{"id":543,"date":"2015-08-01T08:26:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T08:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cranswick.org.uk\/judith\/?p=543"},"modified":"2015-10-01T18:42:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T18:42:35","slug":"when-life-gets-in-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/?p=543","title":{"rendered":"When Life Gets in the Way\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Worried<\/a>We\u2019ve all experienced it \u2013 the novel progresses reasonably well then life gets in the way and things grind to a halt. It may be a holiday, an illness, a family crisis\u00a0or a major upheaval such as a house move. It\u2019s not just our time but our whole preoccupation that\u2019s focussed elsewhere.\u00a0It\u2019s bad enough trying to get back into the writing routine after a relatively short break but when things stretch out into weeks and months the greater the effort needed to find the enthusiasm to get back to work. That\u2019s what it is \u2013 work \u2013 hard work and suddenly we find more and more excuses to hold us back.<\/p>\n

The situation is compounded if the break happens around the time of the \u2018soggy middle\u2019 \u2013 the mid-point crisis when our enthusiasm for the novel has already begun to waver. That point when you have great doubts about the whole enterprise. The characters lack depth, the plot is going nowhere, the spark has gone and the language laboured and uninspired. The daily word count drops dramatically. Writing is no longer a joy. It reaches the point at which, to quote George Orwell – \u2018writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

However much I enjoy the writing even when things are going well, I like many others, find getting started each day isn\u2019t easy. Is it\u2019s any wonder that I find good excuses to do other things?<\/p>\n

I have to confess that it\u2019s been well over two months since I\u2019ve even looked at the novel in progress! First came the trip to Japan. Our holidays are always full-on affairs \u2013 no sitting by the pool for us. We\u2019re on the go from morning till night. What with the preparations and the sorting out when we get back \u2013 washing and catching up on all the things that I would have done while I was away \u2013 this can easily stretch to an extra week. This time it took a few days to get back into the swing of things and I\u2019ll admit I did manage a couple of weeks of half-hearted writing before my course. There was a bit of preparation before the training days\u00a0but, combined with\u00a0time out for the research and\u00a0putting together\u00a0the presentation for the final stage, it\u2019s been just over two months\u00a0during which\u00a0the latest novel didn\u2019t get a look-in! Still\u00a0the course is\u00a0now done and dusted and I can add Destinations and Port Lecturer to my Cruise Lecture Repertoire. As you may have read on some of my previous blogs, I enjoy talking about writing and the writer\u2019s life on board ship and as travel is the inspiration for my novels, the opportunity to increase my scope and spend more time cruising was one I couldn\u2019t turn down.<\/p>\n

Just to throw another spanner in the works \u2013 we\u2019re having our kitchen refitted! My study has now become the temporary kitchen! That\u2019s a whole other saga \u2013 let\u2019s just say there was a two and a half week delay. One thing after another.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019ve now run out of excuses so it\u2019s back to \u2018Blood Hits the Wall\u2019 \u2013 not with a great deal of enthusiasm, I might add.<\/p>\n

Now the good news! I wrote the above three days ago and now I\u2019ve started things have gone exceptionally well! The ideas are flowing, as are the words. Obviously, subconsciously my brain has been mulling over the plot and getting me out of all those little holes I\u2019d written myself into. I can\u2019t say there haven\u2019t been problems \u2013 just when I get into full flow, the workman comes through and asks for the electricity to be switched off which means closing down all my PC files. I tend to work\u00a0with several open for reference. I can\u2019t write on my laptop.<\/p>\n

The moral is \u2013 don\u2019t despair. Yes, it\u2019s good to write everyday, but the sky won\u2019t fall in if you have a forced break. Sometimes it even helps to think about something else entirely for a while. Keep telling yourself, it\u2019s happened to you before (if you are writing your first novel \u2013 believe me it will happen with the next, and the next and the next) and you still ended up with a good product. Have faith. You are a writer.<\/p>\n

Please tell me, it\u2019s not just me! What are your experiences?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all experienced it \u2013 the novel progresses reasonably well then life gets in the way and things grind to a halt. It may be a holiday, an illness, a family crisis\u00a0or a major upheaval such as a house move. It\u2019s not just our time but our whole preoccupation that\u2019s focussed elsewhere.\u00a0It\u2019s bad enough trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}