Friday, November 25, 2011

Not writer’s block

People read my book – BUT I TOLD YOU LAST YEAR THAT I LOVED YOU – and tell me they liked it a lot and then ask what I am writing now. Am I in the middle of writing the next book? The answer is “No:  I’m not working on another book.” Why would I do that when I had to publish this last one – my best – myself?

I am not writing at all these days. Writing even a chatty email is a chore. And I no longer feel like writing my blog. I no longer feel like sharing my life with people I don’t know – nice as you all are, dear readers. It’s weird. Is this just a temporary glitch in my writing life?

I thought about having a break from the blog and then considering the question again after Christmas.

I also thought that this might be the opportunity and place to publish the bereavement journal that I wrote when my father died. I tried to get it published before and received lots of wonderfully complimentary rejections from publishers. Then I fictionalised it and used it in Zuzu’s Petals – that book of mine with the dreadful cover, the cover which misled innocents into thinking the book was shallow chick-lit, or even (last week) a childrens’ book. I thought I could serialise the journal on my blog, but when i looked at the first few entries just now, I was horrified. It is so personal and so intimate. How could I show that to the world? Putting it on the net seemed so different from publishing it in a book. Why do you suppose that is?

So i am stumped. I could give up the blog, take a break, or I could do something completely different with the space. Do you have any thoughts?

If the comments section below is playing up again and you can’t leave a comment, and you don’t have my personal email address, you could email me via my publisher (me!) at infoATdelicatelynuancedDOTcom  - I am sure you know what to do with this address to make it work.

In case you’re wondering – I am not depressed. It’s rather the opposite – i am enjoying my life very much right now, and writing – this month at least - seems to be a poor substitute for living.

Nov 2011 030

 

4 comments:

Christine said...

I'd miss your blog. Why don't you have a break and see how you feel after a while?

Anonymous said...

OMG Sue! The coat! It's amazing. Well done
LRH

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks, Christine. I might just do that.

And LRH - I wondered if anyone would notice the coat. Cool, or what?

Anonymous said...

While, like Christine, I'd miss your blog, you do need to have a break sometimes. I recently had a new computer and a consequence of this is that I've lost a lot of the old blog addresses, which would pop up each time I typed the first word into the address box, but I can honestly say I've not missed looking in at several every day. It's habit forming and sometimes you need to break certain habits.
Yes, love that coat!
Margaret P