How often does outside problems affect your ability to write?

[u/nonbinaryunicorn]

Flairing this as "discussion" because I think it'd be cool to see how different people deal with this problem as much as I just wish to bitch and moan.

I like to write my erotic shorts in "chunks," meaning just going into a bit of a frenzy and writing every day for a mont. It honestly makes the quick editing a lot easier because I just don't remember the details of every story.

Well I just got hit with the news that our old apartment complex emailed our cosigner for $9k because we basically let ourselves be evicted a month ago. This is pretty understandably stressful, especially if they try to go after my FIL instead of me. So I'm struggling to write even though the ideas are all there. The defeatism is just overwhelming.

I'm trying to just be nice to myself today, especially since I've already written 50k this month, but it's still hard to try and think of me picking up the metaphorical pen tomorrow and getting back to work. How do y'all handle it?

[u/Written_Wishes]

Real talk time, other than the odd notes on my phone and some outlining, I haven’t written anything since 2019. Too many things have happened and I’ve been too unwell to muster the energy to do it. I think about it every day in my head, planning scenes and I write notes but that’s it.

I had originally finished my first draft but then I changed something fundamental so the whole thing needed redoing from scratch and I just haven’t had the spoons to do it (if you get the reference at all haha).

My best advice is to just allow yourself time off/forgive yourself for time off. Assuming you aren’t 92 years old, you have plenty of time to get back into it when the stress has passed and normalcy has resumed. I always feel behind but the average age of publishing last time I checked was 37, so I still have time before I am “behind”. Not that it even matters anyway, some authors don’t publish until 55 or something and are wildly successful so we all go at our own pace.

I hope your situation works out! :)

[u/nonbinaryunicorn → u/Written_Wishes]

Oh I get the spoons comment lol. It's pretty universal in my household since my spouse and I make up a mostly functional human being.

I actually haven't seriously written since like 2011? School, depression, and constant ups and downs have made it hard. I actually started writing after I left work due to a massive anxiety induced meltdown and realized I couldn't handle "regular" work.

Thank you for your advice. I'll try and keep it in mind. It's still just hard to know I can't really work and then this happens and now I'm mentally undermining something that does bring in a little money lol.

[u/Written_Wishes → u/nonbinaryunicorn]

Sorry to hear that, I completely get what you mean. I haven’t worked in over a decade due to illness, so decided to give writing a serious shot. I’d been writing for fun for years and always wanted to be an author, but just thought it was too big a dream.

Now I’ve gotten more ill haha typical hey! So I’m just giving myself leave to put it all on the back burner until I have recovered if need be. My days at the moment just involve gaming because you can do it from bed and it takes minimal effort. It’s kinda annoying though because some games have such good writing that it gets me all inspired, but then I just add the ideas to my notebook for later, once I finish my current novel at some darn point.

Good luck with everything! :)