Finding Focus

Image by Markus Distelrath from Pixabay

My muse has been practicing social distancing. It’s putting quite a dent in getting my writing done. To be fair to her, much of my normal writing time has been devoted to figuring out how to be a school teacher – a necessary endeavor which has taken far more energy than I anticipated.
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But I think I’ve found a way to win my muse back and communicate with her in our new normal.

My initial response of sending out every short work I had ready, paved the way to working on queries for my novels. (I have two that are ready to go out into the world.) As I worked on those, I learned the editor supporting one of my novels at a publisher had quit the company, effectively leaving me back at zero. But in a way, I’m glad. It gave me the drive to do something I haven’t had the nerve to do before.  

I took that novel and sent it to my dream publisher, the one I’ve wanted to submit to but was too nervous and too a-bunch-of-other-excuses. That single act of querying them has rejuvenated my creative drive more than sending out all the other short works. It also made me realize how to win my muse back.

When there’s no time, and energy level are at their lowest, you have to focus on what’s most important, right? That’s one of the things having kids taught me. Prioritizing.

If you need to rest, rest. But if you do have energy, limited as it may be, focus on what is means the most. My current life is forcing me to refine that focus even further.

Writing is crucial to me – both for my sanity and my overall well-being. But right now, while my muse is distant and life is crazy, working on writing in general isn’t specific enough. To win the muse back to my side, I need to focus on the kind of writing that’s most fulfilling. For me, that’s novel writing.
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Honing in on novel writing has refueled my creative drive. There’s still no time in the day and limited time at night, but what time I have is better spent. It nourishes my soul getting those few hundred words in on my next novel. And right now, the little things that nourish our souls are the most important. In my opinion.
 
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* For anyone looking for more educational sites to explore, our go to list this week is KidsNatGeo, Mystery Science, San Diego Zoo, and SwitchZoo for humor of creating your own creature. We also use IXL a lot, but I’m pretty certain your school has to set you up with that.