Safe Ground
Christmas can mean one of two things for writers. To most of us, it’s fun-filled family-time we look forward to, even though it interrupts the flow of longer projects we’ve started. But to others, it’s a danger zone.
Once I get inside a world, I rarely like to surface again until the first draft is done. NaNoWriMo got me into my next big project, but then I moved house, and now Christmas is looming…
I should be grateful though that these are my only woes.
Thinking, thinking, thinking...
Most writers are sensitive creatures, in some shape or form. We have to be in order to absorb the world around us and regurgitate it in the imagined forms we create. The idiosyncrasies of our characters, their observation of minutiae, and their emotive existence all entice readers into our stories and entrap them there. Bahahaha!
But the downside to our constant absorption of the world is sometimes we can absorb a little too much. How many people do you know who suffer, or have suffered from depression? I can count five just off the top of my head. Three of them are writers (and the other two probably should be!)
Think of a time when you were last feeling down. It might have been your last nasty break-up, a death in your close family, a dip in your career, the loss of a friend… how did Christmas make you feel? Worse, right?
Phrases like these might have repeated in your brain, creating a special place of hurt for only you:
No one understands
I’m so tired
I can’t go on like this
What’s the point?
I’m not getting anywhere
It will never be the same again
We all have moments of doubt and despair. But for some, those moments stretch into millennia. So, this festive season, spare a thought for someone who might be on that edge and reach out. Yours might be the hand that pulls them back to safety.
Some thoughtful ideas. Something all of us who write can do with. Thank you.
You’re welcome! And thank you for reading, and taking the time to comment. I hope you had an okay festive season