I haven’t posted in a while (2 months now) because I’ve been busy. In December & January, I wrote between 60-75 thousand words, of which I kept approximately 36k. That’s two short stories, one proposal for a Doctor Who audio drama, and a project proposal for CGL. Didn’t get a thing done on my novel. And that doesn’t count the number of words I wrote for future story ideas and notes, which probably adds another 5-6k to that count.
Which brings me to the topic of the day. Writers’ stress. I’ve heard a lot of stories from a lot of people about what stress is for a writer and how that reaction manifests itself after a writer is done with her work. A lot of people get depressed, lose their self-confidence, question everything they’ve written and everything in their life. Some people get angry, while others go celebrate. But the one thing no one mentions is the sick.
Writers spend so much of their time completely obsessed with getting their “thing” done that they tend to forget to take care of themselves. We don’t eat right, we don’t always get the proper amount of sleep, and heaven forbid we actually remember to exercise. So, at the end of the day (or the end of the deadline), when everything is said and done, it’s no wonder we get sick. Our immune systems are so depressed and we’ve wasted all our healthy energy on writing, that as soon as that deadline’s been met, the coughs and fevers start.
Okay, so I shouldn’t say “we” when I don’t have corroborating evidence that other writers have this same issue. When I’m just working on one or two things, I ride a buzz for one or two days after I’ve finished then do the crash into the “OMG, that was awful!” moment (which can last upwards of a week, depending on how long it took me to get there). But when I’m super-stressed about stuff, when I’m working hard on major projects, my reaction to stress-end is to get sick. Cold, flu, you name it. I’ve got it. In season or out of season.
And that’s the space I’ve been in since I finished my two-month marathon writing spree. So, I’m asking you, those who read my blog. What is your reaction to the end of stress? Physical? Mental? Emotional?
I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say.
2 Responses
Missed you, Brandie.
Please rest up and take care of yourself.
I just went through the emotional depression you described above because my latest project wasn’t working. Turns out that I was being a little hard on myself, because I expected everything to be like the two years I was working constantly.
I’ve also been sick, but I don’t give stress points for that. I’m likely to catch any respiratory thing that comes my way.
At any rate, you’ve done very well. Now rest up and get your groove back.
Catherine
End of? I tend to want to curl up in a dark corner and hibernate for awhile. During? A couple of years ago, I pushed myself to the point of near-collapse – got a nasty viral infection that worked its way into my lungs and kept me pretty much flat for weeks, then gave way to a UTI that laid me out with a high fever. I swore I wasn’t going to do that to myself again – though I have come close since.