This post is approximately 400 words, which is about 4 words for every day since I last posted here.

This probably isn’t the first time I’ve said this: it’s hard to keep a blog going (especially for me, a person who likes unfocused research and differing outlets for creativity). Given the choice – as many writers are – I’d rather spend the time on the manuscript than the blog. Honestly, I didn’t do much of either kind of writing over the summer.

From a high school graduation and sending a kid to college, to lazy weekends at the lake, to re-discovering Warhammer modelling, to getting a wife and second son off to school, well, there have been a distractions a’plenty.

Work’s been crazy, too. Some of it good, some of it (checks Corporatespeak Thesaurus) sub-optimal. More on that for some future date. Beyond that, current politics in America are distracting as hell, but I’m certainly not touching that tonight.

That’s a long list of factors, and some would rightly name them excuses. But c’est la vie.

Since I’m being candid, I’ll delve into the real reasons for the slump. Writerly self-doubts aside, I’m at a tough chapter. Tildy, our hero, is finally confronting the Big Bad of the story. Conflicts that were set up earlier in the book must now be resolved. Our hero is caught beneath love and vengeance and fear and self-preservation. As usually happens at this point in a novel, ALL hangs in the balance (until the next book).

And so I’ve been stressed and somewhat panicked and a teensy bit uninspired. I walked away, albeit temporarily. At nearly 170,000 words, there’s a lot hanging over me to manage.

Today, it is October 1, a turning point perhaps. The weather has cooled, and there’s that Autumn inspiration in the air. Can you feel it? I always have. It’s the promise that comes with change, with transition. I find myself re-energized and in need of the distraction that creativity always brings. Oh yeah, and to finish this draft of the novel.

To paraphrase sentiments from other writers, “If you can step away and still come back, you’re probably on to something.” Here’s hoping.

–Mike