Sometimes, plans change...

Yes. They certainly do.

 

Remember the last time I dropped in I mentioned that I was taking a week off and then would get stuck into writing a new story? Well, things didn't exactly work out that way.

 

By the time I reached the end of last week, I realised that I hadn't done all the stuff I wanted to do. I also didn't feel mentally stable enough to get stuck into a new story. So, after a nice chat with hubby--talking to him about my creative problems always makes me realise that the answer was there all along--I decided it was best to take what he's dubbing a small hiatus.

 

A hiatus from what you ask? Well, from the pressure of self-imposed deadlines. From starting a new story. From forcing myself to do something when I'm clearly not mentally ready. I usually experience this kind of mental lag after finishing a book, but I guess Willow's took more out of me than I realised. :/

 

I now have a new plan. Since my daughter has a two-week break during the first two weeks of July and hubby has the second week of July off from work, I've decided not to start anything new until  they go back to school and work. That takes me to mid-July. Which is fine with me. By that time I will be a year older, btw. :/

 

Now I can spend a month brainstorming, reading, thinking and watching. It'll give my brain a chance to have a break. By the time I start my next story, I will be itching to write. :)

 

Right now I'm in the middle of watching BITTEN. I watched most of Season 1 last week, and will be watching the last two eps in this season today. It's based on one of my most fave UF series, so it took a little adjustment. It always does when I watch a book series turned into a TV show. The casting throws me off, the changes make everything feel weird, and I start comparing. BUT, the best thing to do is to get over all of these things quickly, and get stuck into the show. After all, it's not a page by page recount of the book, it's an adaptation that will most likely take a different, untraveled path.

 

Once I came to terms with this--pretty much during the second or third ep--I started actually enjoying the show. And now that I'm almost at the end of S1, I'm really enjoying it!

 

The rest of this week is going to be a little wonkier than planned because Monday was a public holiday and that always throws out the week. I probably won't get too much done, but then again... isn't that the idea?

 

Last week I read this great blog post written by Nova Ren Suma about Filling the Well and it really resonated with me. Everything she says is true, and exactly how I feel at the moment. It's strange because if I'm not writing, revising, or editing I feel guilty. It's almost like I should be doing something writing related even if my mind's exhausted... and that's why taking this break right now feels so good. It's guilt-free, and will help me in the long run.

 

Sometimes things happen that are out of our control and that too affects our creativity. Well, something like that happened to me last week. A writing thing that came out of the blue and really threw me off because I wasn't expecting it. I still haven't gotten over the blow because it still makes no sense to me, but there was a solution offered so that helps. A bit.

 

Anyway. For the next few weeks I'm going to concentrate on other creative avenues in order to fill my main one to the brim. Because the ideas are churning. There are a lot of stories that want to be written, and right now I'm going to enjoy thinking, dreaming, and taking notes about them.

 

Have a great week!