The Effects of Writing

It's December! I still haven't seen any snow...

I am deep in the writing world these days. I'm actually currently sitting in bed with my laptop and a million notebooks and flashcards as I try to finish Courageous Heart. So what am I doing blogging? Get back to work!

Everyone needs a break now and then, though, so that's what I'm doing right now. Taking a break. Courageous Heart can be a bit of an intense write. I love this story to pieces, but a few hours of writing this book makes me want to drink hot chocolate and then take a nap because my head is exploding and my emotions are frazzled.

Writing my stories tends to have one of two effects on me.

1. I will get so invested in the story that every argument will leave me pacing my room in anger, every time a character cries I will too, so that by the time I've finished a chapter or two I am so emotionally drained that I need a long nap and good cry of my own that is in no way related to the story itself.

OR

2. I will get so excited about the story that I feel like dancing around the house. The sad scenes, the happy scenes, the fight scenes...doesn't matter. It all makes me want to sing and dance.

One of those two scenarios will play out no matter what story I am writing. And today, it's leaning more toward number 1. So intense. I need a good nap and maybe a movie so I can relax and release all this pent up emotion. That's another big problem with writing for me. I tend to take on my character's attributes for a short while. I become them. (I get it, they're extensions of me to begin with...but that's not the way it feels. Go ahead and tell me I'm crazy. I certainly have a lot of people living in my head that I will absolutely tell you are not me) So right now, after writing Cassy for a couple hours--Cassy, who won't let anyone see the real her and hides her vulnerability and emotions at almost any cost--I am so exhausted.

This is a rather random post, but it's what I've got for you today.

Happy writing, everybody! :)


(Dusty is still in editing...but you'll see it published this month, no worries!)