Get Back to Work!

As noted in my previous post, I returned on Friday from a month-long residency at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. It was a wonderful month. Not only was it inspiring to be around other artists, it was also fantastic to have the time and space to write. As many people commented during my time there, it is a “magical” place and I always get a lot of work done when I’m there. But every residency must come to an end, and I drove home in the snow on Friday afternoon. And then I took the weekend off to read, unpack, do laundry, see a play at the American Shakespeare Center, organize my office, and clean the house (a work in progress). I didn’t even think about my book.

And this morning I took care of a medical matter (bloodwork related to my recent annual physical), then went to my gym for a great workout and stopped by the bank. All necessary stuff.

But now it’s time to get back to the work. Despite my worries about the book I’m working on–can I do it? doesn’t it suck?–it’s time to get back to it. So I’m sitting in a coffee shop with some other writers and I’m stepping back into the writing. Self-doubt is natural, but it’s also paralyzing, and I’m determined to overcome it!

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

Comments

  1. The best cure to writer’s block is bad writing. To sit and write anything. If you recognize it as bad, your non-blocked brain cells will do so because they immediately are also recognizing a better sentence, a better approach, a more interesting angle, a question about description etc. Follow the non-blocked braincell thoughts to the light…even if you lose track of them in the distance, you will hear them complaining far ahead…

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