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When the Words Don’t Come

I’m a pretty steady, consistent writer. I set weekly goals to write between 7,500 -10,000 words each week. That works out to 1,000-1.500 words per night. I’ve been told by other writer friends that I write quickly. Personally, it doesn’t feel quick, but okay. Since I got my first book contract in 2016, I’ve easily managed to adhere to my weekly word count goals and consistently finish manuscripts ahead of schedule. Let’s be honest, I write cozy mysteries. I’m not writing epic novels that will change the world. This isn’t War and Peace. I write what I hope are humorous whodunits. I’ve read that it took J.R.R. Tolkien twelve years to write The Lord of the Rings after he finished The Hobbit. Yeah, that’s not me. Normally, I have so many words, ideas, stories floating around in my mind, writing helps to get them out of my head and onto paper—until now.

After I turned in the fourth book of my Mystery Bookshop Mystery series to my publisher, I took some time off (nearly a month) before starting my next book. Initially, I thought the struggle was related to taking time off and getting back into the grove. It’s always hard to get back to work after you take a vacation, right? All I needed to do was push through it. I just needed to get back in the swing of writing everyday and then it would be okay, at least that’s what I told myself. But that didn’t work this time. This time, no matter what I did, the words didn’t come. It didn’t help that I’m a pantser. I don’t plot my books ahead of time (don’t judge). I prefer to spend time creating characters that seem so real (at least to me) that I know what they will say and do in any given situation because I know their personalities. I write by the seat of my pants and see where the story and the characters take me. I’ve tried to switch and make myself into a plotter. Unfortunately, it felt a lot like forcing myself to write with my left hand. It truly sucked all of the joy of writing out of me and I was miserable. So what’s wrong? Where are the words?

The answer is, it beats the heck out of me. I don’t know that I’ve found them yet. There’s only one other time when I can remember feeling this way. I was dealing with a lot of challenges at work which left me tired at the end of the day, emotionally drained and bereft of ideas and creativity. Fortunately, that situation changed and I found my creativity again. In analyzing my life, I’d have to say that I’ve allowed myself to get out of balance. The cares of work, family, etc. have seeped out of their boundaries and are strangling my creativity.

So, what do I do when the words don’t come? I look for ways to feed my creative soul. For me, that usually involves an overload of reading and watching cozy mysteries. Despite the fact that we are in the middle of the Olympics and I’m an Olympic Fanatic who overdoses on sport every four years (technically every two years since they alternated the winter and summer games), tonight I’ve got a date with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. A cozy mystery by the queen of the cozy and a cup of tea are what I’m prescribing to cure what ails me and to regain my balance. Cheers!