Weekends, we get it. An escape from a work week, a reprieve from the calamity of commutes, meetings, phone calls, and anything else that would normally drive most people to tears. A short two day break from our daily lives, but is it? As a writer, as an author, do we ever really get a weekend off to relax and soak up life beyond the written word or the story?
As a first-time author navigating the seas of marketing, self-publishing, and working on another novel while jotting down constant flows of ideas and new stories how do I tell my brain to knock it off? I try, I really do and I can see how many out there suffer the same inability to push it all away. Do we ever take a break? How?
Our works, for many of us, are simply dreams come true. Our works are like our children we have nurtured for numerous pages and taught to walk on their own. Our characters are as real to us as the Harry the mailman, the waitress at Taco Town, the baggy jean wearing mall rat with the bad hair, they exist because we created them, the only problem is, they tend to follow us everywhere.
Most writers work full-time jobs in the real world. A great deal of them spend the weekends writing, others make it a full-time occupation. For some of us, however, being able to draw the line between “now” time for our secret created worlds versus “not now” seems to teeter on a very thin ledge. It’s hard to push our minds away from our work especially when plot lines, character development, or even fantastic new material shouts at us while in the shower, driving, or simply reading someone else’s novel. If it exists, I have yet to figure it all out.
I don’t mind the constant stream of thoughts and character chatter that tends to happen at the most inopportune moments, it can be determined a blessing as a creative mind never stops creating. I’d like to not be in magic making mode 24/7, but then again I can’t complain that it happens. For some, it never does. If we don’t embrace the fickled way our writer mind works, aren’t we just denying a passion, a talent, a chance to forego a weekend for the sake of art? I’d like to think that, but a new plot line just opened and off we go. Adios weekend.
The Bearded Scribbler 