An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
-Newton’s First Law
Three guesses as to which part of that sentence applies to me after a week of flu and bronchitis.
I feel like I had such wonderful momentum going in January, both in my writing and in my diet. Then came February, which knocked me way off course on all fronts. I was sick. Then I got better. Then I had a massive, unplanned road trip. Then I had my mother’s surgery and all attendant drama. Then one of my best friend’s weddings. Then I was sick. Again. If my goal is here, then I am somewhere off in the parking lot of the mini mall down the street from the ice cream parlor, across the road from the baseball field. And I’m sitting here scratching my head between coughs and wondering what the heck happened and how I can get back on track.
The diet is easy enough. Today is a new day, and I’m back on the calorie counting wagon. I will ease back into exercise as my body allows and eventually it will come off.
But the writing…that’s another story. I have my big master outline done in yWriter, and I have opened the opening scene a dozen times in the last two weeks between everything else, and other than the first burst of words that got me to the 776 where I presently reside, I am completely blanking. It’s practically another language, and I don’t have the guidebook. My focus is non-existent right now. All I can think about is napping (which, come to think of it, is pretty normal for the entire week following the start of Daylight Savings Time). Well, napping, and a schizophrenic sort of survey of various and sundry past plots that have been parading through my brain to try on the new plotting skills I’ve learned. But I feel more like a kid playing dress up in a grown up’s clothes. A big pretender. Logic would dictate that if I keep pretending, eventually I will remember what the heck I’m doing. Instead, I’m staring down from the high dive into what appears to be an empty pool.
While I’m proud of all the work I did with the plotting out of HiS from beginning to end, and all the character interviews and world building… The truth is, I haven’t actually written anything since November. Four whole months. Nada. I know I ought to be able to open up any one of these 64 planned out scenes and just get going on one, but I haven’t been able to make myself do that either.
I need a kick start. Something to get me going and back on the right track again.
Suggestions? Anybody? Anything?
Something’s got to jolt me out of this semi-sick, torpid languor and back to productivity.