Hey cHEwY gum gums!
Happy Financial New Year Eve!
As we hit the halfway mark of 2020, I wonder if you think this year is zooming by as the cliche goes. For me, it’s actually been the opposite. The last three months have felt like three years haha. Maybe because I’ve been mostly at home. Normally Term 2 would have been filled with school visits and festivals, which would have made the weeks fly by.
While restrictions are being cautiously eased across Australia. I wonder if I’ve made the most of my three-month lockdown. I mean, you’d expect writers and illustrators to have produced a ton of work because they’re WFH masters.
The truth is, my writing output has not increased. Despite the lack of outside commitments, I feel like I’m at the same point of my manuscript that I would have been in a normal ‘busy’ year. But I just had weeks of hometime…shouldn’t I have finished my book, and started writing three more by now?
I’ve blogged before about my time paradox. I tend to write more with less time. I manage to bash out more words on flights, in between author talks in a school staffroom, or being in my hotel room with half an hour before I have dinner with my publicist/other authors.
I did start with good intentions. The first week of lockdown was spent reeling from all the cancellations and postponements. But once I’d resigned to have the next few months of my calendar being wiped out Thanos-style, I thought okay…I’ll use this extra time to write and polish.
Yet I kept myself distracted doing other things. Filming, editing and posting YouTube videos. I sunk hundreds of hours into finishing these epic quest-style games on my Nintendo Switch and 3DS. I’ve been reading through my ‘shame pile’ of books and comic books. I’ve been doing a lot of ‘not writing’ haha.
A part of me feels guilty. The anxious part of me thinks that I’ll be left behind as other authors and illustrators sign multi-book deals from all their brainstorming during lockdown. But I hold on the fact that I trust my process of writing. I’m sure when my editor emails me about What About Thao with an unofficial submission date, I will ride that deadline dragon and write my butt off.
Besides, while some restrictions are being eased, in-person school visits are still a lifetime away…well from September at the earliest. My October is quickly filling up around the new Book Week dates. So I’m kinda still in a ‘lock-down of sorts.’ I still have plenty of ‘time to get into gear and write a million words until then…
Or not 🙂
Let’s see how I go haha
What abou
O.W
