Monday, November 29, 2010

Sigh

OK, time to confess.  I missed two scheduled posts.  Life has gotten too complicated.  November, which is supposed to be shoulder season for the B&B, has turned into a mirror image of high season -- without Phil here to help me (he's still teaching.)  On top of that, the contract job I took writing some documentation for the school where I used to teach has turned into one of those massive never-ending projects that demands what little spare time I have left. And now Qualmark says they're coming next month to assess our property (Qualmark are the guys in NZ who award the stars.)  I'm lucky if I get one hour a week of creative writing in.

OK, I admit, two weekends ago I actually took three days off.  Phil and I went to the Bay of Islands, took an overnight cruise weaving in and out of the islands, breakfasted with dolphins, shopped and relaxed.  I did absolutely NO WORK at all.  On anything.  Quite an accomplishment in itsefl as I'm a workaholic. But I finally managed to get the message into my head that sometimes a rest is good and its OK not to work.

Even for a writer.

Call it a writer's date.  That's what Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) would call it. 

It worked.  I came back recharged with new ideas.  Including a neat one for a novel set here in Thames.

Now if I only had the time to put them on paper.

Sigh.

Do you take artist's dates with yourself?  What do you do?

2 comments:

  1. Oh, that sounds lovely. I so envy the ability to do that. I haven't taken a date for a long time. Maybe that's what's missing. Hmmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. According to Cameron, an artist's date is anything you do to feed you creative juices. It could be a walk in the park, a concert or movie, scrapbooking, listening to music... You've probably been doing it without even realizing it.

    ReplyDelete