Catégorie : Writing Tips

It’s coming.

Thanksgiving?

The (-in-famous) Black Friday?

The unavoidable 9 am to 9 pm holidays-in-a-mall shifts?

You guessed right, dear fellow writer!

It’s an all-of-the-above answer. And I need to prep in order to avoid overtiredness, grumpiness or worse: bitterness.

The season to put on some happy glasses, happy songs and a happy hat (you know, to try to see or to remember there’s some good in human beings)
is coming.

Better get ready to make the best of it.

Tips to Keep Writing While Working Crazy Hours

• Sleep
  Trying to write through the night might work… a week or two.
  Then, tiredness will kick in. Followed by an inevitable feeling of guilt every time we hit the snooze button.
  Therefore, let’s sleep. Earlier than usual, not later than we’re used to.
  
• Expectations Setting: Good Enough
  On my side of the screen, I know I will put in fewer words in the daily word count goal.
  Because I’m a busy mama getting stuff ready for the Holidays;
  because I’m 35 to 44 years old working a very physically demanding retail job;
  because, after many downs and as many ups, I know my writer-self a little better and pushing my limits will just end in some bad writing sessions.
  
• No Skipping (The Hardest Part)
  My real, real nemesis: the skipping temptation.
  Thing is, if I skip once, I will, extra sure, skip again the next day.
  Sooooo: no skipping… and a reward for doing so, like ten minutes of reading time or, if you like the Socials, a moment to dumb scroll without guilt.
  My favourite reward: a short walk just before dawn.
  
  

Fellow writers, many thanks for being here. Until next time!

It’s on the tip of my tongue.

If I focus a little longer, it will come back to me.

The nearly perfect joke for the scene. Few words, big laugh.

First time I thought of it anyway, I laughed out loud.

(As a writer, you kinda have to laugh at your own jokes I think. I hope… It’s normal, right?)

But.

I was at the day job. And it was crazy busy. Boxes everywhere, people asking questions, minutes dragging on for a mysterious, depressing reason I don’t wanna dwell on right on.

Long story short.
Yes, my co-worker looked at me like I was a nutcase when I laughed loudly for no apparent reason.
And no.

No. I didn’t take a NOTE !!

What led me to the conclusion that I, stressed out mama who can’t barely remember her own kiddo’s year of birth sometimes – true pathetic story -, would remember the joke?!

Now, in front of the manuscript, the cursor flashing where the joke in question is supposed to be written… I can’t remember the tone, the words, nothing.

I feel like I’m going into a slow metamorphosis towards imbodying discouragement itself.

Ah! But I shall never let myself be sunk by this old foe of mine.

Scavaging through all the notebooks I bought or received through the years, I found a cute little notebook, easy to hide in the pocket of my day job mandatory apron.
Yep. A mandatory apron.
It sounds a bit depressing?
That’s because it is.

Moving on.

The joke is lost. I must accept it. Learn from the mistake. And think of something else.

Maybe the joke was not that funny anyway.

Something the readers will never be able to judge.

Because I didn’t take a note !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On this grumbling moment, dear fellow writer, I bid you farewell and may all the good words flow your way.

Halloween season provides the perfect excuse to create a writing-inspiring ambience in the house!

Since the morning was nerve-wracking and a tat difficult and impossible to recover from fast enough to be able to focus on writing, better do something utterly fun and relaxing: getting the house in its spooky Halloween state.

What happened this morning?
Oh
Well
A two hours drive to and back from a pediatric dentist who has his office in Montreal’s Little Italy.
Followed by a solid three hours of on-and-off desperate crying.

Topped with a fight about the virtues of soft food after a heavy cavity repair.

Happy pumpkin drawings and smiling ghost cardboard silhouettes were highly required!

Of course, I guess – I suppose – I don’t know,
the whole decoration thing made me think about the novel involving ghosts I’m still working on after all those years.

Truth be told, I thought more about the past couple of years than the novel itself, although they’re closely linked so, this explained that.

What a burden burnout is when you wanna earn a living writing novels, wouldn’t you agree, fellow writers?

I had all that time but I couldn’t do anything.

Now, my time is not mine anymore and geez, I feel like I could write all day.

Working retail always has been a great motivation fuel for me.

And if I didn’t require so much time to recuperate from the after-effects of the said retail job, meaning the exhaustion, the aching, the mind-numbing, oh yes, I would write a storm.

But for now, I enjoy looking at the decorations my kiddo proudly put everywhere in the leaving room.

It’s beautiful.

Fellow writers, until next time, take the best care of yourself.