Friday, April 02, 2021

And this too shall pass

I went on an Easter Egg Hunt today. Seriously I had to drive all over the place trying to find Easter eggs for my grandchildren.

They'll be happy though as the only ones I could find were big ones: they normally get the smallest Cadbury's Buttons egg.

After that I relaxed in the garden for a while before doing some planting. Inspired by my carrot success last year I intend to plant more this year and in the meantime I've planted some pinks and sweet peas - both ready-grown, at least a bit, in a garden store. We tend not to have a lot of success with sweet peas but maybe my newly-discovered magic touch may work wonders.

* * * * * * *

I have lost my writing mojo/enthusiasm, call it what you will.

More than that I've lost confidence in stuff I've already written and feel unable to write anything new. And when I lose confidence in my writing I lose confidence in me.

Fortuitously, while deleting emails from my Junk folder - one of those jobs you can sit blankly in front of a computer to do - I came across an 'It's okay to struggle' email from David Gaughran, whose marketing course I did last year. In the email he was saying how circumstances have combined over the last year to cause problems for most creatives in one way or another, and that we shouldn't despair.

A sort of 'This too will pass'* thing.

I just hope it hurries up.



* Apparently in a speech he gave in 1859 Abraham Lincoln told this story, “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away.” 

5 comments:

PipeTobacco said...

I am sad that you feel a loss of confidence! Maybe an idea is to get an idea that is different from your previous novels.... maybe explore a different genre.... be it suspense, or sci-fi, or Western, or romance..... something out of your comfort zone.... something you NEVER would imagine writing..... and then just write with no particular expectations..... BUT..... spin the story in the vein of your other works and characters you like? You could view it as a means to get your confidence back, get your mojo and enthusiasm back..... and perhaps you would be surprised that it may be just what you need.... and turn out to be something you do really want to write?

Just a thought.

PipeTobacco

PipeTobacco said...

It could... in effect be a “fusion” novel..... combining the most valuable components on what you do write with another genre that forces you to think about the writing differently.

PipeTobacco

Marie Smith said...

Let’s hope we forget what passes, or at least not dwell on it.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Maybe you just need to rest and "refill the well" by doing other things and then your writing mojo will return?

Ole phat stu said...

Photos of OUR easter eggs in my blog today.