The shore detox must have worked, because my brain has been very cooperative on the writing front this week, though it didn't look like it was going to be that way at first. I sat down to work on some short story revisions Monday and was overwhelmed with this horrible "I don't know what to do with this story! Why can't it work as is?" moment of writerly depression. So I finally stopped beating my head against it, pulled up another story to work on, and that one made for some nice smooth sailing, turning me into Happy Writer.
And once I got that one off into submission land on Wednesday, I returned to the story that almost made me cry earlier in the week and wondered what the hell my problem had been. I suddenly knew what I wanted to do with it, and more smooth sailing ensued. I think I was just being Moody Writer on Monday. I much prefer Happy Writer. She's phenomenally more productive, gets along well with both her muse and her internal editor, and she doesn't eat too much ice cream to make herself feel better.
Friday, August 15, 2008
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4 comments:
Ah, but if you didn't have Moody Writer, you'd have to pay Happy Writer overtime and she'd never get to take vacations.
Wait, I'm supposed to be paying Happy Writer? No wonder she doesn't show up more often.
I agree with your assessment. I find that mood management is the toughest part of writing.
I have been a much happier and more productive writer since I started to pay close attention to my feelings.
I found that just noticing that I was in a bad mood made me realize why things were so hard, and I'd usually get into a better mood. I wouldn't describe it as Happy Writer, though. Just a bit less Moody.
I'm glad things are working out regarding submissions.
A Bit Less Moody Writer is at least better than Full-Fledged Moody Writer. Who knows, a touch of angst might even help with the story's drama.
But yeah, "mood management" is a good term for it. When I get stuck, I used to always assume the problem was with the story, but now I've been noticing that it sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with the story and is just me being grumpy about other stuff.
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