Conflicting Demands
Believe it or not, most of my inspiration comes when I’m not doing anything writing-related. Since I’ve gotten into writing, my mind wanders when doing the most mundane tasks. Cooking dinner; what would it be like to do this in the galley of a spaceship? What kind of stuff would Samix or Axis be eating? Driving to the gym, it would be pretty cool if the open sky above me was full of ships coming and going. I seem to get the best ideas when I’m not looking for them.
That being said, Friday was not one of those days when I could let my mind wander. It wasn’t even a bad day, just not one where I was focused on my writing. Starting like any other, the wife and I got up and enjoyed a cup of coffee together before sending the older two kids off to school. When she heads out to her new job, I’m usually left to work on writing, social media, or marketing the first few books I have released. However, I took Scarlett to get her first round of shots at two months.
Now, I’m not one for putting work before family, ever. Sabrina told me that Scarlett might be fussy for the day after the pediatrician, and before we even left, I told myself that today would be a dad day. I was going to spend some time doing things around the house while she was at work, but I was going to spend the day with Scarlett, just trying to make her feel better.
Fast forward, and the shots go relatively well. It still really sucked for me, watching my baby girl screaming and crying because her legs hurt and she wasn’t sure what was going on, but we both made it through with only the minimum of tears shed (most from her). We get home, and I check for signs that she’s having an adverse reaction to the shots, redness, fever, or rash. She is looking good. I make her a bottle, which she finishes and promptly drops off to sleep.
Taking the shots like a champ, there’s no fussiness; all she wants to do is sleep them off, leaving me with time to get some work done. I grab my computer and sit down to write this, but nothing is coming to me. I’m not worried about her, obsessing about the shots and how she’s feeling, but it was like the creativity switch was turned off. Figuring it was just the blog entry that was giving me trouble, I switched over and tried to continue with Ruck’s story. He got his first exploration contract and was loading the supplies he would need for the trip the last time I checked in on him. Still, nothing was coming to me.
So here I sit, Sunday morning with looney toons on TV, with my mind finally in the right place to start putting words to page. It took almost 48 hours for that creativity switch to come back on. Friday, Sabrina got home from work and did everything she could to give me time to write after telling her how much trouble I was having after Scarlett’s appointment. We ran errands together on Saturday, and my mom and niece visited. When they were gone, Sabrina, always supportive, reminded me of this post and cuddled up with Scarlett so I could write it. But I still couldn’t put words to page.
I wasn’t sure if the writer’s block was just the start of a bigger session or if I wasn’t sure about writing this blog. I like to hammer out fiction, and for those who follow me, you can see how well I kept up with the old blog. When I told the wife how I was struggling with the post, she said, “It will come to you when it’s meant to.”
It’s funny when she faces challenges, I’m the one there telling her not to stress out, reminding her that “She’s got this,” or “we’ve got this,” but when it comes to writing, I’m the one who can’t relax and roll with the punches. She regularly has to pull me out of my own head, so I can get a perspective on what I’m dealing with. So, here I sit, two days late on my daily post for a brand-new blog. Although I love writing, sometimes life has its way of pushing work to the back burner. Hopefully, the delay hasn’t driven anyone away from reading.
If anyone has a method that works for getting their head back into writing, let me know in the comments.
ZD
