“How has the ongoing pandemic affected your creativity?”
At the beginning of the pandemic, we mostly isolated ourselves and went out as little as possible. You’d think that with so much time on my hands I would have knocked out several books by now. The thing is, I found that too much leisure had a negative impact on my writing. Before the pandemic I had regular writing time set aside and would work during those hours. With nothing else to do I just drifted away from writing and became a reader more than a writer. Our Monday and Tuesday foxes talked about discovering so many new creative outlets, but I sure didn’t do that. I used to quilt, do some needlework, and enjoyed keeping my house fresh and current. I didn’t do any of that either. I just watched TV, read, cooked a little, and walked the dogs.
Eventually, though, people began to go out more, and so did we. We started to follow a more normal routine. We were careful, but we didn’t isolate ourselves anymore. As our routine returned to normal I found that I had a lot more interest in writing. I finished a couple of WIPs and started to edit them.
At that point I found that the publisher who had many of my books was closing the doors. It wasn’t that this was totally unexpected, but having so many of books out of publication at one time threw me. I stopped thinking about writing again. I think I’ve come to terms with it now, My interest in writing seems to be returning for which I’m very thankful. Writing has been a part of my life for a long time now, and I’d hate to lose it. Maybe with one more edit I’ll try to find a publisher for one of those WIPs, and if I do my pandemic slump will end.
I’m glad your muse is starting to show herself again! Maybe all that reading you did inspired some ideas.
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Could be. I’ve read a lot of good books as well as some that were an example of what not to do.
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I did quite a bit of drifting, also… as you’ll read about on Hound Day tomorrow.
As for losing your titles at C.R. — I totally understand. It’s the type of body-blow that a non-writer may not be able to comprehend.
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I’m looking forward to your post. You lost more CR titles than I did.
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yeah — 11. Really stinks. That’s more than half of my entire published fiction.
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We seem to have been in the same boat. I better put more thought into what Friday’s post will say.
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I think a lot of people were in the same boat with us.I’m looking forward to what you have to say.
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Yeah, my writing went by the wayside, too. Mainly because I no longer had the house to myself! I’m slowly getting back to my WIP, but people are still in the house. Something that will never change, now. Guess I gotta get used to it.
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Your routine sounds as if it were even more disrupted than mine was. Hopefully your muse will come roaring back as you adjust to the changes in your house. Good luck!
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