Friday, August 11, 2006

When Real Life Gets in the Way

As you can see from the post, my real life has been getting in the way of my writing life since I came back from the conference two weeks. I've been finding it really hard to sit down and write this past week in particular.

I've been beating myself up because I've only managed to write fifteen pages which is alot, but I'm used to cranking twice that amount. I wish I was one of those writers, who can just keep cranking it out no matter what is going on in their personal life. I'm working hard on that but right now it just seems like I can't get out of my way.

In the past two weeks, I've been to a funeral, counseled a friend who is deeply depressed, and seen a relationship that I had hopes for go down the tubes. Plus I've been having problems with a good friend, who I feel has been taking the friendship for granted in a big way. All this has made it really hard for me to focus on my writing.

There have been some bright spots, I had a fabulous time last week at Diana Peterfreund's book party, and an old friend managed to find me through my blog, and we've reconnected. So that's all good, plus my books finally came from Atlanta, so I have a box of books sitting at my feet as we speak.

But I'm worn out, I'm working too hard, and most of the time I just want to curl up in a little ball in the corner. Most of the time, I feel like I'm on the verge of a major crying jag, which I indulged in last night after my train stopped running because of water on the tracks (we had a major rainstorm last night). It took me two hours to get home, and by the time I walked in my door, I had just about had it.

If anyone has any solutions as to how I can keep productive, when life is throwing me a curve, please let me know. I welcome all suggestions.

Thanks for reading,
EKM

2 comments:

MJFredrick said...

{{{{ELIZABETH}}}}

When my grandmother was in the hospital, I wrote every day because it was the one thing I had control over.

Megan Frampton said...

Go read He Wrote, She Wrote--Bob Mayer talks about writing like running a Marathon.

I hope you feel better, Elizabeth. And yeah,15 pages is huge when you're so busy and so stressed.

Be proud of yourself for crying, stressing, dealing, and then writing. You can do it!