Stretching Your Legs and Getting Creative

The worst thing about being a lazy and creative person is realizing how much doing different activities fuels writing. As much as I would love to just lounge around and write all day there is an energy from going out into the world and being active that makes my writing flow easier. When I go for walks my mind wanders, and more often than not it wanders to my writing. That quiet time away from people is one factor, but I’ve realized using my body in an environment that is constantly changing or is simply not my home adds something. In previous blogs I’ve talked about this, but I want to put this in a different way. Something about moving your body and exposing your mind to new or different activities gets the juices flowing. Monotony breeds apathy, but even worse monotony breeds a lack of ideas. If you do the same unstimulating things in an unstimulating place every single day you’ll probably find yourself at a stumbling block. You’ll probably also find yourself five seconds from pulling your own hair out. As much as I’m a lazy introvert I’ve learned the value of being in the world and not just thinking about it is priceless. So often I like to pretend I can just live a life of the mind, but that quiet contemplation (which comes with a side order of repetition) eventually wears me down.  It’s hard to explain, but it leaves me with a frustrated restlessness and a profoundly unsettling emptiness. It becomes a scream I can’t get out. It disrupts my focus and muddles my creativity.

Sometimes I can work through it from home and sometimes I have to when my anxiety about outside gets high. While reading does contribute a lot to writing and creativity, while going to art museums does the same, while watching shows can do it too, and while talking does boost creative thinking going out and doing activities enhances creativity. Anyone who works out will tell you that after a while doing the same exercises the same way loses the effect on your body. It is still good for you, but the assumption that you can just keep jogging for a year and it will be as effective as it was during the first month isn’t quite accurate. It’s something a lot of people forget when trying to lose weight, and it is why a lot of people quite. Truthfully it is why a lot of people assume anyone over weight or even a bit heavier than average must never work out or be active despite the facts. You have to break your muscles, your system, and your body out of routine because then it adapts. I could lose one hundred pounds(and hopefully I will) but I won’t ever be skinny (And why would I want to?) and chances are my body will find its balance point and I’ll gain back twenty pounds in a few years. Why? Routines let your body tread the same processes and unless your shifts really get your body in gear, for a lot of bodies routine just allows it to do the same thing. The gains decrease. The brain is the exact same way. Doing the same 100 piece puzzle can only help you so much. You can only learn so much about solving any puzzle from doing the same one a thousand times.

The mind of thinking creatures needs exposure to different exciting things, and the most direct way to get that is by going out. The mind also needs the body to move, to use different neuron pathways instead of the same ones over and over. Not only is this good for creativity, but it helps fight mental decay such as dementia. Dancing is the best thing you can do for your brain, so far as I’m concerned. The brain is ultimately a muscle that requires a work out to stay healthy. The best thing about giving your brain a work out by reading something you wouldn’t otherwise read, meeting new people, going new places, going for walks, or trying out a new hobby is that it enriches what you create. It allows you to bring something new to the table and get inspired. We don’t always feel the inspiration, but the fact that we use our brains means we’ve added to the experiences we can pull from and allowed our brain to flex in a different way.

So the next time you get a brain fart that blocks creativity try switching up your routine. Try doing something a bit different and you may just be surprised!

Ugh! Anxiety and Deadlines.

How do you react when you don’t finish a project when you plan? When your doing something that is entirely self-driven schedules help hold you accountable, but sometimes for one reason or another you just don’t meet them. Then you wake up one day and realize “Oh…I was supposed to be done by today.” It’s not a fun feeling, and for me it provokes some anxiety.

So I’m finishing Come at Night, which is the first book of The Marquess series that I was supposed to finish months ago. Why has it taken so long? The story was thicker, better, and more interesting than I initially planned. It went from an erotic short story to a sprawling tale of politics, gender, and redemption. And ,as much as I love the dirty business, I love those things just as much when they’re explored in an interesting way. Still that development wasn’t planned. I wanted to have the book done by Christmas, but at this point I’m only going to be able to deliver the “preview” short story. That’s fine, and that short story will be more than worth its small cost. However it is disappointing to be where I am now.

Yet, as I reflect the importance of realizing how and why you miss a schedule is important because you can prepare better next time….or realize what affected your inability to meet the schedule at that time. So what happened to me? I got tired of writing smut. I’m brand new, but I was spending an average of eight hours a day on several different stories…most of which aren’t finished. Most of which people promised to beta read and edit and…never got back to me on consistently, which lead to me saying “I’ll give them a week…I’ll give them another” because I know I need feedback like any other writer. So I sort of burned myself out…however it was sort of a blessing because then I focused on my other stories. Stories you won’t hear much about, but I will  tell you they’re great. One romance is going to be about 200 pages and I’m on page 50, which is actually amazing because I started the story on the first and have been running around for weeks trying to finish paintings and presents for the holidays. Still…it hasn’t made me feel great.

Not completing a task you set out for yourself can be disheartening, especially because you are entirely responsible for it. Whether you just temporarily burn out like me, or whether you’re pushing yourself constantly to finish there is a struggle to reconcile why you couldn’t finish. It’s depressing, but for those of us building a platform and small business it is worrying. You begin to question if you can do it. You begin to make ideas for change but them worry you can’t do what you need to in order to be successful. Some people balk at me when I describe this and say “It’s your own fault. Have a tougher skin,” as though that makes the feelings about the situation go away. It doesn’t. It may be my fault…and what does that matter? We can be upset at ourselves and the situation and still have “tough skin”. When you’re responsible for your business, your books, your blogs, your livelihood, and your dreams it is frickin scary! That’s the bottom line, and when things don’t go as planned it is even scarier

But to conquer that feeling you just have to accept it.

That is something I’m really struggling with because I’m very scared. I’ve been strong armed into spending money over the holidays to maintain certain relationships I need in my life and I have been forced to buy a new phone by relatives(long story). My finances are more than a little tight, which adds stress and anxiety to my life in general. Now writing isn’t just about the money though if you’d like to buy my books please help a sista out. Writing is what I love to do and it is what I can almost always do at any time of the day. My dream career would be to be a team leader/research in a non-profit organization and also have a career writing on the side. I’ve been writing since I was a child and this career is amazing, but it is never stable and always changing with technology and interest. Every day is a gamble. Heck, blogging is a gamble because people make new blogs every day, and even those that aren’t active for more than a week can bury yours to the bottom of the search pile regardless of SEO keywords.

However, to get to where you want to be you have to take that gamble and accept that sometimes you won’t meet a deadline. Sometimes you will discover that what you’re doing needs more time and care than you can give and you have to put it aside. All you can do is accept that sometimes you won’t meet the deadline and that your anxiety about that is ok and normal. More importantly, you can begin to figure out what to do next time. That won’t fix the now. It won’t let you go back in time and finish the project. But it will let you feel like you’re taking a step forward towards completing the goal. That can be the difference between falling into a funk over the situation and finding a new way to push you to completion next time.

What do you all think?

The Distraction of Writing.

Writing can be a very good distraction from life. That can also be a bit of a problem, but right now I find it to be rather enjoyable. When you write it allows you to step away from yourself even if you’re right about you. Your just surrendering to the moment and the act of creating something wonderful. There is nothing more awesome than the exchange of ideas and we’re lucky to live in an age where we can do it from virtually anytime or anywhere.  Since about 2pm I’ve been reading different articles on writing and marketing on different blogs. It’s been very enlightening and I’ve realized that writing is a source of power when used correctly. Regardless of what you write you begin to step away and just go for your thoughts and getting them down on paper or screen. You manage to keep yourself going. Lately I’ve been struggling with my life. I’m not unique. I won’t claim I anything is special about me. I’m smart. I’m talented. And unfortunately that isn’t enough. It doesn’t matter how hard I work or for how long. Sometimes life just doesn’t go in your favor or how you plan. That’s not sad. It is just life, and our goal is to take a step towards what we want with every single day. I got rejected from two literature magizines and the Bitch Media internship I applied for, but does that mean I am bad at what I do? Not at all. What it means is those things didn’t come through. Nothing’s changed and I just have to keep trying. I write. I spend hours on reading marketing, reading in general, and then I spend at least three hours a day writing.

It is a great distraction.

I create worlds and build characters. I make epic action scenes and intensely romantic works that make me smile, and I hope you smile one day. I’ve accomplished a lot in the last two months.  Suffer too Good and Dirty Honey were written and published. I have a few older stories I’m slowly working through. I’ve edited stuff for another author. I’ve been trying to engage more with the world around me and that makes a difference. Depression doesn’t always care, but all of that means something in holding back the tide. I just wish I had a few more bucks in my pocket, but don’t we all.

A lot of times I hesitate in posting these reflections because so often people look at millennials and call us complainers because we should just swallow everything and pretend things are fine. But truthfully I guess I don’t care. If I’m being wholly honest I only care to preserve my image. Yet I will say here I do feel like I’m standing in a realm of possibilities without any chance of getting to move towards any of them. College debt, lack of job prospects, my current job not actually letting me work, and my floundering sales do a lot to damage my sense of self both as a person and a writer. Worse they make me feel unstable. Sometimes I wonder if I should just call it quits. Not because this is hard, but because I don’t know how long I can live with the state of things because I don’t know if anything I’m doing is worth a damn. No one really does know until someone else tells them, and they say the definition of sanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, which sucks because writing is a repeatable practice. The best writers can do is try and recognize that we could be the next Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, or Arthur Miller but never get our break. BUT we could. Any day now someone can swoop in and pick up your book, click your blog, or hear about your journey….and turn you into the next big thing. Someone could find value in all that you do, and that can revolutionize your entire life.

I hope for being seen, read, and loved. Any writer who tells you they don’t want that is a damned liar and you can tell them I said that. We write to connect if not with others than ourselves. The irony of that is that is what makes writing such a great distraction. Regardless of whether I get my big break or make some cash to pay for my studies I will always hold a pen in my hand. So I work on building my character, my life, and my world into a better place and me into a better self. Writing allows me to think both in and outside myself. It allows me a distraction from the crippling doubt and the depression that makes me wish I wasn’t going to wake up tomorrow. When I can’t sleep from the thoughts in my head I distract myself with stories and writing. The worst nights and days are the ones where that doesn’t work, but luckily those are few and far between. In today’s world every person has to be there best advocate, their best friend, their kindest listener, and in world of creatives their strongest mentor. More than all of that we have to be willing to distract ourselves with our writing because that keeps us going. It pushes us to evaluate, to debate, to think critically, and hopefully come to understand our best assets.

As time goes on I hope to find my place in the world. I don’t want to be rich. I just don’t want to stay poor. I don’t want to be happy. I just want to be content. Until I am able to get to a place where those things I want come true all I can do is write and pray for the best. We all must push forward….the problem is knowing where forward is and how to get there. That’s what no one ever tells you.

 

Burn Out.

Burn out…
Tired brain,
Aching eyes,
Pushing myself until I,
Despise,
Can’t speak.
Can’t Move.
Can only be.

*
I have burned myself out. Editing three books, two short stories, and trying to figure out KDP publishing has wiped me out mentally. Yesterday I discovered something very important to my future may be compromised and I am on the verge of a panic attack. So original content may be sparse for the next few days because I am just struggling. I made rookie mistakes in helping my friend publish her book, and she made a mistake with publishing an enhanced cover with the wrong title…but she won’t be able to fix it until tomorrow, so I have to fix it for her since she won’t be able to. Had to fix a bunch of errors with my new book….oh yeah pre-promo… Suffer too Good is my first release erotic story. I’m hoping I make enough to cover a transcriber since I seem to be getting a bit sick again. I’ll give more info about the book later but I’ll conclude with this…
Being working class fucking sucks. Being poor sucks. Not gettin’ enough hours to live on sucks. But I’m going to put on my best smile because there is only one Rosie and she is a wonderful person.Some weeks are harder than others. this week I’ve nearly hung up the towel and called it quits several times…but here I am. Trying. I’m one of the lucky ones. . So if you ever feel like the world is against you just try and remember you are special. You are fun, and I’m glad you’re reading…so at the very least you’ve put a smile on another person’s face.

The Antidote to Self Doubt and “No Service” — A Thousand Bits of Paper

Would you like it? Wouldn’t we all – maybe this post will help. I read an article (link posted at the bottom in further reading) on Self Doubt which inspired this post because I’m not at a writing low point – rather because I’m at a high point. Which sounds paradoxical so I’ll explain further. Right […]

via The Antidote to Self Doubt and “No Service” — A Thousand Bits of Paper

I find this a really interesting  perspective.