When You Just Feel Like Writing…(August 2019)

Two days ago on August 19 I saw that my last blog post was July 19.

Okay, time to get writing again!

I hadn’t consciously decided to take a break from the blog–I just did. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of showing up week after week though. I guess it just felt like a pretty good time for a little fallow period.

I’ve been reading things lately about work styles and creativity/productivity rhythms and just how different they can be for different people. Like some people’s work process will look completely disorganized and random to someone else, but it’s how they get things done best.

Meanwhile, someone else’s work process looks way too rigid and controlled to another person, even though for that first person it helps them feel organized and successful.

I write about my own work style on this blog quite a bit–I think, partly to come to understand it myself and partly to connect with other people who are similar.

Going back to my fallow period I mentioned earlier, I find it really helpful to aim for one blog post a week on this blog. It keeps me moving forward. But that’s just the thing too–it’s just a target to try and hit. I know that I’m not actually going to hit it. So when I miss a week here or there, or take a month off it’s okay. Because those breaks feel necessary to me too.

I will return to writing my novel next month–a YA fantasy thriller–after taking a couple months off to work on other things. This was actually a planned break, but more and more I find myself taking long breaks while writing novels rather than going straight through.

I used to never do that. Uncover, The Test and North were all written straight through, with North being written in a November to February period (I started it during NaNoWriMo). But both Lakeside and Bored to Death were written with substantial breaks in the writing, sometimes multiple. Maybe that’s just the way it’s going to go from now on. It’s fine. It just stretches things out longer.

However I actually have a plan for the novel I’m currently writing, and a projected publication date of sometime in June 2020. I left plenty of space in the schedule, but I’ve never really planned out the writing and publishing of a novel. Generally, it was done when it was done. So I’ll see how this goes. It’s just something to experiment with.

By the way, any of you INFPs and INFJs out there, check out The INF Club–“Riffs, reflections & inspiration for INFPs & INFJs.”

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Amanda Linehan is the author of North, about a young woman on the run from her past, the law and an old adversary out to get her. Her newest release is Bored To Death: A Vampire Thriller, about a 300-year-old vampire trying to restore the balance between life and death. She has published five novels. Get a free short story every month when you sign up for her newsletter.