Writing About Burn Out

Time for a plug! I belong to a forum called Absolute Write, located at: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums. Aside from being incredibly insightful in all aspects of writing, publishing and the like, the people are genuine, friendly, and always willing to help. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in becoming a part of a writing community.

Next… this week I hereby dub myself the Empress of Procrastination. I’ve done everything in my power to not write this week. My writing has suffered while every other one of my hobbies (including spending way too much time on the internet) has flourished. Since my last post I have barely written 1,000 words and I lacked (and still lack) the ambition to write anything further. Yikes!

Yes, yes. I know what you are thinking: “Randi, you were so excited to get back to writing last week! What in the world happened?”

I’m confident that the answer is burn-out. Over the weekend I pumped out three complete chapters of my WIP, a couple of short stories and an article. On Saturday and Sunday most of my waking hours were dedicated to writing, leaving little time to do anything else.

I know, I know, Stephen King writes in twenty-hour sessions. Arthur Miller locked himself away for weeks until Death of a Salesman was complete. Perhaps I do not have the same drive. Perhaps I do not have the same motivation. Perhaps I’m simply not as dedicated to my craft as they. Whatever the reason, by Sunday night I was “all written out.”

Monday I had a level grinding session in Tales of the Abyss. Tuesday thru Thursday I re-watched a good chunk of the third season of Lost. Tonight, my ever so exciting plans include taking a bubble-bath and washing/flat-ironing my hair.

So what am I going to do about this? In previous posts I’ve mentioned some of my cures for when I cannot write: taking a walk, writing in a new location, trying something new, tasting new things, focusing on my breathing. I could pick one of these options to alleviate my burn-out, I could.

However, I fear that I try my other cures so much that I might someday wear them out. With this in mind, I decided to try a new cure. Instead of trying one or two at a time, I will try them all at once. 

Tomorrow morning my little blue journal and I are going to try something new: we are boarding the 8:04a train to New York City. We will walk to SoHo where we will write in a new location. We will go to a new restaurant and try a new food. And the entire time we will make sure to focus on our breathing.

Well, I will, at least.

It might seem like a huge endeavor just to kick-start my desire to write again, but I believe it will be worth it. As well, I believe it will not only cure me for the short term, but help me out in the long term, too. Will this ultimate of cures work? I’m confident it will- and believing something will work is half of what actually makes it work.

It may seem crazy to go to this much effort simply to write. But Stephen King writes in twenty hour sessions and Arthur Miller locked himself away for weeks until Death of a Salesman was complete, so why can’t doing something radical work for me. And maybe, just maybe, this proves I am equally as dedicated to my craft.

So what is the moral of this post? If you are having difficulty motivating yourself, if you have lost your drive or you are procrastinating more than you like and your typical cures are not working for you, my solution to this predicament is this: if one cure is not cutting it, why not try them all?

I’ll report back next week with my findings. With luck, I will have some excellent news to share!