If my creative energy had an indicator light, it would be flashing Low Battery. The events of the summer have drained me, and my writing has suffered as a result. It's amazing how the stresses of my non-writing life affect my ability to write. My writing has gotten flatter, simplistic, shallow. Even the act of writing--the basic stringing of words together--has gotten more difficult.

The external stresses are starting to let up, but my energy remains depleted. What I really need is a true getaway vacation. Unfortunately, for a wide variety of reasons, that is not an option. So, I've decided to take a vacation from writing instead.

I write for a living and that writing will need to continue. My fiction writing, though, is being set aside for a while. I know there are writers who would consider that blasphemy--a writer writes! every day! for hours! producing thousands of words! This writer, though, subscribes to a different school of thought. One that says that fallow times are necessary. One that says plants need the dormancy of winter in order to bloom in the spring. (I borrowed that from someone, but I don't remember who. Whoever you are, thank you! Please let me know who you are so I can give you credit.)

It's time for my fiction writing to go dormant. I need to read and sleep and swim and quilt. I need to exercise my creative impulses in other ways. I need to recharge my creative battery, let new ideas germinate, give myself a break, before I burn out completely. So begins my writing sabbatical, so that new stories may blossom later.