Hello hello, and welcome to our now 13th (XIIIth) writing club update. My dictionary explains that the meaning of “thirteen” is:
One more than twelve.
Truly words to live by. Shuffling around my books for a more inspirational bit of numerology, I find the chapter in Mervyn Peake’s “Titus Groan” book, wherein we’re introduced to the outsider “Keda” who is to be a wet-nurse for the titular prince of Gormenghast. I’m not sure how that relates to what we’re doing here, but it’s a pretty weird, and cool, book.
Speaking of weird and cool…!
As always, all are extremely welcome to participate in the writing club, regardless of whether they’re in the list above.
I haven’t written in a long time, but it’s really cool to see what everyone else is working on!
When was the last time you wrote, if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve taken some long, long, looong breaks, myself.
It’s been a hot minute. I believe the last time I wrote was September 2024, so… almost a year! I was editing some stuff in October/November but ended up deciding to take a break to focus on my health, and then I just… uh… never quite ended that break XD
Sounds like a decent break! I definitely feel you on putting down writing for a while to focus on something more important, like your health (definitely more important!).
The unofficial theme of the August writing club post is drought hehe, partially because of the subjective weather but also because I’m struggling to write while working + looking for a fulltime job!
Feel free to wade in to the comments on that August post, and if you feel so inclined, maybe even set a goal for next month! Either way, you’re more than welcome.
Long breaks are fine! I think most of us had them. I’ve gone long months without doing anything, ignoring the initial decade it took me to even realize I had a worthwhile interest in it.
I’ve definitely gone years without writing in the past until I established that it was something important to me. Sometimes I wonder if its something kind of inherent to our craft? I feel like most kinds of artists don’t talk about having big hiatuses (unless they’re super burned out)
I think it depends on your own past experience and relationship with big projects. But I’ve had multiple book series now that I’ve worked on for multiple years including occasional breaks, so at this point I’m somewhat confident I can pick them back up again and it won’t be an impossible task to get into it. I think that takes some experimentation and learning how to stick with projects to pull that off, which I certainly didn’t manage when I was younger.
One trick I like to use is to never fully let it go, by for example continuing to take notes and to make other associated small art projects to keep the mythos alive and going in my head.
Do you read? I found that reading and writing go hand in hand for me, and the times I’ve written the most were the ones when I also read the most. It’s kind of a mutual feedback dynamic!
I read nonstop!! Several books a month. I like to think that I’m still learning something even if I’m not writing right now… and I definitely get those bursts of inspiration as I’m reading still hehe