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Writing with Lemons
Getting back to writing after a big life event leaves you creatively dry.
Did life give you a lemon? By that I mean, did life throw a big event at you that forever changed your life? It gave me not one, not two, but three honking big ones last year. According to my therapist, and an article in University Hospitals, the five biggest stresses in life are death, divorce, moving, health issues, and financial change. I dealt with three out of the five. Yes, all in the same year.
Life gave me lemons, all right. But that old saying about making lemonade just wasn’t very realistic for me. Why? Because that kind of stress does things to a person. Research on stress and creative productivity shows that stress can have a negative impact on creative thinking, which is crucial for writing, especially for us fiction writers. When you’re in a heightened state of stress, everything gets relocated to just getting through your day and surviving.
Some find strength and comfort through writing in trying times. It can be an excellent outlet and a way to escape the harsh reality of whatever bitter (sour?) pill you need to swallow. But I’ve never been one of those (if you are, please share your secrets). My creativity, especially writing, wasn’t just suffering; it was non-existent.
It took a long time — almost a year — for me to even think about writing again. Today, it’s a slow and steep incline to getting back to where I once was, and I’ve learned a few things about getting back into the swings of things.
Be kind to yourself, go slowly
After a major life event, time suddenly moves differently. Things that used to take me no time at all suddenly took forever to do. Simple things like getting dressed and showering seem like an insurmountable tasks some days. An article like this used to take me less than a day to write, from concept to completion. Today, it takes me 2 weeks. How am I supposed to write an entire novel if I can barely make it through an article?
Slowly, that’s how. If you just keep writing one word at a time, it will eventually turn into the thing you want to write. It might not be as fast as you used to write, but that’s okay; that’s not the person you are anymore. Don’t beat…
