No base = no writing

[pcarney]

I just realized something (after many years of writing). It seems I can only write if I have some stability in my life. For example, I recently became one of the 'employment challenged' that seem to be all over the US nowadays (my company was bought by a bigger company). And since then, I can't write at all! It just won't flow. Then, thinking back, I realized during the two years of my first, craptacular failure of a marriage, I barely wrote as well.

Frankly, this doesn't bug me (as I'm too worried about getting another job), but I was wondering if anyone else found this to be true. In this most recent example, although I'm a bit down, I'm not all that depressed, and I still want to do all the other things that are important to me, but the need and ability to write fiction seems to have slipped away!

 

[kahnovitch]

The funny thing about this, is the opposite happened to me when I was about 25. I had just split (not too amicably) from a long time GF and quit the job I had at the time.
About a week later I began writing for the first time since I'd been in school.
I found burying myself in my own world of make-belief was just what I needed to take my mind off all my woes.

I starting writing quite prolifically for about 2 years, starting multiple stories, mostly sci-fi, and one short fantasy story. After writing the first 250 pages of a huge space-opera style piece, I switched to another story idea that took me over a year to finish the first draft of a novel length piece.

Writing was all I did and I focused on nothing else, staying single (and unemployed) for over 3 years.
I think what drove me at the time was to desire to have some success of my life, particularly in a new avenue I hadn't tried before as I was losing faith in job and relationship security.
However I did eventually get into a new relationship and the need for money soon drove me back to work, and the writing has been very much in the background since, unfortunately.

 

[Lucky Joe]

Originally posted by Kahnovitch
Writing was all I did and I focused on nothing else, staying single (and unemployed) for over 3 years.

That sounds awesome.

...I wonder if my landlord would mind not getting the rent, or the phone company, or the power company, or, nah forget it...

 

[Brian G Turner]

Stress affects people in different ways. It also depends on life commitments. When you're single you free time to deal with. When you have a family you are still very distracted.

 

[choppy]

Stability is the key to just about any project for me.

One of the problems I've had is that my schedule changes quite quickly - I'll have about two or three stable weeks - then I won't be able to work on a project for several days. By the time I get back to it, I've forgotten where I was going, or I've lost interest.
It's funny how that works.

 

[Se'dray-on]

I seem to go through spurts of inspiration, and then nothing. And it seemingly has nothing to do with the way my life is going at the time. I can detect no pattern. I'm probably weird that way. Oh well . hahaha

Lates

 

[kyria]

Not stable = no writing.

True enough for me. I even find it hard to read the usual fat fantasy. I'm just too worried and stressed out about 'wasting time' that should be spent doing something productive, meaning, income-generating.

My work life has been pretty unstable, so I haven't written anything since graduating - not work-related, anyway. Don't make me count the years, but that was a long time ago... Writing is something I'd always thought I'd do someday, but I haven't done anything serious about it yet. Started a few chapters of a few books back in college, but that's about it.