Staying Home

Being forced to stay home and cancel social obligations should be a writer’s dream, but I’m actually finding it difficult to write. Uncertainty isn’t the best climate to spark creativity, and when I do try writing, it’s centered around doom and gloom (hence my last blog post) and not my upbeat, normal prose. Dark topics are not where I excel.

I am also off from my normal routine. My commute was my creative writing time. Now it’s hard to distinguish between work and home, but I’m determined to find a work/life balance, even if both now happen at the same location. Each day, I’m finding a new normal and trying to do more creative writing on the weekends, especially now that all of my other social plans are canceled for the foreseeable future.

I’ve been bummed my creative thoughts aren’t flowing with this newfound time, but I took stock of what else I’ve been doing to help me reach my publishing goals:

-Continued my Coursera class on the craft of writing

-Hired and began working with an amazing editor

-Began reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

-Started deep edits on manuscript

After writing that list I realized I’ve been taking the right steps forward to really improve upon my story and my writing in general. Maybe I shouldn’t give myself such a hard time that my creativity to start a new story has waned; I’m just refocusing it elsewhere!

Social distancing has also brought a renewed interest in my other hobbies; many that I can easily do at home. Since the shelter-in-place order was established, I’ve been able to:

-Learn new jams on the piano from my Les Miserables book

-Beat my husband at Ticket to Ride Nordic Countries (maybe all my time on trains worked to my advantage?)

-Got schooled by my husband at the word game Hardback (hey, I thought I was supposed to be the word expert?)

-Baked/cooked new things; yesterday’s success was banana bread made with flaxseed and apple sauce

-Wittled away books on my “to-read” list

-Exercised daily

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Before this pandemic occurred, I was very worn out and unsure how I was going to handle our upcoming busy schedule. Once I got over the sadness of all our canceled trips and events, I began to see the positive side; when else will I ever have the time again to do work on my manuscript, whether through editing or learning how to improve my writing in general. Or in the same vein, what other opportunity would I have to engage in the hobbies that I always say, “I’ll get around to that when I have the chance…”

What have you been able to do staying at home? Learn anything new? Rekindle old hobbies?

At the same time my thoughts are with everyone who isn’t able to stay at home and are instead working tirelessly to help those infected as well as those having to work onsite at life-essential businesses. Thank you for everything you are doing right now!