Your Dark Passenger

I think most people are familiar with the term “writer’s block.”  I myself tend to think of the movie Misery.  It’s not really a movie about writer’s block, but it’s about a writer being given a touch of motivation so I consider that close enough for my purposes.

Would you want to make that face mad by not writing?  I thought not.

Anyway,  people - writers - spend a lot of time discussing writer’s block and the strategies used to beat it.  Since you can find more than 8.4 million sites on Google to help you with that problem, I won’t be discussing it.  Instead, I’d like to chat about just the opposite, what I refer to as a motivational meltdown.

On some level, with various activities and endeavors, I believe we’ve all been here.  Since I consider myself a writer first and foremost, I’ll use that to provide you with a frame of reference for what I mean.

• I brainstorm about what topics I’d like to write.
• I select those topics of the most interest to me.
• I look over my list and realize I have selected more topics than is rational to house in one place.
• I create a number of sites, blogs, files, whatever so I don’t have to dump any of what I find interesting.
• I end up with 2 personal (sort of) blogs, an e-fiction site, a dozen outlines for fiction projects, 2-3 niche blogs, a website devoted to vampires, a television site and a community website.
• I am beyond motivated to write on each and every topic.  (No writer’s block here!)
• I shut down.

You see, in the case of motivational meltdown, the issue isn’t a lack of wanting to write or knowing what to write…the issue is that there is so much I want to write that I don’t see a way to logically get everything accomplished.  Since I am unable to accomplish everything, I end up accomplishing nothing.

Some of you reading this might say you aren’t a writer so this doesn’t apply to you.  Not true.  How many times have you considered reorganizing that room (and we all have one) that stands in total disarray yet discarded the idea because the project was simply too daunting to be taken on in one sitting or by yourself?

It’s okay…I have a room like that too so I can’t judge anyone.

Or perhaps you’ve been thinking about going to school because you’ve always wanted to be a lawyer or psychologist, but one look at the sheer number of credit hours and classes and years it will take to get to the end result and you’re back on the couch eating chocolate-covered pretzels while watching Oprah instead of working toward your goal.  (Thanks be to Star for putting chocolate-covered pretzels in my head yesterday.)

The point to all this is quite simple: We all have an area - or two - of our life in which we experience a motivational meltdown.  Yes, I have some tips and tricks for getting passed it, but I’d really rather hear from y’all.  What do you do when motivational meltdown takes over?  How do you get yourselves back on track?

And Star, you’d better not be getting any ideas about hobbling me again.  I refuse to get chained up in the basement as your personal writer.

Jen

“Let your dark passenger come out to play…Be your own nemesis!”

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