It’s not just the writing, it’s finding the time, finding the right head space, and sometimes finding the energy. I’ve had trouble finding both the physical energy and the emotional energy. Who’d a thunk you’d need both types of energy to write.
Last Monday I had a meeting in the evening. It finished late and I went straight to bed afterwards. Sleep is important, so instead of struggling to write I went to bed. Great idea, pity it didn’t work so well. I’d seen my new specialist and had been given new medication. I can’t say I’m excited to have the side affect of insomnia. It was a long night as I stayed in bed hoping for sleep. You’re right, I’m not taking that medication any more.
I’m also finding the motivation to write about books is not really there at present. I’ve been reading magazines which I don’t choose to write about. But I’m back to reading books. When I’m able to write about books again I’ll have something to choose from.
Part of the reason is that we’re still working our way through my in-laws’ possessions. The FIL was a passionate correspondent. The last few weeks of his life was probably the longest time since he moved to Melbourne where he didn’t correspond with anyone. He wrote letters to family members all over the world, expanding his genealogical information and keeping copies of every letter written and every letter people wrote back to him. While he did learn how to use a computer, and then the internet, fairly early he insisted on printing out all his correspondence and then deleting the emails. I’m not sure how much he had saved to his computer as that’s not my job. What I am doing is scanning in all the correspondence. In the past two weeks I’ve scanned about nine or ten lever arch folders. This current folder is taking more time, but it’s also rather older. I’ve been given permission to throw out most of the emails (after scanning), but this original correspondence from the 1980s I’ve been asked to keep for the moment. Many of the letters are typewritten on thin paper, some of them are very important. You might guess I’m taking more time and being more careful. So far I’ve scanned 502 pages from this folder. Many of them are doublesided and I estimate I have at least another 300 to go. The other folders varied between 372 and 571 pages. I haven’t counted the folders still to be scanned but I suspect it’s about another twenty folders. Then I’ll start looking at manilla folders again.
While I’m scanning his stuff I can’t scan the archives of my synagogue. Today I made a decision. When I’ve completed his scanning I’ll move onto the archives. I won’t try to write any more on the synagogue’s history until the archives are finished. If I can work at this same pace for the archives then I should finish this year or early next year. But I still need to scratch that writing itch. When I have time and energy I attend a writing group run by Writers Victoria. It’s online and runs twice a week. Live Write is going to be my saviour. I have an historical fiction novel in progress and I’m going to add more words to that twice a week until I’ve finished scanning everything. I will then sit back and reassess everything to see where things are at and which project should receive some love. Exercising my writing skills twice a week will make it easier to write for my blog. My new writing regime will start tomorrow night at 8pm with Live Write.