Early this year I took a hiatus from my novel, Provenance. I spent a couple of weeks traveling throughout Ethiopia and several weeks before that getting ready to travel to Ethiopia (you know how that is). When I got back from my trip a little health problem kept me from my manuscript for a few more weeks. All in all, it was nearly two months before I got back to my novel.
Since I began this quest for publication four years ago I had never taken that much time away from this thing that I love so much - writing. Just like when you ignore any thing or anybody you truly love, the guilt was enormous. At least until I realized that not a day went by that I did not find something that added to or enlightened my knowledge of what my novel was about. Once I gained that insight, I realized how beneficial time away really was.
Throughout the two months away I thought extensively about the story I am trying to tell, about the characters and the situations I have put them in and about time, place, action, language, and emotion; about my prospective readers and how I would market to them. Whether I had a platform or a prayer of getting Provenance published.
My time away was time very well spent. Without the task of composition, the tyranny of word and page output - I was able to think critically about the story. By experiencing different places, people and situations I was able to absorb sights, sounds and emotions that I know will find their way into the pages of this novel or the next.
I found that a writer never really spends time away. I may not be at my desk or on my computer but I am doing what writers have to do - observe, experience and analyze the world in order to write. Now, I 'm back to my writing schedule and I am all the better for having had that brief respite - now, back to work!
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