by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73
It’s been one of those days.
If you’re a writer, you know what I’m talking about. Those days where you look at the story and think there is no way you can ever fix it. Then every word you’ve ever written starts to look like horse manure, and you think, “How the hell did I ever think I could be a writer?” and “I think Panera is hiring, so maybe I should apply and be content making paninis for the rest of my life.”
Yeah, those days.
My friend Amy would call it the “gremlins” coming out to play. Call it gremlins, call it insecurity, call it stalling, call it writer’s block – whatever you like.
All I know is it nearly reduced me to tears this morning.
While the irrational part of me is thinking that the job at Panera looks pretty good right now, the rational part of me know this is just part of the game. And what I need to do now is step back.
I’ve closed the story. I’ll finish this blog, and the only other thing I will write today will be the newsletter article for my taekwondo school.
After that, the rest of that Caramel Delight ice cream and a few episodes of “Dr. Who” sound really good. Or maybe I’ll lose the my misery in Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron (which is excellent, btw). A few games of Doodle Jump. Whatever it is, it won’t be writing.
No, I’m going to resist to take immediate action on the idea I had in the dentist’s chair regarding my WIP. I’m going to let it stew, let it percolate. Age, like fine wine or cheese.
Some might call it stalling. But I recognize it for what it is: A sign that I’ve been working to hard and I need to chillax. That happens you know.
That ice cream is calling my name. But what about you? Do you have those days? What do you do about it?
Hey, I took that job at Panera. I meet a bunch of interesting folks all the time now – in fact, I’m surprised at how diverse they are. I thought all of them would be the same vanilla, typical govt defense contractor type that I see the most. Wish I could sit down with each one of them, and one of my writing groups meets here. But I can definitely relate to feeling like my work (words, at least fiction) is crap. They made me read it last week at a meeting and I pointed out that well, yeah, the stories start out with a lot of fill-in-the-blanks. I realized I have to name five cats. I have no idea what my character named them, but she is likely to talk to them a lot, and they have to be unique…lol. So, I stalled.
You know what they say about people who talk to cats. =)