Energy Management

This morning I had a little sleep in. I didn’t mean to, I was awake at my usual time but I rolled over and the next thing was my daughter standing in the doorway calling out good morning. I’m also ok with that. I have had a productive week, I was tired and today, being Sunday, we are not racing off anywhere and I can follow my usual routine when I do decide to get up.

‘Wow,’ you think aloud. ‘Where is her angst, her guilt of missing a morning writing?’

Well, I’m not missing out on my writing time and I’m not sure everyone writes every day. I have found I need to. One, it keeps my writing flowing and reduces the chance of blocks. The second reason and but probably the most important is that I have to. I can’t make it through the day if I haven’t had time writing.

The secret to my new guilt free sleep in is I have recently discovered energy management. Well the discussion of it and it has validated those times when I am just too tired, emotionally or physically to do what I need to. That doesn’t just mean writing. There are times I don’t have the energy for reading, or cleaning, or cooking.

In one of my follow the links sessions from one of the blogs I read, I discovered Scott H Young (www.Scotthyoung.com/blog). Quite a clever young man and if you are a student he has lots of ideas and techniques to help you get the most out of your study and reading time.

I am very big on time management and have completed a range of courses to find the tools to help me maximise my time. And I try and squash a lot into my time. I’m a mother, working full time, now studying (and I have started a second long term course for work) and I want to write. So of course some days this all seems a bit hard.

The idea of energy management is being aware that we don’t have a consistent level of energy that operates 24 hours a day. It would be great, but it’s not possible. We need to think about when we have energy peaks and use them. But it also means we need to take the time to recharge our energy. That includes getting enough sleep and taking a little time out now and then when we need to. And not feel guilty about it.

So I am focused when I have energy, then when my levels are low, I can rest or do something else. I find ironing doesn’t take much energy for me and when my creative energy drops, I can take some time, catch up on ironing and on the TV I’ve been missing out on when I do have the energy to study of an evening.

Not only has this idea helped me with my time management and getting through what I need to in a day, it has helped me understand how others work. A friend of mine recently talked about someone he works with that writes music. This guy found it really hard to put all the energy he needed to into his job because he wanted to have the creative energy to write when he got home. At the time I had said that was rubbish. But now, maybe he can’t give that much energy to both aspects of his life.

It is an interesting idea energy management and I am determined to get a better understanding so that I can use it for good, and not for evil (such as excuses). More reading to be done I think.  Have a look at Scott’s website, it is full of interesting ideas.

Happy Scribbling.

Negotiating with Cats

 

I have this thing with the cat of a morning, she jumps up on my desk, works her way around the computer and tries so hard to look like she doesn’t care I’m there as she drops onto my lap. If she were to curl up and sleep then this wouldn’t be a problem. But she doesn’t, she nuzzles me for cuddles and pats, rubs her wet nose against my arm. Annoys the heck out of me until I guide her back to the floor and she either wanders off or starts again.

It use to be that I wouldn’t shut the study door in case I couldn’t hear my daughter if she woke or needed me. But she is nearly 6 she keeps reminding me (although nearly is actually 6 months away). And she can reach the handle and let herself in, loudly chastising the cat and reminding it that it can’t enter the sacred zone because “mama is working and she needs quiet”.

The fact that this is relayed in a loud voice, to a cat that cannot understand, is lost on her and as the flow is already interrupted I take a few minutes to cuddle with her and talk about what we will do for the day. Then she is happy to watch the cartoons and mama gets another half hour of quiet time, so the door will stay shut.

Sometimes I think the cat wakes her out of spite, because if she can’t play with me then someone needs to. But at least that is all I have to negotiate with, or work around for my quiet time at the computer, where I can lose myself in my writing, or concentrate on my studies.

My physical writing environment has been working well for some time now. Everything within reach, space to make it in, small heater under the desk so that fresh Tasmanian mornings don’t keep me from drafting. But the emotional writing space is just as important. And sometimes I have trouble bringing the two together.

Family can be a great support and if they need to support you by leaving you alone for an hour or two a day, talk to them about it. You don’t want to spend your writing time trying to negotiate with a cat.

Happy Scribbling

Another bad week

My writing journey hasn’t been moving along all that well lately. I have been blocked, sleeping through my usual writing time or part of it and then unable to write anything when I’m at the computer. Even blogging has been a painful process. I actually feel physically sick trying to think about writing a post.

I think I understand why I am blocked. And I had thought that with that realisation the problem may just slip away. Not yet. The problem is, I think, that I have taken on too much. Pushed my goals to unreachable and it has killed my creative thinking.

Firstly, I was so keen after my workshop with Fiona McIntosh that I pushed my first draft word count up by 50,000 words. The problem being that I didn’t extend my draft deadline. The process nearly doubling my daily word goal.

Secondly, I am plagued with images and ideas for another story, which is pulling me away from where I need to be. And it I would like it to be a big story (over three books) and that worries me too.

I have just started my Masters in Arts (Writing) which is amazing and great, but more work and I am struggling with getting back into study and a different type of writing.

And lastly, to top it all off, I have been knocked about by the flu, again, draining all energy.

Over the last week with my study, I have been looking at the duality of the writerly self and the inner critic. I think the inner critic has taken over pushing the negativity and preventing my creative voice any air time at all.

I am trying some tactics to try and resolve the problem. I have revised my first draft deadline out and giving me an achievable daily word goal. I am allowing myself some down time to ensure I am well and truly over the bug. And I have negotiated with my daughter for some time on the weekends alone in the study.

A good night’s sleep and then a good hour writing in the morning and hopefully I will be back on track.

Happy Scribbling.

A Quick Note

I have had an amazing day in a workshop with fantasy writer Fiona McIntosh. It was a great oppertunity to learn from an experienced and well published author.

I learnt a lot and it has given me some good grounding and great tips for my current work. I am a little nervous about whether I can come up with three books. But I'm currently meeting my daily word goal and the story is moving along well so I may just do it.

She also had some great advice around getting published and how important it is to keep the audience in mind while writing.

I have come away refreshed and revitalised.

And a new idea is teasing me, and this one I'm sure I can write over three books.

Happy Scribbling.

Coming Unstuck

This week hasn’t quite gone to plan. I continued to struggle with getting words onto paper (or screen). I have still been making lists but it didn’t seem to be helping. I was ruminating ideas but not putting them down.

By the time I reached my writers group on Thursday night I hadn’t written anything and the pages I had tried to rework were disjointed and the scene started in third person, shifted to first person and then back to third, but another character’s point of view.

This is why I think writers groups are so important. We were a little light on the ground as half our number are attending a creative writing course, but the opportunity to share my work and talk about it was very helpful.  It is also helpful to listen to other writers, hear how they write, talk about what issues or problems or challenges they face.

I left the group feeling enthusiastic and recharged. And I have been writing. I am also more settled on the voice. I know what I am comfortable with and so that seems to work best. There are some plot points that need some work but I am happy at the moment to continue writing and let it work itself out.

I may have already mentioned that when I start writing I don’t write to a plan. I usually have a character or a scene in mind and the story builds from there. The overall plot is coming together with my fantasy draft as it moves along. But there are times when I write something and then wonder how it will resolve itself or end or connect to another scene or character. I have found in the past that the characters can determine things for themselves. That is work out how the story should go.

So now that I am writing , I am going to just write and see what happens.

Happy Scribbling.

From Stuck to Unstuck

I have had a very poor week. I’m stuck. I have found it very difficult to get out of bed of a morning and cringe at the idea of facing the computer. I’m not even sure how it started, but it has lasted all week. I haven’t known where to turn to next and I haven’t written a word, well a creative word, at all.

Today I finally turned to a great book to find some solace and see if I could find something to help. The reference is Chapter after Chapter by Heather Sellers. And she is fantastic. But one of the key points in the chapter I turned to today was that what works for others may not work for you. It is important to find your own strategies for coming unstuck.

Sellers gives a range of options and within those there is room for personalising each strategy. One of the options she suggested struck a chord with me – make a list. I love lists. I find lists calming and helpful.

So where I couldn’t sit at the computer and work through ideas I have been standing at the kitchen door writing out lists of questions. In a way I was writing lists of ideas but I find them more useful when formed as questions.

These questions will then sit in my head, moving around and slowly working their way out to a solution. It all helps in moving from stuck to unstuck. Tomorrow morning when I sit down I will be able to think about one of the ideas that I questioned tonight.  And then I’m sure a scene or idea will start to form itself and the words will flow. And the day after and the day after that.

I’m quite excited now about sitting down in my study tomorrow morning. Now all I need to do is make a note so that the next time I get stuck it doesn’t take me as long to work out how to get unstuck.

Reading, Writing and Dreaming

I have missed reading so much. But one of the things about reading that I forgot was that it can take you away into a whole new world that washes away any care for the real one. Not that I have stopped operating altogether. I am still managing to get up every day and write, and feed the kids and send them to school. But every chance I get I am picking up the book and disappearing into someone else’s world for a time.

Here is the current state of my bedside table, or at least how it looked yesterday morning. The pile of books I have purchased or borrowed over the last few months but too busy editing to read.

And then there is my current library book.

I am attending a workshop at the end of the month and wanted to read something of the author that I will be working with. Then a supposed friend, who came around last night arrived with three more books (they aren’t included in the photo). I have actually started a second pile. And I’m living in fear of passing a bookshop in case I feel the pull of another novel.

This reading is also feeding my creativity. It is certainly helping with some small problems I am having with my fantasy novel. The story is there but I am unsure about the best way to tell it. I am very comfortable with the first person, but not really sure if this is the best way to tell this story.

Part of the joy of a first draft is that I can do what I want with it. So as well as playing with different ideas, some scenes are in first person, some in third person, some in present tense and some in past tense. As I go I think it will work itself out what is best for the story and I can adjust the rest in the next draft.

And my vivid dreams are back. I had the rare opportunity to sleep in this morning, partly why this blog post is late, and I woke feeling both excited and scared. It was unlike anything I had dreamt before and very dark. The images have haunted me all day, and I have struggled to remember small parts that are no longer clear, such as conversations and instructions being screamed over the crash of waves. But some details that seemed small and insignificant at the time are more prominent now as I try to relive it.

A small white house in the distance sparked something later this afternoon. I have dreamt of it before. And in a very different story, with very different characters but it was the same house in the same place, with the same setting.

So as unsettling as the dream was, the house is calling for me to write it. It may be the place that needs to be written.

I wish I had whole days to write and read uninterrupted...but for the moment I am going to have to continue working out how to fit everything together. I think my best option is to try to go to sleep tonight thinking about my little house and see what happens next...

Happy Scribbling