This week I went rogue: no novel writing! I didn’t even open up the file in Scrivener.
Increasingly, over the past few weeks I’ve been struggling with motivation (not enough) and procrastination (too much), so I thought I’d change my focus for a few days and work on something different.
Instead of adding another 5000 words to my novel, I declared this ‘Short Story Week’ and gave myself five working days to work on shorter pieces. I revised a story I’d written a few months ago, changing details that didn’t fit and creating a whole new ending. I also started writing a new story, building up scenes and working out timelines and relationships for these new characters.
It was all very loose, freewheeling creative work compared to the structured writing I’ve been doing this year. I didn’t finish a polished draft of either story, but I made good progress and it was definitely satisfying to take a break from the novel for a few days.
To cap off the week, I gave a reading at the Atwater Library. I got to stand up and read my short story “Foreign Bodies” to a room full of attentive listeners. Pretty dreamy, especially being in the company of award-winning writers Laura Legge, Lesley Trites and Anna Leventhal.
Next week, I’ll be back to my regular routine: just me, typing away at my laptop, following my outline until I finish this draft.
Rebecca Morris 
Rebecca I was reading a very interesting piece from the New York Times about the importance of letting ideas incubate or percolate and how time is a crucial element in creation. Sometimes a block cracked for me when I left the piece. Your tactic of letting your novel “breathe” sounds like a good….. with the added bonus of creating fiction in another form.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was so nice to see you yesterday. I hope you have a smooth return to the novel next week.
LikeLike