Something I almost never do

I’ve mentioned this before, but stress seems to induce a form of writer’s block in me. It’s not that I don’t know where my stories are going—I do. I’m a plotter by nature and everything is pretty well decided before I ever begin writing.

The trouble is, stress saps my desire to write. And it was pretty bad the last couple of days before my surgery. And afterward? Well, I was understandably exhausted, often uncomfortable, and was having a tough time focusing. I’d open my current project, stare at the half-written last page, and…nothing. It seems my main character decided to go on hiatus and I couldn’t find his voice again.

So I did something I almost never do.

I started a new project. Without finishing the current one first.

Granted, it’s a short story, but it was the spark I needed to get back into writing. And it’s part of a larger project I’m collaborating with a few others on, which is exciting. (It also incorporates some of the characters from Wraith and the Revolution, and going back to Kye’s mindset is always a ton of fun.)

But to be writing again after almost a week of stagnation was a relief. Those reading this who aren’t writers themselves may not understand, but putting words on a page is the only way I have of quieting my brain some days. My mind can be a very noisy place if I don’t have an outlet.

Anyway, back to the short story and the other revelations it brought me.

This is one of the few times I was given a prompt/theme and told to run with it—and I actually came up with an idea relatively quickly. I haven’t done much prompt-based writing since I was in school, so I wasn’t entirely sure how it would go when I signed on to this project. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about and the idea arrived within a few minutes.

Having the liberty to use characters I’ve already developed on a world I’ve already fleshed out helped immensely too. By the second day, I had 11 pages written, and the story was flowing pretty well.

As I said, I rarely break away from a writing project to work on something else, but I think in this case, it was a good thing. I needed that shift to get back into writing after almost a week away. As I continue along my road to recovery, reading and writing are two things I can do without violating the doctor’s orders, so that’s what I’ll continue to do.