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Wintering My Writing Routine
The need to slow down is coinciding with the season
This morning I’m in a contemplative mood, just enjoying my Sunday. My room feels like an inviting place to be, and is absolutely lovely. I have a delicious smelling candle burning (that my son bought for me). Ocean wave sounds in my ears. I just bought $60 of books I hope I’ll read. I enjoyed meditation this morning, yoga last night, and inspiration from Lisa Olivera who is speaking to my soul about letting go of the grind and just being.
More and more, I’m contemplating what it would be like to take a break from social media, a necessary platform in my author life, but a hindrance to my need for rest. Lisa Olivera is taking her annual break from Instagram, her platform of choice, and her action is inspiring me to do what I always want to do — take a step back from purusing other people’s lives and focus more on my own. What I want. The quiet. Writing without the distraction. Writing for self instead of others.
I also keep coming back to this place of quitting fiction writing altogether. I’m tired of feeling trapped in the comparison game because I’m not good enough, spicy enough, daring enough. Of course, that could just be all my fears and insecurities about the book I’m currently writing. I love this character so much, I want to do her justice. And right now in rough draft form, I’ve created stick figures in a 2-D world, and that’s not a fair assessment because IT’S A ROUGH DRAFT. That said, I have to keep pulling myself back from ruminating on all that’s required to make this story shine — and it’s a lot.
I also had big plans to release three books this next year, or at least two of them (I’m writing the second book in the series now, and the first one just needs a final polish, plus all the editing, cover, etc….all anxiety-inducing stuff). And I want to keep with that schedule. But I also want to find a place of center and calm, escaping the bullet train of urgency I’ve boarded in favor of a stroll through the refreshing forest of my slowed down life.
Here’s the truth of it all. I am passionate about writing. But once I started publishing, I replaced the need for creativity with a need to escape the daily grind of 9–5 work. My life goal became to make enough money from my books to…
