Feel the music, feed the flames
Nothing freezes me faster than cold, hard facts. “Cold”? “Hard”? Yeah, you get the picture. Whenever I try to be a savy author gathering information involving numbers, diagrams and charts, I can feel the numbness beginning to eat at my fingers and toes. “Publishing is a business,” you say. “We have to stay on top of things,” you say. The problem with that reasoning where I’m concerned is that pretty soon I feel like I’m living “on top of” a giant block of ice.
As writers we have to find what creative process works for us…we all know pantzers, plotters and plotzers…but we also have to learn what to tune out and what to tune in when it comes to energizing ourselves so that we can be creative.
In other words, know what freezes you and do your best to tune it out!
The constant flow of information about the business side of writing we experience daily on Twitter and Facebook can easily overwhelm and discourage me. My work suffers because I’m trying to create fire from ice. What I do…what I have to do…is turn that flow of information into white noise and turn up the music that matters.
My characters, my stories, my moments–they’re the reason I’m a writer in the first place. I can’t allow them to be drowned out by statistics and forecasts. Because when I feel the thaw of ignoring cold, hard facts, I also feel the music they create like a red hot orchestra in my head.
Then I’m dancing in the flames with my pen & paper and nothing else matters.
Susan Blexrud
Embrace the Shadows 
Go, Barb! I’m with you one hundred percent.
I love your posts, Barbara. This is timely. I am gearing up for a book tour in September and I’m online all of the time. Quite often have a hard time finding the right filter for all of the information I’m receiving. My creative psyche is suffering. After the initial rush in September, I’m hoping to go into the cave myself and work on some manuscripts I’ve been neglecting. I can hardly wait until the fire starts burning again! 😉
Oh, the cave is definitely calling my name. Or possibly a high hill top where I can prop myself up against a tree and write all day while the leaves turn.
Oh, Barbara, I’m so with you on the hill (well, actually on my own personal writing hill, but you know what I mean)! From my perspective as a pre-published writer, I’m just focusing on finishing and subbing manuscripts. As such, I’m very careful about my online time — it needs to stay short, focused, and positive. Thank you for your post — and know you’re not alone! 🙂
Where did you get the first picture from? It’s really nice and I wanted to use it for my non profit…