I’ve recently come face to face with one of the major challenges writers face: overwhelming stress killing the desire to write. I’ve been going through something in my life which has ratcheted up my stress levels quite a bit. It’s messed with my sleep a little even, these last few days. It’s also messed with my writing.
I’m in the middle of the second draft of my first novel. Despite some bumps and big revisions, I was making excellent progress. I’d just about reached the midpoint, a chapter I need to do some real revisions in. I had to set it aside for a few days, of necessity, and…I just haven’t picked it back up. I wanted to, but with all this stress lately, I just haven’t mustered enough motivation to do so. I’ve only managed to squeeze out some short poetry in the past three weeks plus.
Monday is a major end point, I hope, in my current stressful life-altering situation. I should be able to pick up and continue with the second draft shortly thereafter. That shouldn’t be an issue. The real issue is that I can’t let stress stop me from working on my major writing problems. I need to find a way to push through, to sit down behind the keyboard and bang out words on my current yarn. Hopefully I won’t have to face any situations this stressful for a long time, but when I do, I will do better trying to push through it.
Hopefully my ramblings on stress and writing help others who are facing similar challenges.