Writing Update: 16/09/24 (Patreon)

A long overdue update!

I think it's fair to say that by the end of July, or start of August, I was in a pretty sorry state.

From the perspective of somewhere better, I can look back at a few months ago and see that I wasn't in a very good place. This was due to a combination of things, of which writing was merely one but nevertheless a contributing factor. In other words, all the other usual stresses were there, work and life and so on, but maintaining the patreon and the word count was part of it, too.

This culminated with picking up some rather unhealthy habits. Namely, one day after work in June I came home after a particularly gruelling day of work and wanted to write but found myself exhausted. I poured myself a beer, sat at the keyboard and--enjoyed a fantastic evening's writing. The next day, to recapture that easy flow, I had another beer; a little later, when the routine didn't work, I simply poured a second.

Well. It never became anything extreme but it became an easy habit that translated into 40+ units of alcohol a week, for someone who generally only drinks a little on the weekend. Consequently, sleep suffered--and with work's 5:30 wake up, I think it's fair to say my mood deteriorated; or perhaps the drinking escalated because my mood was already poor; who can tell? I also packed on a solid 5kg of weight, which didn't feel great, either.

Anyway. This side of summer and the holidays, I've given my head a solid shake and started sorting myself out. Dropped the booze, started eating better, send myself to bed early and to quote the Flaming Lips, I'm "takin' lots of vitamins."

Alongside this, I've started up writing again, obviously. This has been slow and painful. The first week or so, everytime I sat to write, every word felt forced and painful. I looked at what I wrote and it all seemed shit, and I'd wonder what the hell I was writing, anyway? What was this overly-long, convoluted mess of a story? What was the point?

 In other words, I was also pushing myself through another round of writer's block. I'd started Julia's story in a way that I eventually realised just didn't work. Once I'd accepted that the whole thing needed to be rewritten, the struggle faded; I began to enjoy the writing again.

Mind, this is against a backdrop of work dropping an almighty dump on me, post-holidays. Once again, if I salvage a solid hour to write out of a day, I'm doing well. Consequently, I'm back to the 500 words/day target, those heady days of April where I was hitting the 2k seeming far gone. Hopefully, as I settle into new routines I'll find my mojo again, but for now I'm settling for slow-and-steady for winning the race.

So, practically, what does all this mean? Ultimately, not much. I've been releasing previous scenes to members every Monday, and continuing to update the story at the usual sites (tgstorytime, scribblehub). This week I should have a 'sneak peek' to share. And by the first of October, when the membership freeze on patreon ends, I should have enough written to resume normal service. I've sorted my head out (I think) and life (and writing) resumes to creep in its petty pace from day to day.

Or in other words: thank you for your patience, and watch this space.