You know how muscles atrophy when you don’t use them? The seize up and they stop working properly. When left for too long they can actually wither away, causing adjacent damage.
That’s how I feel right now about my writing. I took on some big challenges at work at the beginning of this year and that left me with less time than ever to write outside of the office. As a result, my creative writing muscles have weakened. They’re stiff, and even the ‘idea generator’ in my mind is turning over at lower than optimal speed.
My writing on this blog suffered as a result and other writing projects I had hoped to start this year have remained on hold. It’s a bit disappointing, realizing that the end of year is upon me and little progress has been made, but I know I will get back to them at some point. It’s just that “at some point” seems a long way away right now, as 2019 is shaping up to be no less busy on the work front.
I haven’t helped myself any, either. As I reflect on the year, I realize I’ve filled all the time around me with sound. Between social media, talk radio, and the all-to-easy Netflix binging, I haven’t allowed myself time to be alone with my thoughts. I can’t fix the first problem easily, but the second is in my control. The only question is how?
I’m not one of those super-people who can rise at 4 am to exercise — neither my biceps nor my creativity. I need my sleep! So I’m going to have to be a bit more inventive — and probably more importantly, more disciplined — to carve out that time. The good news is that now, a full year-and-a-half in my new house, the first year projects are done and settled; there are few ambitious plans to rob me of this time.
In the interim, I’ve been keeping my green (red is so threatening!) editing pen in shape by helping a friend with some PhD work, and I think there’s another book editing project or two coming my way soon.
These are all great opportunities to stretch myself outside of my day job, but they don’t grease up the creative writing muscles in quite the same way.
So what does 2019 have in hold for me? Alone time, I guess. More walking (no earbuds!), more meditating and more just being in the moment and letting my thoughts wander, Where will they take me? Only time will tell!
