This month, I have learned a valuable lesson: never decide to drop everything to punch out chapters in assembly line fashion! Why? For one, cutting off from everyone around you means major withdrawal worse than a nicotine addiction and leads to a major depression. And secondly, it doesn’t work. You can’t force out decent writing on a set eight-hour schedule. Research ebbs and flows, just as the writing does.
I have managed to put a large dent in my work load, but it’s been funny how phone calls out of the blue have been such a major relief. I’d fail miserably at being a hermit; I need human interaction. I write better when my world is a bit busier with the regular chaos of juggling schedules and being pestered by people who I want to talk to… and even the ones I don’t want to talk to!
So, it looks like I’m back to normal, for the most part. I’ll be picking up the blog again (mainly because I need something to laugh at after reading so much about dead people suffering from acute melancholia) and opening up my free time to include anything else that comes my way. If I could pound out a dozen chapters while blogging and socializing this past summer, I sure as heck can manage in the depths of depressing winter. Even more so, since the gray, frigid gloom of Ohio is beyond taxing on my mental health.
Come fall, published book or no, I’m taking a vacation. Mark my words…
So, tomorrow I’ll be digging back through my news bookmarks, looking up some weird, stupid moments in humanity, nitpicking at ghosts and those who investigate them, and doing my best to find fun and humor everywhere. Why? Because we’re strange creatures who take ourselves far too seriously…
… and someone needs to remind us about it.
