Hey, guys. So, I've been writing for about five years and loathing every single one of the day-jobs that I took to pay the bills in the mean time. Most days, I would sit at my desk and jones for a writing fix. I'd have ideas percolating in my head and I would want to write them down so badly it felt like my blood was on fire. I knew I had to make telling stories a career. So, here's the good news. I just sold my first manuscript! Here's the bad news. Ove the last six months, I was working insane hours trying to do my day job AND finish the edits my publisher requested. Most days, I'd work on the novel from 6am - 9am, work until five and then do another two hours before crashing each night. By the end of it it, I was so worn out and beaten down... Well, my contract with that company is over and I'm moving to be with my fiance. For the last month, I've had almost no responsbilities and lots of time to write. But I'm just so... empty inside. I'm so tired. I still get story ideas but when I sit down to write them, my body just gives up after fifteen minutes. And I feel like everything I come up with is gargabe so I find myself rewriting the same scenes over and over. My doctor tells me it's exhaustion after what I put myself through over the last few months. He urges me to keep writing to prevent myself from getting depressed. I've been doing it and sometimes I even feel like my old self. But there are still days where I feel so worn out. So my question is this. Has anyone survived this and does it go away? Do you eventually reach a point where you feel ambitious and excited again? I just turned thirty if that's relevent.
Welcome to Writing Forums, Dresdenfan! I hope you find what you're looking for here, whatever your interests in writing. This forum aims to provide the best workshopping resources on the internet, and to that end we have a few rules which you should familiarise yourself with before you get stuck in. The main section of the site is the Writing Workshop, where members can post their writing in order to receive critique of their work. However, before we allow members to post their work, they must have met some basic requirements. Firstly, you must have been a member for fourteen days, and have made twenty posts on the forum overall (please note, posts in Word Games do not count towards this). This is so that members, when they post their work, have familiarised themselves with the forums and contributed to them (as well as hopefully learned something for themselves). Secondly, members must provide two constructive reviews of other people's work for each piece of their own that they wish to post. This is because we believe that the focus of workshopping should be equally upon giving reviews as receiving them, as they allow a writer to practice and improve their editing skills, which they can then apply to their own writing. Beyond the Writing Workshop, you will find that we have extensive forums for discussion of aspects of writing, as well as a community area for general discussion. We also run periodic short story and poetry contests, which are good for challenging yourself and expanding your skills. If you have any questions or problems, then the moderators (myself, Cogito, Lemex and Dante Dases) should be your first port of call. Any technical problems with the site itself should be directed to Daniel, the site administrator and owner. I would recommend you have a look over the rules so that you know what to expect, and what is expected. But aside from that, I hope you enjoy your time here. Banzai
I've gone through it - You're schedule is in upheaval, your overwhelmed, you push too hard. Then the burn out comes. The cure - Take it easy. Write something that doesn't have big plans - a nice little scene or short story. Maybe something fun or funny. Something that puts a smile on your face. Allow yourself to have fun with writing again! Oh, and Welcome to the group Dresdenfan!
I think the romance of "being a writer" is far more flowery than the reality. Writing is tough. No two ways about it. Some of the best writers in various media that I know, have had this same kind of fatigue more than a couple of times. Deadlines pressing, plot points falling to pieces, you may end up with the same feeling that a young American (who signed on to the military after watching patriotic ads) feels when they actually land their boots in the dirt on their first deployment. The remedy would be the same in either circumstance. Look after yourself first, duck when you have to and when they fire, fire back. The fact that you have actually sold a manuscript gives you some serious street-cred in my book.
