Wednesday, July 6, 2022

IWSG: Finding my New Normal



Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the July 6 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane Burton!

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In late May, I made a major life change that was a long time coming: I left teaching (check my leaving teaching blog post for details). I have an entirely new day job: a content writing job in corporate. Overnight, my stress dropped by half, so I'm feeling sure it was the right decision. But, it's quite a change after 27 years of teaching. 

What I haven't figured out yet is how my writing life fits into the parameters of the new job. 

I had a pretty good pattern going these past few years, writing evenings and taking advantage of the cyclical nature of teaching to give writing fuller focus during the times of year when school wasn't in session. 

But I haven't made any progress on my latest novel since the job change. 

Maybe that's just the transition phase. There's a lot to learn in the new job, after all. 

And I've had other curve balls, like taking a long-awaited trip to Ireland, seeing my daughter through college graduation, and getting the other kid going on driving lessons. Life has had my attention focused elsewhere. 

But I suspect that I'll need to re-set completely, that these life changes are going to require revamping my writing schedule and approaches, because come evening, I am screenburnt after all the zooming and it's hard to get myself to sit behind a screen again in the evening, even for fun stuff like playing with my imaginary friends. 

Will I need to become a morning writer? Someone who writes on their lunch hour? Do I need to start writing on paper and transferring to computer later? I don't know!


It's weird to be seven years along a path and feel like you've lost the trail, but I'm trying to stay positive and tell myself that it's exciting to have the chance to start fresh and try new approaches. 

Have any of you had to change how you fit your creative ventures into your life after a big change? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

6 comments:

  1. It can be hard to write when you're going through a big life and career change. I'm a content writer part-time. I write my articles for work in the morning when I'm freshest. My mom isn't doing well, so I spend a lot of time with her too. That means that I have to get a lot of my writing done while I'm eating lunch. When I'm disciplined, I get a fair amount done. Good luck figuring out how to write more with your new job.

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    1. Thank you for the supportive comments. I'm hopeful that I'll feel like I'm back on track eventually. I'm just maybe not so good at being patient in the meantime.

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  2. Any time I've had a life change like a new job, it always comes with a transitional period where I have to figure out what the new normal will look like. Not much writing gets done then, but I eventually get through to the other side. (Then not much writing gets done for other reasons...)

    It might take some time, but you'll definitely figure it out.

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  3. I feel the key is to stay on the path and take small detours once in a while to get a fresh perspective.

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  4. Big changes in your life. Cut yourself a little slack. If you can handle doing little bits of writing, do it. Otherwise, you might need to take a break.

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