I Stayed Up Until 3am Last Night

Yesterday was such a good writing day! Great meetings, word sessions, and a craft session yesterday as part of the YA Novel workshop run by Nova Ren Suma that I’m taking (I stayed up until almost 3am so I could do the craft discussion—and though it was wonderful, I’m sooo tired, four ish hours later and have so much work to do today!)

But it was worth it!

In the last couple of days I’ve done so many writing things: attended a writing group; had research meetings as part of my MFA programme which have me all excited about my new work; chatted one-to-one with another writer about my writing; met with PhD faculty to discuss my PhD proposal in creative writing; started a four-week asynchronous generative writing workshop; and had zoom meetings for craft discussions. I’ve been fitting these around my freelance editorial work, and I’ve found I’ve been so much happier (albeit following a hectic schedule now!)—like, I’m writing in 15-minute snippets and talking craft and future plans, and I’m focusing more on what I want to write and what feels authentic for me, and not what I think I should be writing. I am having fun with my writing again. And that’s just…huge.

While I can’t sustain the staying-up-late pace or the hectic schedule (hello, chronic illness), I’ve realised I need to try and write each day (however few words I manage) and give myself permission to just have fun with words and not feel pressured by the need for them to do something or have a purpose in my career. Because their purpose is to help me feel more connected to writing and this makes me feel more balanced. And that’s just as important (and of course provides a better platform in which to build the words that are more career-centric).