Summer Blues
Boy oh boy! Seasonal tasks and family obligations can really take over your life, or at least your writing life.
Living in Los Angeles and Florida I never had much trouble staying on track throughout the year, regardless of the seasons, but here in New York the summer season just takes over your life! Everyone seems to stop their regular routine to enjoy the sun and go on vacation. I found myself constantly interrupted with family obligations, new chores and outings.
In the warmer states this was never a problem. You could enjoy the outdoors year round so the summer season was really no big deal. Though I thought the year round sunny weather was keeping me from being a more productive writer.
I always admired writers in NY for the wonderful long winter months when they could hibernate and get a manuscript written, but not so much anymore :-) It all evens out when the spring/summer months come around and you can't get anything done.
It seems every place has its' ups and downs and there really is no 'perfect' writing state.
Anyone else experience this?
Living in Los Angeles and Florida I never had much trouble staying on track throughout the year, regardless of the seasons, but here in New York the summer season just takes over your life! Everyone seems to stop their regular routine to enjoy the sun and go on vacation. I found myself constantly interrupted with family obligations, new chores and outings.
In the warmer states this was never a problem. You could enjoy the outdoors year round so the summer season was really no big deal. Though I thought the year round sunny weather was keeping me from being a more productive writer.
I always admired writers in NY for the wonderful long winter months when they could hibernate and get a manuscript written, but not so much anymore :-) It all evens out when the spring/summer months come around and you can't get anything done.
It seems every place has its' ups and downs and there really is no 'perfect' writing state.
Anyone else experience this?
posted by Victoria at 9:58 AM
5 Comments:
I know exactly what you mean. My partner and I have spent the summer camping and going to festivals. The camping bit is great - he went off for long hikes, and I sat in the splendour of the Lake District/Skye or North Wales writing away. But music festivals are a different matter, with things going on all day (and all night :-) ).
Having said that, I've sat in beautiful countryside...for hours on end, with no distractions and not written a thing...and other times sat in the grubbiest cafe, in a boring town and written for hours.
I find myself constantly torn between wanting to make sure I give time to other people/look after my health (e.g. go to the gym) and the strong compulsion to just withdraw from the world and write.
I fantasise that IF ONLY I could give up working full time, I could do all of those things and spend hours writing and studying the craft. I do wonder though, if I had all of that time, would I still fill it with 'important things to do'.
One thing that does help me is my 10 minute rule. Practically every day I spend 10 minutes writing, sometimes on a current piece of work, or sometimes just on a stand alone piece. Occasionally that isolated 10 minutes turns out more productive than the times when I take a day out and write. If I haven't managed to actually do 10 minutes of writing, then I'll try and read something about the craft for 10 minutes. It kind of works :-) most of the time... but I still have more to do, than I have time for.
I lived in California for fifteen years, and have recently relocated to Massachusetts. The weather here was a shock at first. Nice days were assumed in Cali, but here they are more a novelty. I think the bad weather is a necessary contrast to the sunny days. I never did a cartwheel in my back yard because the sun was out before I got here.
I think I announced when I got accepted, but I am finally published on an ezine. The link is here if you'd like to give it a read. It's my first credit. Now I just hope I can do it again...
Having spent my childhood in Wisconsin, I attribute the long winter months to the development of my imagination. I don't have any kids, yet, but it seems like nowadays they are constantly scheduled - and don't have much time to just imagine and pretend. Even on car trips, instead of looking out at the scenery and dreaming, they've got personal dvd screens in their faces!
Living in California now, the demarkation of the seasons is still very important to me. My friends enjoy my holiday decorations - not just for Christmas, but my spring wreaths, Fourth of July nic nacs etc. Now that it is September, I'm very excited to put up my fall leaf garland that I ordered online a few months ago! For some reason, it is really important to me to acknowledge the passing of time - especially being in a warmer climate where the seasons are less noticeable and you can fall into kind of a time warp!
It is easy for one year to fall into the next, easy to get distracted, easy to postpone deadlines. I have often joked that I would probably get a lot of writing done if I was in jail! There is something to be said for limiting the amount of outside stimuli so the the inside stumuli has time to bubble up. Then again, if there were no outside inspirations, we wouldn't have much to write about. The challenge and the joy of a writing life is finding a balance between living life and taking the time to write about it.
Summer means children off school and all plans go out the window.
Today was the first day they were both back - small monster at nursery, slightly bigger monster at school ;-)- and I had a two hour window to write.
It was the first time in a while that I've managed to write a 1000 words in an hour. *grin*
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