So, this Monday is a public holiday here. The King’s birthday (only it isn’t actually) – a holiday which has been the Queen’s Birthday for many years, only it wasn’t. It’s always been a good day for sf Cons in NZ and Australia (in fact my reason for coming to both, as they had the long weekend one week apart in each and I could do two consecutive cons with minimal travel cost. I have only been to two cons both countries – and to be honest, preferred the NZ cons. Smaller, perhaps, is better for me although I met a few very nice folk at both. Anyway, I have rather lost connection with the sf/fantasy scene Down Under. It seems to have gone full potato – our large cities seem to be quite slavish about following US Urban East Coast trends, and then loudly saying how they despise America – oh wait… that’s also US Urban East Coast fashion, right? That means I am persona non grata. Well, so be it. That wasn’t what I wanted to write about.
No, what I wanted to write about was that like a monarchy, where the death of one monarch means the immediate take-over of the next, writing the last word means… well, the novel is dead, long live the novel or… you fell off the horse, get right back on. If not… getting back on is going to be a struggle, in which you may not succeed. I’ve seen it in too many writers – finish the book, and then focus on trying to sell it (or self-publish it) and then get so bogged down in the difficulty of that, and waiting for that to be a success… that the next book does not start. That’s right up there with the sea of half-written novels on now dead hard-drives and in second desk-drawers. I know plenty of successful novelists with half-written books – but most of them seem to fall off a project and straight into a different one. Sometimes they come back to the old one.
The key seems to be that the longer the break, the less likely the writer will get onto writing again. It’s a bit like the pleasure of hitting yourself in the face – it is so nice when you stop that you probably don’t want to start again.
The last few years have been a nightmare fight with bureaucrats, a struggle that could yet see us homeless – in a situation where rentals are few and largely beyond our means. The last couple months have been so stressful that writing anything has been very difficult – my mind keeps turning back to the situation – which, frankly, I have done pretty much everything I can do about. Well, we arrive at a point where either things improve, or they get very much worse, come Friday. By my interpretation we should see improvement, but I have been through this nightmare so often now, I expect the next bit of nastiness to drop. But… either way, I have fallen off the horse. I don’t think I have stopped writing or thinking about the books I am trying to write, for more than 25 years. It has been increasingly difficult with the stress, and finally when I got offered a fairly well-paying ‘part-time’ job, I took it.
Only I proved reasonably good at it, or maybe in a market of scarcity, better than expected, and 5 hours three days a week has rapidly become full days 5 days a week and weekends and public holidays if I want them. I’ve appreciated the work, the pay, learned a lot, and… worked incredibly hard and had to learn huge amounts to the point of coming home physically and mentally exhausted. Writing… well, for the first time in many years, I got nothin’
It would be quite easy to walk away at this stage. Say I’ll maybe get back to it later. But I know that if I do, well, I will always find reasons not to. I may of course fight my way back to it later after all – I’m a very obstinate man. I do know, however, that the longer I take, the harder it will be. So, if I am not fighting for a roof over our heads come the weekend, I’m getting back on that horse.
I think I have a few more novels to write – as well as the story of the last few years. So, I hope Friday leads me back there. Any tips, thoughts, etc. gratefully accepted.
Mad Genius Club 
27 responses to “The King is dead, Long live the King”
Lunchtime. I did a fair amount then
I will also pedantically note that under some laws, the new king was not king until the coronation. The time inbetween was the interregnum.
Applicability is left as an exercise for the reader.
Your own private Kafka hell brought on by a nasty bureaucrat…
Well, prayers. That’s all I’ve got.
Yes. Entirely avoidable hell, of no benefit to anyone. A lose : lose.
Unfortunately, I have no tips, other than perhaps do it to spite them. Fell off the writing wagon myself and getting back on has proven difficult. For me that’s down to anti-depressants which I take to counter the side-effects of my rheumatoid arthritis medication.
Antidepressants don’t actually make you happy. It’s more like all emotions are stifled. Helps to prevent despair from leading to suicide, which is a good thing, but not a perfect answer.
You’ll either feel the need to go back to writing…or you won’t. That’s your business, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to guilt someone who has been under prolonged stress and is now digging out of a hole into going back.
Whatever tomorrow brings, I hope it’s good things for you and yours.
I’m answering as a reply to clairk not because I feel the need to reply to him, but because I can only answer from the back panel or deranged WordPress logs me out. And from the back panel I have to reply to a comment. (Sorry Clairk.)
I’ve been there, and I know Kate has been. In my case, it wasn’t a dream job, but losing myself in the move and then failing to get up the go to do something. In Kate’s case, it was what she calls hibernation.
Kate and I are both coming out of it, little by little. Kate is writing, but it’s still an effort. I’m writing and it’s finally started to feel joyous again.
I think you get so HURT you need a break.
My guess is it comes back. At first slowly, then with gusto. But maybe not as fast as we’d wish.
HUGS.
When my mother died, I dragged myself to work every day and … functioned … somehow. I would drag myself home at night and just sit in my chair staring at the wall. This went on for six weeks, until my hubby said “snap out of it!”
Which was actually what I needed to hear.
That was the first time I ever lost the “music”, the “voices in my head”. I felt so utterly, totally blank that I couldn’t imagine imagining anything.
In my case it was being fired by two companies I trusted the same week, a coincidence that passes all understanding, and almost certainly because of my positions.
I was already extremely burned out and I almost walked.
Took me years to snap out of it, because it was related to the work. Grief? I don’t know. Parents still living.
Dan broke, in a way, when his brother died, and hasn’t written another novel since.
And I’m sorry. I guess I assumed you were male. I don’t even know why…
I’ve been misgendered all my life because I use a nonstandard spelling in my name. It’s not an issue.
(I tell people my parents were poor and couldn’t address to buy a vowel.)
LOL
When I was both working & writing, I found that getting up early by 1-2 hours was the only thing that worked for me. Once that became a habit, I enjoyed the early morning only-one-awake and brain-can-concentrate aspect of the process. Then I could commute to work with a sense of progress.
One does get used to it… though I’m happy to be retired from a day job now.
No suggestions. I’m fortunate that I often know advance when I won’t have the physical or mental energy to write. You are on my prayer list, and I hope that there is only a tiny crumb of nastiness and major improvements otherwise.
I hear you. In July 2021 I was offered a dream job, working as an engineer on the Lunar Gateway project. It was definitely something ere the end, some work of noble note, may yet be done. I took the job cancelling my plan to quit the day jobs in January 2022 and spend full time writing. But boy, talk about cutting into the writing time.
I managed to meet all the deadline for the book contracts I signed prior to taking the job (which literally swooped in from nowhere, completely unexpectedly). I think the quality suffered, though. I agreed to do a lot fewer books in 2023 (which I am working my way through), but cut back on business development – books for 2024. Normally I send out book proposals about 18 months in advance of writing a book, but realized I had done almost none of that in 2022. Plus I am being asked about my interest in doing books for the Anatomy of the Ship series, which is major league and requires a significant time commitment – which I don’t think I can do with the day job.
On top of that I am now in my late sixties and have a list of “books I want to write before I die.” Although all my grandparents lasted into their late eighties and my parents were in good health until they died in their nineties, I definitely have fewer years ahead than behind. And the years ahead are getting fewer.
I don’t even have the excuse of needing the day job. I can live to 100 comfortably on what I have saved up. But the job – and writing – are both too fun to give up. I feel like the ass between two piles of hay. (All the while wondering if the fates are going to jerk both piles away.
I’ve been a writer with day job for almost twenty years, so here’s my two cents:
Immediate:
-New day job (for the first year or so) is always bad for writing. The brain and the emotions are just otherwise occupied. Do what you can in terms of writing, but don’t expect to complete stuff unless it was like mere paragraphs away from the finish line when you started the new day job.
Longterm:
-writing is what gets done between other stuff. Don’t neglect friends, family or other hobbies.
-folding clean laundry can be put off almost indefinitely to make time for writing.
-If you have a longish commute, recording voice memos on your phone and feeding the files into an AI transcription service when you get home can help you get words that you wouldn’t otherwise. Cleanup may be necessary afterwards, but it’s better than nothing.
-figuring out what you’re going to write before you sit down to write can be even more important.
-I’ve had some luck with tracking productivity in spreadsheets; this year I’m using a standard calendar template and just filling it with what I did yesterday. Doesn’t matter whether it’s publishing, marketing, brainstorming, fanfic, editing, first-drafting, or the dreaded “no writing done” it goes on the calendar.
Frankly Dave, I think you’re doing pretty damn good to still be putting one foot in front of the other. Given what you’ve been putting up with the last three years? Pretty good.
Maybe concentrate on what you can do, and blow off what you can’t? That’s about the only old-man tip I’ve got. Worrying about all that crap you can’t get to won’t get it done, is what I’ve noticed over the years. All you get from that is worried, and older. I’m an expert at it. ~:D
Writing wise I’m in roughly the same spot, story is kinda stuck right now. It’s toward the end, all the big problems are solved, all I have left is the final comeuppance of the Bad Guys and then a party at the end. I’m not concerned about the lack of progress. It’ll be written when it is, and not before.
Given we’re talking about you, I’m sure a story will come sneaking out presently. It’ll be stronger and better, having been given time to sit in the furnace and soak. Just eat your Wheaties and keep the fire banked up, it’ll be along soon enough.
That’s my plan, anyway. Not much of a plan maybe, but mine own.
I have found prioritizing helps. (Hear me out, I know that sounds obvious.)
Finances. I am going to guess that is pretty near the top of the list. Sounds like things are going well at the job – focus on that. When you know more about the future, and I believe you said you expected to hear by the end of this week, readjust. If things stabilize, pick the time of day you are most creative and start to add writing back in to that time. And most importantly, give yourself a break. It isn’t possible to do everything.
Best of luck, prayers, and know that we are pulling for you.
I was afraid this was going to be about Burt.
Hope it goes well for you.
Bert and I went for a walk on Sunday on a wild evening in the sunset. It’s winter. Bert had a swim. Carpe diem is Bert’s mantra
At a minimum, please keep blogging? We want to hear from you and the exercise will do your writing muscles good I should hope.
This, if possible. I’m skeptical about whether nonfiction does the fiction writing muscles any good, but your RL adventures are always worth reading about. Some of us just don’t have anything intelligent to say about them.
Praying for a good resolution on the House.
Writing? It can pause, frequently does. A new job takes attention, as you learn what you’re doing, how the other people work together, how the company operates . . . Once you’ve got that all down, the words will come back.
In the mean time, jot down ideas, think about how your new job, and the bureaucratic troubles, would fit into a story. Even if the story hasn’t reaching the writing stage, it’s still an important part of the whole process.
Best of luck to you skinning the…Storming the Castle??? Slaying the Dragon??? Whatever the proper saying is.
Good luck to you.
My only suggestion is spite… 🙂 You won’t let them win, regardless of what happens. You’re an excellent writer and you will be back in spite of them. Prayers, as always.
As an old somebody who has no real life and only writes fanfiction (with slow migration toward writing for loose change in the couch cushions), I’m not sure how good this advice is, but free advice, worth every penny.
If you’re pooped after work and can’t write, try going to bed then, getting up early, and allocating a writing hour or two in your schedule in the AM. Admittedly, this wouldn’t work for me because I’m a morning zombie, and I *do* write after coming home to unwind. (and unfortunately play Raft and Oxygen Not Included, and etc…)