No, this still isn’t Noumental Chapter 2, but here’s some news!

I have recovered from a 5 day spell of creative fallout and am ready, fingers crossed, to get that nasty little project finished! I’ll be honest – the two thousand words that I wrote for the extract? Down to 1,000! My inner critic was going haywire and I could hardly advance a character. I felt like I wasn’t depicting the two protagonists correctly – Elroia felt too dull, Juille a bit too pathetic – to be frank though, the latter is about to be put to death. I felt that I hadn’t introduced their purpose well enough, explored their appearance fluidly and oargh! The paroxysm just wouldn’t stop!

So, I took a break from creative writing. Well, not really a break, because one of things weighing upon my mind was university assignments. Stuff I needed DONE.

Let’s get down to Busy-ness

Multitasking with academia is a frightful matter, even without extra-curricular responsibilities. I currently have three assignments going silmultaneosly – one due next week, another that I need to research independently and one that is mercifully a portfolio task due in January. This I need to do in my free time – I have 11 hours of lectures to attend across the week, with Monday being my only real free day: on these four days, I need to catch a train there and back, adding more possible distractions to work depending on your carriage companions. On top of that I’ve got two one hour meetings to make a week, as well as family cooking/cleaning obligations at the weekend which take up around three hours.

In all fairness, that leaves me with plenty of time to write – about Fourteen hours, excluding Assignment blocks. However, finding it is all the more tiring.

The train blocks are sometimes good writing opportunities – even if they aren’t, they can inspire odd short stories (e.g. the vitriolic “White knuckle ride”) or provide opportunities for discussing ideas if my brother’s with me. Both ways, that’s a bonus hour-an’-half to write, with possibly a little extra if the connection at the station waiting room is good. This has been my main workblock for creative writing over the past month, if I’m not tired off my arse from having to rise at 5:30 to catch the train or shattered from the four hours of lectures on Tuesday.

As for the free-time blocks, they’re not always dependable. I used to have a google add-on called “Siteblocker” which I’d highly recommend, granted it accepts your card. With password protection, categorical blocking and even a quirky reward system, it was immensely helpful for keeping my roving sconce on task. Unfortunately, my twelve-month subscription recently inspired…and now it won’t accept my card. As a result, if I need to look up a better synonym or search for effective character resources, I’m at the mercy of edutainment! Just last week I spent an hour staring at an insipid and repetitive TVtropes page on Eragon and lost all sense to write for myself.Don’t get me started on youtube – if I go to watch a video regarding sensory writing, I’ll inevitably be dazzled with shoddy Metaverse, Grammarly (somewhat relevant) or DISPLATE(!!!) advertisements and stupid recommendations along the lines of “I SURVIVED A WEEK UNDERGROUND!!” or “Dream did WHAT?! (long story)” or “Cartoon but out of context” and so on. Since youtube has restricted Ad-blockers, I’ve been fairly out of my depth – I need to find an alternative direly.

So you can see, there’s a lot of burnout factors here – fatigue, distraction, browser add-ons, work-anxiety, rampant self critique etc. Just as influenza comes a-knocking every winter, burnout will pay the rounds before too long. Like the Flu, however, it is unlikely to be lethal if you have the constiution, and even without prevention measures can be put in place. Here is what I’ve done for myself:

Burnout safety – We didn’t start the fire.

• Freewriting in general is always good. When the effort of focusing on a piece gets too much and your ideas lack the fibre to flow, change the subject and put a pen to paper. Over the weekend, I did three hours of unsupervised scrawling to keep my inner critic in check.
  • Emotive writing is an absolute godsend. You simply stop what you’re doing and write about feelings: what has caused you to feel uninspired or upset? Make note to yourself privately if there’s anyone you can confide in, anything you can do to help. If you want to dispose of it afterwards, you can. One of the biggest causes of my burnout last week was the result of an unpleasant realisation about a former friend. Held back by this feeling of shock (and, long story, hysterical mirth), I spent a while writing about what happened and how it made me feel. Now, some emotional factors are too raw to be tackled this way – ruminating about them will either intensify the pain or cause it to persist – but it can help you come to terms with your situation and move on. Other forms of therapy, artistic or direct, are also helpful.
• I’d take a miniscule break from any writing altogether if you’re especially constipated and can afford to – go do something that doesn’t require you to actively think about words, like baking, tree planting or taking down the coronation bunting. Let you subconscious mind work on the problem for a day or so, then come straight back to your priorities (in my case, sadly, more essays). By then, you might have forgotten some of your petty concerns and developed some solutions, alongside the obvious benefits of relaxation. You can plan breaks ahead as a sort of prevention measure, if you must – a good deal of strategy is especially handy, but impromptu works well too.
  • Detox days work well too, if you’re alright with writing freehand. Chances are, you’re more likely to be able to afford a day without social media than you think. A break from all the distractions of the internet, not least draining politics, will help you find your pen again. If you need to consider giving it a try, check up some strategies online to ease yourself in!
• Grit your teeth and get someone respectful to read the work you did get done. Sometimes, out inner critics invent too many anxieties about the quality of our writing and expect negative opinions from potential readers – this will set it straight by exposing you to the truth. Even if you do recieve negative feedback, you can at least discuss it cordially with the reader and work out your own solutions that way, if any. The reader might even inspire new, sustaining directions for your narrative if they’re anything like my brother! It’s unhealthy to keep everything to yourself – sharing is caring.
• Write about a different aspect of your story – don’t advance the main narrative, if you can. Explore your characters by making a character profile, or even have a go at drawing them to the best of your ability. The more references you have for your creations across circumstances, the surer you will be writing them. You might also want to experiment a bit with setting, try out writing in a different style or stuff like that – even if it doesn’t make it into your main plot, it might inspire some newfound creativity. This often overlaps with freewriting for me – let the ideas fall where they please!
• Read something new – like, completely different from what you usually do. If you linger only within your comfort zone, you’re unlikely to spot anything fresh. Go on a literary expedition into unknown territory and bring back some fodder for your story! Thanks to reviewing a friend’s gothic fantasy novel, I’ve decided to tidy up a certain victorian character in my Noumenal project – see how each strategy can lend into the other, eh?

Anyhoo, that’s enough of my prattle. I am indeed feeling much more eager to get the job done now. Who knows how unaccountable I’d be if I didn’t have an invisible readerbase to apologise to? That’s an unusual bonus of having a blog, though: you realise all the more when you’ve burnt out and thus take steps to clear it up!

Have a good week. Hope to release chapter 2 before the weekend!