Post Vacation Slump

I went on vacation last week. I brought my laptop with me just in case I felt compelled to write, but I didn’t take it out of the case once the entire time I was gone. Seven whole days without striking a keyboard once.

And I think that’s totally fine. Good even.

I know some writers continue to write on vacation and over the holidays. That they can write “The End,” and if they haven’t met their word quota for the day, they just open a new file and start another project (no pressure, right Stephen King?). Good for them, I say. Some days (a lot of days, really), I’d say I’m envious of that ability. I don’t know if you would call it perseverance or determination or just plain stubbornness, but, as a fellow writer without that trait, I don’t know how they do it. 

I love writing. It’s fun, I’m proud of the words I put down, and I enjoy creating worlds and writing characters, finding their voices, and seeing where they go. It’s hard though, man. There are days when I just don’t want to do it. Maybe I had a tough day at work, I’ve been busy with other life stuff, chores, and whatnot, or maybe it’s just an off day. Some days I power through, others I flop down on the couch and take a day off, or two, or three. That’s the problem I’m faced with now.

I’ve been pushing pretty hard lately. I’ve been writing Mattson Academy book three, I’ve been doing marketing stuff and building all the social media stuff I need to get Mattson Academy book one out there, and this is all after putting in eight hours at the day job. That’s why I didn’t feel too bad taking a vacation from writing while I took my actual vacation.

I took the week to spend time with family, read someone else’s books, sleep on the beach, and eat a whole crapload of junk food. I got to unwind and my laptop got cold in its case. A good and true vacation.

But now I’ve been back for three days and I still haven’t written anything.

I’ve compared writing to going to the gym before, and I think the metaphor works here too. Routine is key for me. When I’m in the writing zone, every day gets easier and easier to sit down and crank out those words. I don’t lose the thread of my story, I don’t feel like it’s “work.” My body and mind are used to the exercise and it feels good to get to it. When I’m not in the routine though, when I miss a few days, then I start to dread going back. It’s not going to be easy. I’m going to hurt afterwards. It won’t go as well as it usually does and I know that’s going to frustrate me, and it becomes something I avoid rather than hit head-on. That’s the spot I’m sitting in now. Seven days off was fine, I’ve earned that, but much like with the day job, it’s time to get back to work.

So I wrote this blog post!

That may seem like a bit of a cop-out, and it is a little bit, but not entirely. It’s a low pressure way to ease myself back into the process. I mean, I’m sitting here tapping away and words are appearing on my screen. I’m less invested in these words and I’m not going to write as many as I’d like to write if I was working on a story, but I’m doing the thing. These are the stretches. This is the warmup so I don’t pull a hammy (linguistically speaking) when I get back to the heavy lifting (hopefully tomorrow).

I’m also going to try and get to the literal gym tomorrow for the first time since vacation. I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment. 

The good news at least is that I know what I want to write. While driving to the beach I talked through some plot challenges with my wife. The car is a great place for that because she can’t escape, not that she wants to (I don’t think). So I have that going for me. I know the direction I want to take the story next. I just have to do it. And spending time complaining about it on the internet is step one to doing anything productive.

Right?