Wildcard Wednesday

. . . On Taking Breaks and Finding Focus

I lost my focus last night. And I know where I lost it too. I lost it somewhere in the mall when I was wandering around before I went to see Transcendence. See, we're a one car family. Both the bowling alley and the cinemas are located at the mall (and very little else these days). Tuesday night is cheap night for the movies, but it's also the hubby's bowling night, so I end up having some time on my hands before hand 'cause the movies never start at the same time as bowling.

Anyway, yesterday was rather grey and dismal, so I fell behind with my precious list - namely the reading and writing parts of it. I got the post done for my Current Projects blog, but then I spent way too much time switching the links on my Writerly Advice page so that they open in a new page. And even though I hadn't done my post for here or my daily word count, I went to the movies anyway, figuring I'd catch up when I got home.

Only I didn't. Somewhere in the mall I lost my focus 'cause I sure couldn't focus on the tasks at hand when I got home. Or maybe I lost it during the movie, which I think I need to see again 'cause a lot of it went straight over my head. And towards the end things were happening so fast I was finding it hard to follow.

Let's just say it was no Captain America. ;-)

Anyway, today's Wildcard post was supposed to be about breaks. And a long winded explanation of how I've been writing pretty much forever and somewhere along the way I got it into my head that that's all I should be doing 'cause I'm home all day, and all the stuff that I used to do as well as write, but I stopped doing them and now I'm trying to start doing them again, blah blah blah. How's that for a run on sentence?

When I got home from the movie I found my enthusiasm for the subject had waned. In fact, I didn't really know where I was going with it in the first place.

I do recall what brought this on though. It was that post by Chuck Wendig on how to get a novel written in a year. One of the things that caught my attention was the no writing on the weekend advice. I tried it over this past weekend and I gotta say, it was really freeing.

Normally I try to get as much writing in as possible on the weekends, 'cause it's the weekend and that's what writers are supposed to do, right? Only most weekends I end up sitting in front of the computer staring at the screen or worse, playing games, until the day is gone and I've nothing accomplished except for a big case of the guilts for not having done anything.

But this past weekend I did not have writing on my to-do list and I got all kinds of stuff done without the accompanying guilt. And it felt great. Furthermore, I had a great idea for the blurb for An Elemental Earth and I got it without being chained to the desk.

I learned an important lesson. Breaks can be a good thing. It's okay to take a break every once in awhile. In fact, I'd say they're necessary to the creative process.

So go take a break. Right now. And I'll go do the same. :-D