At the end of December I printed off Planes Shifter. It’s 411 A5 pages double-spaced. And having hole-punched the lot, I put it in my writing binder and pushed it out of sight.
I gave myself a minimum of three weeks away from it; deciding to split my time between reading books and plotting out Resilience.
But I’ve found myself restless.
I finished reading a book out of sheer willpower because a friend had given it 3 stars and I thought it deserved more. So I pushed myself to finish it so that I could ask why she’d rated it that low.
I’ve plotted out the first half of Resilience, and thrown myself back into writing it. But I’m noticing that everything comes in fits and starts.
I’ve begun playing a new computer game; but every 30 minutes, I get distracted or just… fall out of the immersion. Same with books, with my own writing. I’ve been flitting; and I don’t know how much of it is because I want to get stuck into editing Planes Shifter.
I’m also aware of the pressure I put on myself because I’m turning a hobby into a career. Suddenly my deadlines are real; I need to finish things and I’m tracking progress (and sharing it with you here). With things getting stressful and uncertain at my day-job, suddenly so much rides on my writing; and that means I can’t write my best.
NBut I think every writer needs to write to that kind of deadline. It’s just a tricky transition to learn about living with.