Welcome, Kaye Chambers!

Today we are joined by fabulous paranormal author Kaye Chambers as our blogsitter. Welcome, Kaye!

Scaling the Wall…

“Don’t stop writing.”

“Never stop writing.”

“Always write.”

The advice comes in a variety of catch phrases, but the meaning is the same. Carry the momentum forward, never stop. Because stopping is the enemy. Right?

But, what do you do when you hit a wall bigger than the Great Wall of China? Do you muscle through?

Well, as any writer can tell you, life can get in the way of working. Small things block your creativity. And when the real-world issues aren’t small, the wall grows bigger. Recently, I hit a wall like this. My personal and family persona could not coexist with the writing one. My responsibilities as a wife and mother overshadowed the muse.

I tried to muscle through, keep writing and carry it forward, but the work wasn’t up to par. A fact reinforced by the rejection on my next St. George project and a revise and resubmit on a new project I worked on in an attempt to jumpstart the muse.

So, I did the unthinkable. I stopped. I took a part-time job outside the house for the first time in a decade. I allowed distance to come between me and my computer.

And you know what? I didn’t kill me. It didn’t kill my desire to write.

What it did do was give me a renewed perspective on people, distance from the personal stressors that were getting in the way, and a renewed determination to embrace what it was that drew me to writing as a profession: passion.

So, after a six week hiatus, I’m back to writing in the regularly scheduled time slot. I feel renewed and fabulous about it. Do I think I’ve made it over the wall? No, but I’m halfway up. The words are coming again without tears and pain. I feel comfortable enough in my own skin to slide into that of my heroine.

Stopping is not the end of the writing road. It’s just permission to turn around and look for a new direction. Writing is like life. Sometimes we need to backtrack to get it right.

Have you ever needed a GPS to get you from point A to point B via route C in life?