This past month I have been proud at the number of times that I have sat down at my desk and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard with the intention of writing.
It is hard work and, on those days, when I feel myself getting sucked into the character’s mindset, it is inspiring and exciting work. Yet, even as my pride in focusing on my writing work heightens, I find myself struggling more and more with my depression when I’m away from the writing and I know that at the heart of that depression is that I haven’t been allowing myself the joy and pure escapism of reading.
In navigating setting a solid writing routine/foundation in place for myself, I’d drawn the conclusion that reading while I was trying to establish good writing habits for myself was just not a good idea – I thought it would contribute to holding me in a negative mindset that was keeping me from pursuing my writing goals.
To be painfully honest I was and still am, half afraid that allowing myself to indulge in reading will push me into backsliding into behaviours and habits that were not serving me.
Have I started reading again this month? Yes.
Did I spend two days lying in bed reading? Yes, yes, I did.
Do I regret it? Not for a single moment.
Reading in bed is still an activity that I take a lot of comfort and joy from and on this occasion, when I was feeling particularly low and unwell, reading was something that I could do to bolster my spirits and take me outside of my own mind and throw me fully into an emotional adventure.
I am learning, slowly, that I have to make time for reading, just as I have to make time for writing.
For me, how this is going to work, is that I will only allow myself to read of an evening, or as a pick me up if I’m having a particularly crappy day.
Yep, that’s right.
Going forward I’m going to be using the act of reading as a reward/treat system for myself.
I’m eager to see how this works out for me.
When I despair of finding a balance that works for me or am being overly critical and harsh with myself, it helps to know that I am not the only one who struggles to find the balance between writing and reading or any other activity/
I know a few writers who have, in the past, stopped reading in order to focus more on their writing and instead they either found themselves grinding to a halt in their writing efforts or found that their writing, in fact, suffered more as a result of not reading.
One of the chief pieces of advice that I have heard from almost every author that I have come across is: Read. A Lot.
That’s one piece of advice that I am all too happy to follow, with limits in place to keep me from backsliding into negative routines, of course and hopefully in choosing this path, I’ll find a balance that suits me.
In terms of writing: I’ve written up a few blog posts, jotted down some ideas for future posts and I’m 39% through Story Genus by Lisa Cron and I’m enjoying following along the activities set out in the book and slowly outlining one of the urban fantasy stories that I’ve been wanting to write for a while now.
In other areas of my life, I’m now on I think my sixth re-watch of Modern Family, I first watched the show 2 or maybe, 3 years ago and it’s become one of my favourite comfort-watch shows to have on in the background when I’m completing other tasks.
I’m currently reading Mile High, the first book in the Windy City series by Liz Tomforde. I’m only in the first or second chapter at the moment, so I don’t have much to say on the book yet, other than I’m happy to be reading again.
This coming week I plan to rearrange what I call my creative space so that I can fit a reading chair into the room because as much as I love lying in bed and reading, I’ve been having some bad inflammatory pain cropping up in my left hip and leg and lying in bed is definitely making the pain worse, so I’m going to be buying myself a reading chair, which I am super excited about – it just means rearranging the space a bit and perhaps doing a bit of spring cleaning – a chore which always puts me in a bit of a positive mood.
I’m also hoping this coming week to start getting out and about more.
One of the things that I used to love doing was going on short walks with my camera and just photographing anything that caught my interest or set off a creative spark in me and it’s been so long since I’ve done that and it’s something I really want to start doing again – providing my health and the pain cropping up in my leg allows me to do so.
Nice chatting, friends.
Until next time,
Kit.
Kit's Corner of Chaos 