I was working, gung-ho, on the novel, week after week, doing no other kind of writing. And now, I'm at a dead stand-still. I have no idea where to go next. Writer's block to the extreme. But the problem isn't really about transmitting thoughts from my brain to the paper. It's about decisions. I can't write anything until I make some decisions about what will happen and when. I don't want to slow down though--I'm on a goal to finish the first draft by the end of July!
I once said that writing other things, such as articles, was something I did to help handle writer's block. Well, funny, it actually is helping. If in no other respect than in keeping me from idleness during the block!
Many months ago (maybe Nov/Dec?) an editor assigned me an article on pregnancy loss, due mid-July. A while back, I said I was done freelancing for now, to focus on the novel, except for one assigned piece. Well, this is that piece, a piece I've been wanting to write for two years. One of the reasons I started writing articles was because I felt passionately that miscarriage in particular is not covered well. But after 2 years of getting nowhere as far as convincing an editor to let me write on the topic, I finally get the assignment...and I don't really have the passion to write it anymore. In recent weeks, I've been seeing July as a guillotine--it's the month of my novel deadline as well as this article. Well, I don't want those 2 to compete. I decided I should just write the article and get it done early, so I can then really focus on the novel. I decided to start working on the article the first week of May.
Funny things happen though. I hit this intense writer's block for my novel on Monday, so I charged into preparing the article, a week early, and without really planning it, I'm further along than I'd ever intended. I'm in the interview process, not the writing process yet. But it's very good--I like being productive and not wasting time entirely--writer's block or no! And another good thing is, though I didn't feel any great push to do it, the passion to cover the topic is coming back as I work on it. There are times I really just don't want to revisit that, a dark memory in my own life. I know it's not an article I can write by phoning it in; it's going to require some emotional involvement and I think that's why I was balking at it. I'm past that experience, or so I think, with 2 healthy, living children, and I no longer need to write about it for my own therapeutic reasons. But I do still think it needs attention; therefore, I'm glad I'm coming around, warming to the assignment again.
So here's to writer's block on my novel that actually made me PREFER to write on an emotionally tough topic for a magazine. Writing an assignment always go better if my attitude towards it is positive.
Other articles I've written:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
When Miscarriage Means Labor
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
Vulvodynia: Is The Pain Just in Your Head?
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