I’ve been in writing overload mode for the last couple of days. Trying to complete NaNoWriMo (I’m not going to meet my 50,000 word goal) while finishing my second novel, #BLUR (I am going to meet my deadline of a release date in January 2015) AND taking care of the family and holidays, yada yada, makes for one zoned-out, stressed momma. My husband and children have recognized this perpetual state I’m in. It makes me realize that only other writers will understand my situation.
Riding home from an errand today, my husband asked, like eight times, if everything were alright. After I told him seven times that I was fine, I finally explained what it’s like to be inside the head of a writer, especially one whose writing has been interrupted to run errands. See, for writers, when they’re “in the zone,” doesn’t mean that the story is tucked away until we return to our computers and pick up where we left off. No, our story, our characters follow us on these errands. They continually compete for attention in our brains, along with all the other minutiae of our lives.
I tried explaining this to my husband. I told him I was fine, but that my characters were still talking to me, telling me their stories, their conflicts still needed resolving, the plot points they are involved in are still turning, demanding that I unravel them and make them make sense. I told my dear hubby that I can’t simply compartmentalize my life and my writing because the two both mean so much to me. It’d be like letting my sick child take care of herself so I could be emotionally supportive to my other child who’s having a relationship crisis. I juggle. It’s what moms (and writers) do.
I told my honey that nothing was wrong with me, that I was quietly working. Because as we all know, most of what we do as writers takes place in the recesses of our mind while we focus on that distant spot in our periphery vision and dream up the next scene.