I've been ill the entire time I've been writing this latest novel (yay for my immune system!) and I'm starting to worry that it might be kind of not the best thing I've ever written. Well-plotted compared to before since I came up with all the ideas when I was healthy, but the writing itself, line to line, isn't sparkling with all my extra energy, because I don't have any. Would you rather stop writing until you think you're good at it again, or keep writing no matter what's happening, or what your pen is producing?
I have Fibromyalgia/ME if I waited until i was well again it would never happen. It can be changed and tweaked later and rewritten. I just change my expectations about how much I will do on a given day. I have written something everyday for about fourteen months not about to stop now.
A first draft is just a first draft, and all practice is good. Perhaps you can use it, perhaps you can't, but time spent writing is time will spent.
Still think it's pretty awesome you do that. My old reaction to getting sick was to take 2 days off and just sleep and watch TV and not even think about writing... Just not sure any amount of editing can make up for the fact this was meant to be my final draft and now I'm going to have to set it aside, even though it's almost finished, and wait for a day when I'm not seeing things through eyes I've had to prop open with matchsticks... Seeing as I've been sick since October I'm really not sure when I will get better
well i also take ephedrine based tablets (kind of legal version of speed) it helps lol but probably not very healthy. With 3 kids don't have many options to prevent me falling right back into oblivion. You probably could do with like a week off and sleeping tablets see if that helps ? Just in case something has triggered post-viral fatigue might be worth getting signed off and literally just sleep for a week, resting properly now could pay off.
I'm getting tested for glandular fever - I definitely have something that's making me constantly fatigued anyways. Self-medicated with coffee when I was doing my mid-term essays (I did my essays before Christmas with no help at all - don't even remember writing them ) and kinda had a heart palpitation, so I'm not going to take anything else to make me any more energetic than I am. I have no energy and I'd rather live with it than pretend not and over-stress my body more than it needs. But I guess that answers my question about how you keep writing.
I'm sorry you're being sick! If you still like writing despite not being well, and it's not causing you problem/makes you feel worse, I think you should do it, but maybe wait until you're well for the revision. As for myself a simple flu is enough to deprive me of desire to write, so I can just imagine how you must feel.
Oh no don't overstress myself lol But have had a long, long time to learn how to best organise my body what it can take, what pushes it over the edge etc. I crashed completely when I was twenty-one as a result of over doing and am not about to repeat the five years that followed that. You are doing the right thing in resting but I would keep up with the the writing. Fatigue over a long period of time can eat away at your ability to process information if nothing else your writing forces you to think and will help keep your mind ticking over.
Oh dear... I'm 21 now... And I think I'm probably crashing. And you're right - if I wasn't writing I'd be doing nothing at all with my brain. I'm air-headed enough as it is...
Don't worry I had been ill for a long time before that just I really did overdo it - just keep resting as much as you can bodily, exercise your brain and find out what is wrong. Rest now pays off.
