Writing in Snow

Took a day offline and off writing

Word count: 522

I did not get online all day Saturday, July 10, 2010. I am not sure how I fell about my self-enforced sabbatical. I worked from 11:30 AM to 8:00 PM, so I could have gotten online Saturday morning and I enjoyed working, it was different and fun. For the next two or three weeks I have a forty hour a week job, I don’t have benefits because it is a temporary job, but it is a job.

I am having someone come in and stay with Mom, she does not like it; however, I have no choice. All day Saturday, I stay off line and off the computer; I read but did not write. It feels strange to go a single day without writing poem or making a journal entry.

I am going to have to think about this experience for a few days before I come to any conclusion. It feels strange to spend and entire day off line. It feels even weirder not writing for a whole day, but I think it maybe a good idea for a writer to take a sabbatical or a short rest from writing. Spend the day thinking of nothing or focusing on the present experience without considering how you can incorporate the situation or experience in a poem or story.

Sometimes a writer focuses so hard on the plot or the character that she or he forgets that including snippets from real life experiences enhances the plat and the character. Sometimes a writer forgets to stop and smell the coffee or sip the orange juice. Day-to-day experiences enhance even fantasy or science fiction.

A day off from writing gives the muse a chance to relax and the imagination to percolate. A voluntary day off from writing is a good way to prevent writer’s block. My normal writing method is to write blog entries and journal entries, but on Saturday, I did neither. I spent Saturday afternoon and evening working. Saturday morning I did a little housework and read the newspaper.

Saturday evening, I came home and attempted to watch a little television, but I fell asleep in front of the T.V. This is something I have not did in a long time, but Saturday I fell asleep while watching a show on the History Channel. Usually I do not watch a show long enough to fall asleep in front of the television.

It is amazing how relaxing it can be to fall asleep while the television is still on. Normally, if I find myself wanting to nod off, I turn the T.V. set off, but last night I continued watching instead.

I do not intend to take another writing day off for a while because I need to catch up on some projects because I took a day off. I think the day off will benefit my writing, I know that I am more relaxed. True I did do some work on my day off, but it was not writing work. The work I did was office-type work, but it was not the work of an author composing a poem or writing a story.