In
my last blog post, I mentioned I’d had surgery. I’m now in the midst of
recovering. The doctor had warned me the recovery would take six weeks. I
nodded my head. After the surgery, I discovered he was really serious. (Yeah,
go figure. Maybe some hubris in my thinking beforehand.)
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I
spend a lot of my day, laying on the couch. Doing nothing. Or rather, healing.
And for the first two weeks, the hours drifted by. Ah, it’s three o’clock. I
thought it was just one.
But
now, though the flesh is weak, my spirit wants to do something. I decided to
work on my new novel. And discovered exhaustion sucks creativity completely
dry.
Thankfully,
a few months ago, a friend (thank you, Joanne Wasdin) had recommended a
podcast. And I’d listened to several episodes even before the surgery—I’d
stream them from my phone while I worked in the yard.
The
podcast is called Writing Excuses. Their “logline” is “fifteen minutes long, because
you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.” J (Brandon Sanderson
of Mistborn fame is one of the
contributors.) Even though I don’t write fantasy/sci fi (I’ve been writing
Southern noir), their discussions have been profoundly inspiring. Because
fiction writing is fiction writing whether you’re describing an alien world or
the buzz of cicadas in late summer.
After
listening to the podcasts, I found some of my mojo. Granted, writing is still
hard—but when has it ever been easy? And I’m 12,000 words into a new novel,
which is much better than watching reruns of Downton Abbey or watching the clock tick the seconds.
