Okay, it’s been a while, but this has been a weird year with a lot of topsy-turvy to it. However, despite all the stress in the world, there’s still room for writing.
Actually, it’s the writing keeps me sane. It’s after work, and dinner and a little exercise and I can retreat to the keyboard for a little distance and escape. I get that too with reading and my latest favorite: podcasts, but writing takes me away to other worlds. Not always happy worlds, and often with monsters and spirits, but other worlds nevertheless, where I can turn the imagination loose.
I am working–I was in the thankful position of being able to work from home. My thoughts go out to everyone who lost jobs or have had to scrape and scramble to survive this pandemic financially–I try to help out wherever and whenever I can by supporting my local businesses, because I know there others who are not as lucky as I am right now.
I’m also working from home, and as a writer, I initially tried to figure the best way to sit at a keyboard for 8 hours a day, and not be completely sick of sitting at a keyboard for more hours to write. Fortunately, early on, I set up to work in a space other than my writing room, and it seems to work. I get up after my job, walk away for a couple of hours, and then go to my writing space and have found the creativity still flowing.
If you have to work from home, definitely try, if you can, to create a space for work separate from your writing space. It may all be psychological, but it works. At least for me.
I don’t know if it’s the stress of all of this, but the need for an hour or two of escape has been a salvation of sorts–necessary time away from the chaos. I’ve knocked out a couple of new short stories, and have been sending out my latest batch of horror to any theme which sounds appropriate. I’ve also been sculpting away on two novels, and just bounce back and forth from one to the other depending on my mood.
It helps one is dark, and the other is a little more mundane (I only say that because I don’t think I’ve ever written a story which didn’t have some speculative, sci-fi, fantasy, horror or magical element to it.).
Alright, I’m just babbling at this point, but for everyone out there: stay safe, be true to yourself, keep writing. Never give up.
Craig