A Brief Hiatus
I always feel a little bad going on hiatus, because it feels like I’m proving someone right. Not anyone in particular, mind you. People have been nothing but supportive since I started writing Alice and the Pale Horse, so I have no basis for feeling as though someone somewhere would feel vindicated by missing a week or two. I blame this feeling on the unhealthy creative competitive complex I was forged into during my time in theatre. I always worked hard with the mindset that every moment I wasn’t, someone else was, and that someone- whoever they were (never actually met them tbh), would be thrilled the minute I failed. Not shockingly I burned out hard and also learned that this mindset does not work in the real world, where learning how to do much more basic things like networking and being generous with your time are much more useful than how many hours you put into reading, studying or creating content.
I’m getting better about taking breaks guilt free. That’s not to say Alice is going on break- for all I know I’ll be back to it next week. I still have many pre-written pages yet to publish. This is more to say that the past two weeks I have come to my writing/publishing day and just haven’t been feeling it. The reasons are many and complex- work has been stressful, my home life has been upended and chaotic (but will normalize shortly), and my physical and emotional life have been similarly upended (for positive reasons- I’m in nutritional therapy and while it is HARD, it is also very rewarding). As such, Alice can take a much deserved break, if only for a week or two. The story can wait and so can the readers. This isn’t a race- and if I want to see this through to the end I need to give myself permission to do this occasionally. No one wants to see me fail (but if you do, please keep that to yourself!). And I’m not in competition with anyone but myself.
So readers, enjoy your week. Read a good book or play a great video game. Find someone you like and spend some time with them. Or just find whatever makes you your best self and fill your time with it. We’ll meet back in this space next week for more Alice.
