Taking a Sabbatical

You might already have noticed that I haven’t been writing any blog posts lately (for a little over a month now to be more precise). I’ve found myself almost burned out after the year I’ve had so far and I’ve taken a sabbatical to recover. That did include abstaining from my blog and doing the mere minimum (mostly set up before the sabbatical) for my Facebook page.

My real life this year has been hard — my dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the end of the last year and went through several surgeries and a stint of chemotherapy from January to September. I didn’t go through all the physical parts of this, naturally, but there was a lot of work to pick up and a lot of care going on as well. Not that I’m complaining — I’m glad I could help him. Only … it doesn’t lead to a lot of spare time for writing and editing and doing all the other stuff which needs doing if you’re a freelance writer.
I forced myself to go through all of it, releasing a new book in February (when my dad had major surgery), May (when his last surgery was just finished), and August (when he was in the middle of his chemotherapy). I simply had no strength left in November, so “The Necromancer’s Notebook” will be released in February next year. I can live with that.
I also pushed myself with writing until I barely could bring myself to go on, despite being all geared up for the stories I wanted to write. Strangely enough, when I re-plotted and rewrote an old Star Wars fan-fiction in October, I was burning for it. I was putting in two chapters a day, Monday to Sunday (I normally take the weekends off from writing). I wanted to finish this and I did — only to continue with part two right afterwards. I wrote into November, pushing the time at which I would start editing — until I realised I didn’t want to edit. Well, I never want to edit, but this time, I just couldn’t find the energy, so I decided ‘no editing and no releasing this month’ and I was all the better for it.

Yet, what this has shown me is that I can write. It’s not that I have lost the ability to really finish a writing project, it’s just that right now I can’t be bothered with commercial projects and need to find my way back to my love of writing and telling stories. That is what my sabbatical will be for, recovering the fun of writing and getting more motivated again.
I will try to get back to regular writing in January — it might take longer, I have two fan projects in the pipeline and they might take up the time until towards the end of January. Even so, I can also start anew in February after the editing. Editing usually motivates me to write more.
I find myself looking forward to writing more already, which is a good sign. I want to write again and I want to tackle a project. I enjoy myself at the keyboard (and I’ve grown fond of Scrivener’s composition mode, too, but more of that at another time). My sabbatical is definitely going in the right direction and that is good.

So far, I’ve only pushed my release schedule back by one book — shifting “The Necromancer’s Notebook” which has been written quite a while ago from November to February.
It’s not as if I was missing out on enormous sales numbers, either. I make little money with my books so far, although it’s getting better. It’s not as if there’s troves of fans who are crying themselves to sleep at night because the book isn’t out yet (although I can say that it’s fun).
It’s also that I wasn’t so much not looking forward to editing the book — I do like the stories in this novella collection and I do like Isadora very much — , it was that I just couldn’t find the motivation to start with it at all. Normally, I can at least tell myself ‘it has to be done and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done,’ but not this time. This time, I couldn’t motivate myself at all.

I’ve had a burn-out before, too, and I didn’t want to get down to that again — once was one time too many.
Therefore, I hit the emergency break and got off before it could get to that point. I’m getting better and that is good. I need this time, so I’m taking it. If other authors can publish a book every five years (or so), I can publish three books a year instead of four every now and then.
The last time, by the way, I didn’t publish four books, was when my mum lost half her lung to cancer. I find that real life and family take precedent over my publishing business. Deal with it.

Blog posts might not be quite as regular for a while longer now, but I’ll try to get some up. I actually have three more of them plotted and can write them. I might also take the time to do so before I return to my Star Wars fan-fiction and give my characters a new adventure with less Sith and more investigation. I’m enjoying my sabbatical after several years of basically no breaks and I will return to work when I have recovered enough. Luckily, I have the freedom to do so.