Writing Through Reality

No matter what your feelings are toward current events in the US, we are all feeling something. Some are happy and hopeful, some distraught and scared of what will happen in the future. But the most important question is whether you are going to allow this to affect your writing.

Now, you may be saying, “What do you mean ‘allow’?!”

Many people are having a really hard time focusing so deeply are they feeling their emotions. People are thinking about what is going to happen — to them and to others; to the economy, hell, even to the world.

The problem is that you still have a book to write. You still have readers who need a book to read. You may have a deadline which you’d prefer to make and not just enjoy the sound it makes as it flies by (thank you Douglas Adams).

So, what are you going to do? How are you going to get yourself through this and focus your mind back to where it needs to be?

First of all, let me acknowledge that this is Not Easy. I too am feeling deep feelings. I too sat stunned on Wednesday morning not knowing what to think. Catastrophizing. Worrying and fearful. Exchanging thoughts of potential futures with family members. But then I had to get work. I had a romance to write. I had people who I had to make happy, whose lives I had to destroy and build back up again with the help of the…