This past few weeks have been hard on writing, last week especially. Words are getting onto the page but it feels hard and labored and unsatisfactory.
A part of me knows it's probably my Critical Voice making the current work in progress more important than it really is. Except putting that manuscript aside and spending time on one of my "experimental" didn't solve the problem. Usually, I can write five hundred or a thousand words on those projects because they are experimental, and at this point I'm not intending to publish them. So no pressure from the Critical Voice.
Except this time it didn't make a difference.
Earlier today I had one of the Bookbub emails that hit my inbox daily with special offers and books I must have. I browsed through the offers and was about to hit delete when one of the books caught my eye. The Writer's Process: Getting Your Brain in Gear by Anne Janzer.
The title sounded familiar. I checked the bookcase and my kindle library. No sign of it. If I have read the book it has disappeared, or I borrowed it from a Library. I read the sales copy. The Muse and the Scribe. Something else that sounded familiar. As the book was on offer I clicked the buy now button.
I had a gap between meetings so I downloaded the book, began flicking through, and found myself actually reading the first chapters. Janzer talks about the Muse and the Scribe and how they need to be in balance to do your best writing. My first thought was Creative Voice and Critical Voice. It's more than that and I found myself on the second chapter and the meeting alert pinging.
The meeting wasn't one I could skip, so I closed my iPad and put it well out of reach so I could focus on the meeting. I'll go back to it later though as I think there's some good material in there.