It’s a wonderful thing when I’m writing and in the groove.
It can be hard to let that go.
But sometimes I have to let it go.
Most writers have more in their lives than just writing. Sometimes you have to STOP even when you’re smoking hot and the words are flowing fast and the ideas are popping in your head like popcorn. Pop! Pop! Pop!
Sometimes you have to STOP WRITING, even if you don’t want to.
You’ve got to go to work, pick up the kids, run a necessary errand, cook food.
(My ‘Time Bending’ and ‘Idea Projection’ super powers have yet to show up and solve this conundrum).
But–alas! Writing won’t let you go that easily!
Its hooks are in you. It remains cocooned in your brain, causing a wooly sensation through out the mind. A sensation that I like to call:
WRITER’S DAZE!
Symptoms include:
- an unfocused gaze
- mumbling to oneself
- a propensity to lose things
- a propensity to think you’re losing things only to find you’ve been holding it in your hand all along
- a tendency to not hear what has been said to you
- a tendency to interrupt what someone is saying to ask an off topic, writing related question
- a tendency to interrupt your current task to hunt for a piece of paper because ‘you just gotta write this down’…’it will just take a minute’…
- the above last for twenty-five minutes
Writers, do you suffer from this condition?!
I do. It’s happened to me many times. It happened to me today, in fact.
I’ve had to forcibly SNAP MYSELF OUT OF IT.
Julie, you are not in the nineteenth century anymore. You are in the grocery store, mindlessly wandering around with a list in hand, mumbling to yourself about Lord Byron’s letters to Lady Melbourne and what kind of hat your main character should wear.
Julie, you need to return to reality and GET A GRIP!
The best antidote to Writer’s Daze is to completely ground yourself in your present moment. This is especially necessary if you are performing some important task, like driving a car or operating heavy machinery.
Reassure yourself the writing will be there. You can let it go. It will return to you and you to it.
The writing will always be there!
Busy Writing 