This has been one of my least productive writing weeks since I left teaching almost four years ago. I have only myself to blame, but I’m going to dump a little of it on the time change, too.
Something about losing that one little hour sets me back — far back. I still feel off, sluggish, and unable to concentrate the way I need to concentrate.
I’ve barely accomplished anything this week, and yes, I know the time change was almost two weeks ago! That’s how badly it affected me this year.
I love having daylight spreading into the evening hours, so I’m not a complete hater about the time change, but it really did a number on me this year, creatively. Mother Nature and her bipolar ups and downs in temperature (80 degrees one day and a blizzard two days later) as well as the non-stop wind that is driving me crazy is adding to my inability to focus and be productive, too.
At least I managed to get a lot of reading done, and I did paint more bookmarks to give out at my next appearances, which are coming up. I’ve also been trying to complete a poem that I’d like to enter in a contest, but if don’t get my butt in gear and finish it soon, the deadline is going to pass me by.
Some might say I have writer’s block, but I disagree. I’m simply in a period of pure procrastination and maybe even a little bit of mourning. Nobody died, but . . .
I spent all of 2024 writing “Last in the Class,” so when I finally released it in early January, it was like sending another kid out into the world and being left with an “empty nest.” There’s a period of adjustment and sadness that every parent goes through as she figures out what to do with herself now that the one thing she’d spent all her time and energy on isn’t with her anymore — doesn’t need her in the day-to-day way, yet still needs her in other ways. I have spent quite a bit of time and energy since early January in promoting the book and trying to get people to buy and read copies of it, but the book (the child) is out of my hands now.
I’m not ready to step away from it, though, and into the full-time role of creating another “baby,” a.k.a. book. So, that’s probably the real reason I haven’t been productive, but I’m still going to blame the time change. Ha ha.
It doesn’t help either that I added another dog to my small pack, but she’s been a wonderful addition. She’ll be two years old tomorrow! Our Labrador and she are great buddies already.
Frequent timeouts to play ball and go for walks cut into my creative time, too, but those are moments of nonproductivity that I can live with.
I think the biggest frustration is this: all I want to do is write, yet all I seem not to do is write. That makes me feel useless. After all, time is ticking, and I hate to waste a moment of it — even though the recent time change robbed us all of an hour of it.
Today, I’ll share the draft I have so far of the poem I’m trying to write with my paying subscribers as well as another chapter of “Last in the Class.” Upgrade to “paid” to have access to those two things behind the paywall and to have access to all the past (over 130) archived posts of “Tomes and Topics.”
If I can make the poem any better (let’s hope I can), I’ll share the final draft of it next week. Until then. May your days be more productive than mine have been lately, and may I shake off the slump I’ve been in very soon.
Tammy Marshall
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