People often ask me, what do I do when I’m not writing. I’m always somewhat bemused because even when I’m not physically writing, I’m usually crafting the next story in my head.

The thing is, writers never stop creating. Even when we are on a break, we inevitably come up with something to keep our brains active. Whether it’s about the man who walks his three dogs every morning at the exact same time by my house or the glimpse I catch of a plane flying overhead and imagining where it is traveling to, there’s always a story brewing.

Do I take mental breaks? Of course, I do. Five days a week, I workout for about 60-65 minutes. After a solid five minutes on the torture device, a.k.a. the rowing machine, I do ten miles on my exercise bike…which I’m kind of proud of giving my past disdain for anything resembling the word exercise.

I then do fifteen minutes of yoga, which has completely changed my life over the last two years. It’s comical really. I never in a million years thought I would be a yogi or that I even had the mindset to be that connected spiritually to my own breath.

Yoga, quite simply, keeps the crazy away for me.

I take five minutes while doing legs on the wall to do mindful meditation and just recently I started to do fifteen minutes of guided meditation. Again, another practice which I probably scoffed at and made fun of years ago.

What else? I clean the house more and dinners are always far more intricate. I just recently finished binge watching previous seasons of Top Chef and I am finishing up on season two of Succession. I brainstorm with my sons on their writing projects and chill out my daughter.

Basically, I do normal sh*t.

But it’s always there. In the back of my mind, thoughts, words, story lines lurk and filter in my brain. I have stressed many times the importance of taking breaks from writing. You need to step away and regroup. The second book of my new series, I have played around with different scenarios and over the last week, I think I figured out what I want to do since I wasn’t quite happy with my original idea or outline.

And now I’m ready. The first chapter is done and I’m on to the next. The familiar excitement and butterflies in my belly are already circling as my fingers dance over the keyboard. The comfort and restfulness of the in-between is over.

Seeds of the Cursed is waiting to be written and I for one am ready to begin yet another journey on this writing adventure.

 

~Shannon