Mondays

Monday has become my favourite day of the week. I spend all weekend doing my best attempt of resting my brain and something it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m prone to burnout, I become obsessive with a project or hobby and then before I know it I’ve become sick of the activity or just too tired to think anymore. I’m still learning how to rest, where the balance is between keeping up the momentum and preventing a burnout. So Monday is my favourite, because I spend all weekend not writing and not art-ing and when Monday hits I can finally get back into the thick of it. 


This past Monday was no different, I had spent the weekend before doing jigsaw puzzles and I was bursting at the seams with excitement to write. It took me about an hour to settle down before I could actually focus and get to writing. I was so darn excited. 


I’ve been working on this particular writing project for a month now. I started it on March 1st and I can now confidently tell you a little bit about what it is exactly. I had been working on writing one book at the beginning of the year that I have since placed on the back burner. I stopped working on it because I wasn’t ready skill wise to tell that story well, so I’ve been doing some learning. But I didn’t just want to learn I wanted to have something to tinker with while I learned, so I started writing a story. A story about a girl and the journey and quest she embarks on. When I stared writing I didn’t know where the story would go, if it would even really work. But as I continued to write it kept up with me and almost ran on ahead of me. I thought perhaps it would amount to a short story but it just keeps going. So yesterday when I was done for the day I realized I was about a third into the story, just about done with the first act and that’s when I made up my mind. What I am currently working on is a novel about a girl searching for what she’s lost, to be vague. 


It has been such a joy to write this story and character, the whole month I’ve been writing this story I’ve either been laughing or crying. There’s something about this story that just feel right. So I’m running with it, and I will for as long as I can. After a month of practicing letting the story be messy I think I’ve got it. When I get caught up thinking too hard about the story I take a breath and tell myself, give myself permission, for the story to simply exist. The perfecting and editing and puzzling of the plot can come after the story is written and exists for me to mess about with. 


I’ve taken my writing terms and translated them into painting terms so I can better understand them. Painting is my first language after all. So first drafts are like first layers, they are imperfect and incredibly necessary, they give me something to work off of and from. 


Anyway, I’ve had just the most joy of a week and I hope some of it will come leaking out in my writing to you. My sentiment of encouragement this week, is keep going, even when the nights are long and dark and the sun is grey, keep going. Keep pushing through, the light at the end of the tunnel is a myth and legend but it’s inspired by the truth. Just keep going, you can always quit later if that’s what you really want but just for me, just to see what happens, keep going. Just Keep Going. 

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