Thursday, September 13, 2012

Chaos

Chaos in a romance novel has its place. Often our characters' worlds are discombobulated and thrown out of wack right up until that happily ever after. Then they, and us authors and readers, can breathe a sigh of relief.

Chaos in real life is a little less entralling. I'm feeling a bit chaotic these days.

For example:

Here's what my desk looks like...


...and this is what my closet looks like...


...and this is what my garden looks like...


Yep. Inside and outside various places in my house are a mess. I'd like to blame going back to school, but to be honest, things looked like this all summer and I was too busy relaxing to do much of anything about it. I can't really lay the blame on being stressed out at school, because so far, my new class is great.

Nope. It's all due to my lack of motivation. Which is carrying over into my writing life. Since July 30 I've written a grand total of four pages. Yep. Four...as in one, two, three, four. I guess to be fair to myself I did spend some time since then doing blurb writing, cover information, edits, and galley approval on An Unexpected Blessing , but I haven't generated anything new in quite a while.

I don't know what it is. I'm just not in the mood. To write. Or to organize.

Hopefully something will come along and kick me in the tush soon...because walking into my closet is becoming increasingly like wandering through an obstacle course. It's only a matter of time before I twist an ankle or a knee. And perhaps if my desk was neater, I'd feel more like sitting down at it and banging out some progress on my WIP.

Only time will tell.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com





8 comments:

  1. Okay, first of all, your closet looks like shoe heaven! And you could use the chaos and lack of motivation as inspiration for a character. Maybe one who is like you are currently and one who is a neat freak and obsessively motivated? Then see what happens. On the other hand, you could just give yourself time. Eventually, you'll get back to your typical self (or at least find the desk under the paper;))

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  2. I feel everything has a season. I'd say be kind to yourself. You needed to rest. Things are brewing inside you, and when the time is right, you'll hit the keyboard with gusto. (Save closet cleaning for later. The inspiration for that will come in its own time, too.)

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  3. Jen and Ana,

    Ah...thanks for the permission to be a slacker these days. It will all come in time, this I know.

    And, yes, one day again, I'll see the top of my desk and the gusto will spring forth from my eager fingers on the keys.

    Such is a writer's life.

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  4. My desk looks just the same as yours, my spare bedroom is where everything else gets dumped, and I have a beautiful garden full of weeds! So you're not alone, Debra! And maybe I'd be better attacking all the chaos instead of writing the crap I seem to be producing at the moment!

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  5. Paula,

    At least you're writing something...crap or not. I'm not getting anything done these days.

    Onward....

    BTW, my mom read your post the other day about the different words/spelling between the U.S. and Britain and she was amazed!

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  6. Not sure whether writing crap is better or worse than writing nothing!

    Why was your mom amazed, Debra? By all the differences? Or by the fact that Brit writers get their words and spelling changed (sometimes) by American editors??

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  7. I was feeling a lot like that too, Debra, until we kicked into autumn here in Scotland (my favourite time) and I started getting all the clothes organsied first. That seemed to lead on organising the writing chaos - although that's still ongoing! Good luck with getting back on track.

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