Just Keep Writing

As someone who suffers from ADHD, depression, and chronic pain, I used to get frustrated when people's advice for getting back into writing or overcoming writer's block was "Just write something, anything." It frustrated me because some days, I can hardly pull myself out of bed, yet I have a burning desire, a need, to be creative. I will have days where everything hurts, but my brain feels like it will explode unless I get words on the page. But then I open my Dabble account, stare at the blank page, and cannot physically make my hands do the thing, get my brain to work, and make my imagination fire so that the typie-typie can start and words appear on the screen. On those days, "just write something, anything" feels mockingly simple.

Then, I start writing about how frustrating that advice is. Or about how I have no idea where to go with my story. Or how annoying my character is because she is just too logical and won't let her emotions lead her... And suddenly, I don't have a blank page anymore. Suddenly, I am writing. Even if the words will never be part of my manuscript, even if the words are a study of my own internal turmoil, I am writing, and something happens... Suddenly, the writing becomes productive, and even if the words never get [copy][paste] into a chapter, they help me work through whatever is holding me back from writing.

So yes, "just write something" is horribly, frustratingly, simple advice. But fuck if it doesn't work every time.

Thus, that is what I am doing today. Editing Harmony of War is stalled. I'm waiting for feedback from Katie before I can move forward, so I am ready to plunge into Book Two, Harmony of Destruction, but I'm stuck. I LOVE how I left Book One and am tickled by the prologue I immediately wrote for Book Two, but now I don't know where to go. So...

I'm just going to write something... anything.