preventing me sitting down and finishing this book. Maybe that is what is holding me back.

Shock, horror. A writer with self-doubt! 🙂

Probably more to do with the fact that I’m a lazy sod and generally settle for the path of least resistance and for the last few years, that hasn’t been writing. Netflix has too many good shows to watch, there are too many good video games to play, waaayyyy too much live sport to feast on.

So, what do I do?

I asked myself two simple questions.

Am I done? Can I walk away?

I might have fallen out of love with writing. I might never recreate the excitement and the buzz of those years when I was writing, editing and reading like there was no tomorrow.

Am I done?

My answer was simple. No.

Can I walk away?

Also, no.

I know I need to prove it. Blogging is helping me write again. Helping organise my time to sit down and plan, write and edit something.

Baby steps.

Thanks for reading.

Do you recycle?

We should all want to protect the environment. Right?

Why is it so difficult to recycle certain items? There are a myriad of plastic packaging that cannot be recycled in the UK. Single use plastic should be made illegal in the battle to cut the amount of waste pumped into landfill sites.

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We have made it through another festive period and many people will have been left with a pile of wrapping paper, boxes and other packaging. All that wrapping paper, but at least we can recycle that right? It’s wrapping PAPER after all and we can recycle paper.

Not necessarily.

Some wrapping paper contains plastic. Others include foil and some contain the dreaded glitter. Many of these can’t be recycled in the UK. And, don’t get me started on sellotape! Part of my ritual after birthdays or Christmas is to remove all the tape from the wrapping paper before we recycle it. Apparently many people don’t and the paper then cannot be recycled. This article on the BBC explains more.

 

Some red glitter. In case you weren’t sure.

Then you have greetings cards. There seems to be cards for all occasions nowadays. It can take a while to find a card that isn’t splattered with glitter. I’ve stopped buying cards that contain glitter or anything else not paper. From now on, the wrapping paper I buy will be simple paper and 100% recyclable.

Why on EARTH are we allowing the sale of paper that isn’t really paper and is not recyclable? I know in the grand scheme of things it is a fraction of what we dispose of each year, but until recently I had no idea glitter was so evil. 🙂

Finally, the other item that bugs me.

Really bugs me.

Tetra Pak recycling.

Image of a Tetra Pak carton courtesy of me. Other brands are available.

I don’t have anything against Tetra Pak. I must use three or four cartons of soya milk a week and that’s just the start. In Sheffield, we can’t put these into our kerbside collections and there is a grand total of … ONE place to recycle these cartons in Sheffield.

ONE!

Sheffield has a population of over 550,000 people and we have ONE place to recycle our Tetra Pak! I’ve complained before and nothing changes. Thankfully the site is close to where I work so every couple of months I take a car full to recycle. I wonder how many of the other 549,999 residents do the same?

I’m not saying we’re perfect and recycle everything. We could do more. We could probably all do more. Whether this is through incentive based schemes or manufacturers using more recyclable products to do away with single use plastic.

Like everything else, consumer power will win if enough people take a stand, complain and stop buying products whose packaging are not recyclable. Manufacturers will soon change if everyone stopped buying their goods.

Wherever in the world you live, how easy/difficult is it to recycle? Any similar stories of packaging you can’t recycle?

Rant over! (for now)

Thanks for reading.

When you realise …

I thought I would post to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year, only to realise my last post did the same for 2017!

Not very good is it?

No.

Well I do wish you all the best for 2018. I do keep an eye on your posts when they hit my inbox. I hope to post again before New Year’s Day 2019. 🙂 

Honest!

Take care

Happy New Year!

I hope you’re all well.

I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. May 2017 bring you good health and happy writing.

For me, there will be no goals set for 2017. No proclamations of doing this or that. No targets or deadlines.

2016 brought pockets of activity. The odd burst of editing. Day by day I’ll try and improve for 2017.

Take care.

Wait, it’s nearly April?

My good intentioned plans for posting in 2016 dried up as quickly as it started. My writing/editing of the novel I began writing in 1923 (seems that long ago) almost started. Almost.

Over the lasts few weeks I’ve given myself a good talking to. Where did I want to go with my writing/blogging? Was is time to shelve my plans? Drop the dream?

My levels of motivation have been low for a couple of years when it comes to the “sit down and write” part of the process. I can still talk a good game, still plan editing or writing. Planning for tomorrow is always easy.

I’ll start editing tomorrow …

First thing in the morning I’ll …

You know the drill. Live in the plan and not the present. For me, the present is being lazy and doing something requiring little energy like watching TV or playing Clash of Clans!

The conversations I have with myself return to the same answer:

I. AM. NOT. DONE. YET.

So rather than plan for tomorrow, today I decided the only way to make the fresh start was to live in the moment. To do it and not think about doing it later. I read a great post today by Kate, the 4am writer on the 5 Wrong Reasons to Quit Writing. One of the reasons included the phrase: if you want it badly enough.

My mind will not leave the stories alone. It won’t let me forget about the characters and step away from them for good. I do want to do this so I have to take action.

So, this morning I ploughed through my inbox for the first time in months. Cleared out the clutter, visited a number of bloggers, wrote this post, but more importantly …

I spent over an hour editing! Actual time in front of my laptop editing. AND I LOVED IT!

One session does not put everything right. I know I need to keep at it and back it up with more hours, more scenes and chapters. Find a routine that works for me again. This is a small step, I know, but at least I made that step.

Spring has sprung and I want to look ahead.

How is your 2016 shaping up now we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the year?

Thanks for reading.

Completely unrelated, but this picture helped me!

For all those suffering with Sunday night blues: pic.twitter.com/PSep1SHcmW

— Lindsay Moakes (@LindsayMoakes) March 20, 2016