The writing life is a roller coaster.
Ups, downs, freefalls, derailments, and the occasional technical difficulty that leaves you stranded at the top of a virtual mountain.
2020 was truly some next-level stuff, but so far 2021 is also keeping me on my toes.
My current roller coaster life
UP: New books published!
After 4.5 years the Little Elephants’ BIG Adventures series is finally out in the world. The first three books are available on Amazon and there are more coming: I turned in the 9th book earlier this month.
FREEFALL: Emergency pet surgery
My best coworker had two surgeries this month and almost didn’t make it through. He’s a frequent guest on my social media.
BIG UP: Vaccines!
The adults in the house were able to get vaccinated! Our lives are not much different right now but there’s hope that someday we’ll be able to get back to normal.
DOWN: Pandemiversary
Some anniversaries are not so fun. People often have BIG FEELS ™ at the anniversary of loss or traumatic events. I hit the pandemic wall big time at the 1 year mark.
Cupcakes don’t make everything better, but they don’t not make things better.
DERAILMENT: *gagging face emoji*
Last week our finished basement was ripped apart thanks to a sewage backup. I got to work from home to the dulcet tones of a lawnmower and circular saw.
UP AGAIN: Lots of exciting stuff in the pipeline
I’m currently blessed with more work than my sieve of a brain can keep track of. (Including some exciting new Work for Hire projects!) So I had to do some next-level project planning and organization that feels extreme even to me.
Writing on a roller coaster
Climb into the seat, buckle your belt, pull the bar into place.
Now balance your typewriter on the bar and tappa tap as you begin to chink, chink up towards the first big hill.
…I’m sure this will be fine.
Life is a roller coaster whether or not you’re a writer. But doing creative work gets hard when you’ve got BIG FEELS ™ and busy times that use up all the mental space that you need for writing.
Last fall I wrote a writer’s roadmap for writing in hard times. All of that advice is still relevant.
For myself, I tie the typewriter to the coaster lap bar with a rope. Sometimes you hit a freefall and it falls overboard. Just hold on until it’s done. Then when things level out for a bit, reel it back in and tappa tap some more. The downs happen but as long as you keep writing when you can, you’ll hit those writing ups too.