As you likely have noted in the posts from the end of November to the last one, I've been battling a sense of hopelessness and loss in regards to my work as a writer. It's a bit embarrassing, but writers, like all creative beings, can get supremely insecure and outright scared. But we also hold out hope that we can find a way past our writer's block to the words hiding from us. Writer's block had set in on me, and looked like it was staying for the long haul, however much I wanted it to go away.

So today I dragged the writer's block out and bitch slapped it to pieces.

With the block broken into more manageable pieces, I still was able to get down to the business of writing. The aftermath of the massacre I inflicted on said block could still be considered unbreachable, and in this I had to be cautious, lest I get stuck forever. So I spent the day examining each piece of the writer's block, throwing it away if it merely caused more stress than enjoyment and arranging the rest into a schedule I could work with flexibly. I also pared down those commitments that were necessary but had become difficult to deal with in higher doses.

In short, I took the advice from Johanna Harness in her blog about Energy.

I needed to find what wasn't giving me energy and either eliminate or pare down those things. But I was forgetting to put the things that build and keep my energy high first. I haven't been putting my energy first in what I gives me more energy - writing - and using the leftovers for what drains me of it. I used to wake up early every morning, chatting a bit on Twitter until my ADHD meds kicked in, and then jump into my writing for hours. Lately though I've been up late, forgetting my medications, and watching endless hours of TV while working on things that only make me tired with worry.

You can't ignore Real Life, or the things you don't want to do but have to, but you can set your priorities to make you happiest.

And that's what I've done. Once I'd evaluated and reogranized those priorities, I easily began working on the plot arcs for my Origin series, and each book within it. My words are back, coming freely, and I can't wait for more.