I’ve been thinking about this a lot about over the past several weeks. Do we stop writing because we have too many stories to tell or because we have too few? And when we do stop, how do we get ourselves to start it all back up again? So, here I am, trying to start it back up and officially attempting to end my hiatus on WordPress (I am using the word hiatus because it is a grown-up word, and, though I’m still denying it, in some ways I am starting to feel like a grownup).
So, why do we stop writing? Is it for a lack of coffee? (I’ve been trying to caffeinate less since Christmas, because consuming too much caffeine makes me paranoid. I also realized that I’d gained a not-insignificant number of pounds last winter from a daily habit of full-fat-milk lattes) Is it a lack of inspiration? (no, can’t be quite it, because I’ve both been to the U.S. and gotten a dog (!!) that I am pretending I know how to take care of, over January). Is it a lack of time? (perhaps, but I refuse to use time as an excuse). Before, there used to be times where I would shut down for a month or even a year, but I never stopped to think about the ‘why’ of the writing hiatus, but more of the ‘what’s next’.
So, what’s next?
- A trip to Miami in late February
- Feeling restless about Shanghai, and trying to get out of that funk.
- Attempting to figure out what I can do with the 2.5 kilos of vegetables that were delivered to my apartment last week (how is so much of it straight lettuce??)
- Learning to brew a sweeter batch of ginger beer.
- Pad Thai, hopefully.
- Seeing snow for the first time in two years (the sleeting rain outside of the Shanghai Sharks game didn’t quite count).
- Realizing that I spent 2014 and 2015 in China, and wondering if 2016 is the year I start the next adventure.
Excellent. Also, I’m super jealous you got a dog >_< .
Gosh, you travel a lot. How do you get time off work?
-Marina.
Hiii! The dog is sort of killing me, but she is so goddamn cute!
Basically, a lot of working weekends on days that I am not travelling, also China has random holiday weeks in February and October
Good to know that you’re OK. The writing will come, after a break, when you need it. Over here the BBC’s new adaptation of War and Peace is going down a storm. I read just the other day that in Russia is was compulsory reading for every schoolchild so were you there long enough to have to suffer that? I’m reading it now, and it is very good, but I would have really struggled at school to make much of it.
If you like War and Peace and don’t mind putting yourself through another Tolstoy novel, I would highly suggest reading Anna Karenina. I found it a much more enjoyable read, and the adaptation with Kiera Knighley and Domhall Gleeson wasn’t half bad!
It used to be said (although I am sure this is a Russian old wives tale), that although War and Peace was compulsory reading, the girls were only required to read the ‘peace’ parts and the boys the ‘war’. Crazy, isn’t it?
I am enjoying it, but I’m on day 31 and have just passed the 1000 page mark, with 444 still to go, so after this I need a break with a very different book! I have a lot more “easier” one lined up.
I have read Anna Karenina, but it was a good while ago now, but you are right as I have found War and Peace much more accessible (now with the TV I can put faces to all the names) than I expected, and it’s an easier read than Charles Dickens, then maybe I should give it another read… in due course.
The TV adaptation (actually filmed in Russia) finishes here on Sunday and that has focused very much on the relationship side over the long historical accounts of war in the book. Saying that they seem to have used a battle cast of thousands and some of the scenes have been brutal.
I used to write every day, then days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into..oops now I write once a month 🙂 I think, as every other passionate person, I start doing something new with all my power and even willpower, but then I’m slowly getting used to it and it no longer seems so exciting and funny. So, now I’m trying to be more consistent and yes “more grown-up” finding other sources of inspiration not fueled by my childlike interest in everything new.
i can deinitely relate! I am very judgmental about my own writing, so it’s hard to find things to write about. i usually try to get past it by writing daily observations, but it’s really hard to get over the initial hump