How has “Lockdown Life” affected your writing? Have you written more? Developed/honed new writing skills? If so, please tell us about it. Or have you found yourself off-track, lacking motivation, or otherwise sidelining your writing? If the latter, how have you handled that?
by Dietrich
There’s always enough time to write, lockdown or no lockdown. The trick is keeping uplifted so I’ll sit down and do it. I never miss a day of writing, some longer than others, but as long as I show up, then I’m happy with that. It keeps the rhythm going, and basically I see it as an opportunity to play. I like to experiment with my approach, trying to bring something new to it, and that keeps it new and fresh. And often when I’m not at my desk typing, I’m dreaming up ideas, something to work on the next day.
I have a novel coming out later this year called Under an Outlaw Moon. It’s based on the real-life story of a pair of bank-robbers back in the thirties. And I have a couple more complete and with my publisher. Right now I’m playing around with a couple of shorter pieces, so writing has stayed steady.
I’m drawn to anything that inspires me to keep it going. Art and music have a way of inviting the muse, and good books do that for sure, and I read plenty of them. Recently, I picked up Emily Schultz’s awesome nail-biter Little Threats, Michael Punke’s The Revenant, Kris Calvin’s new one All that Fall, and I started into Tim Dorsey’s excellent Storm Serge series. It’s crime fiction with dark twists of humor. Reed Farrel Coleman’s The Bitterest Pill was also an entertaining read; it’s #18 in the late-great Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series, and Reed does a nice job of keeping that series alive. There have been some biographies that have given me a lift too: Miles by Miles Davis, and Rod by Rod Stewart, and Anger is an Energy by John Lydon. And I reread Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. All those turning pages have helped keep me motivated and on track.
"I see it as an opportunity to play". You can go off people, you know. (Just kidding - that was actually the shot in the arm I need as I try to get a new one up and running.)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Catriona.
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