Only a short ten-ish months ago, I had multiple works in progress, I was active with social media, and I thought I was doing everything right as a would-be writer. Then it all went wrong, and I burned out on every avenue. It would take an entire spring, summer, and part of fall before I was able to recover the most important element – writing. It’s taken even longer to start to pick back the rest of the pieces.
On a more personal note, starting a small farm on five acres takes a ton of time. Nearly any and all free time last year was spent getting a garden ready and introducing chickens and goats to the farm. But that still does not excuse my total lack of writing. Even as a would-be writer, I was disappointed in my own lack of progress.
This year, as a part of my 14 part plan to myself, I decided that I needed to make sure I kept writing, even when everything else around me seemed to be going a little crazy. I did find, in my brief moments of happy writing last year, that good, old fashioned serial works were great for this. I didn’t have to commit to writing a full, fleshed out chapter but rather shorter stories, breaking the whole down into shorter episodes as it were. With that in mind, I’m bringing back the serial I started last year, and my plan is to slowly, but surely finish this first tale of Saga of Kêr-Is.
To touch on the social media aspect – I stumbled upon Wattpad a couple of years ago and my first story published there had a small, but decent amount of positive reception. I enjoyed their version of NaNoWriMo – to write a novella instead of a novel in a set amount of time – and I participated two years in a row. But I found, with the exception of the fun little pieces I wrote for prompts, that the feedback became less and less and my enjoyment of the site itself waned as well. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think the typical demographic and I were ever going to see eye to eye.
At the same time I was starting up on Wattpad, I also found Booksie. Now, my feedback has been even less from Booksie than it was from Wattpad, but I decided that as I slowly ease my way back into social media, that might be a good thing. I’m not looking for a lot of exposure, at least not at the moment. Though I wouldn’t say no if a reputable agent told me they loved my work and wanted to publish my stories. All I want now is a “spot o’ earth” to just post my stories to keep myself honest with the process. The rest – the interactions, the dreaded marketing, etc. – can wait awhile.
Saga is now removed from Wattpad, and in the process of being moved to Booksie. And I’m in the process of reading through pages covered in mental dust, so that when the time is right, I can pick up pen and paper, or just tap out a few more words on the laptop, and start to weave this story once more.
Has anyone else experienced full on writing burn out? What was your solution?
Until next time –
L.E.
Ramblings of a Would-Be Writer 