Trapped in Writing Mania’s Grip

I got trapped in a writing mania‘s grip once.

It was glorious.

Exhausting.

Numbing.

It felt like an adrenaline high.  I was happy when it ended.

Here’s the description.

What is writing mania?

Let me describe a Saturday to you.

I’d been trapped in a writing mania’s grip all week long.

I woke early, wrote for several hours, then lived a “normal” day, which included writing all afternoon.

My body was giving out–mostly my eyes–by 8:15 every night, so I went to bed. My husband had a good book, so no worries.

Friday was the same. Exhausted by 8, I crawled into bed. I felt so tired, I only read five pages of the terrific The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Then I fell asleep.

I woke at 2:15.

I’d hoped for something more reasonable, say, 5:15, to catch up on the week.

But the cat climbed in beside me at 2:15, yowling and demanding food. I ignored her and tried to fall asleep again.

But why fall asleep when you’re in writing mania’s grip?

Lines from the story plagued me.

I decided to pray instead.

The cat stalked me.

My husband slept soundly.

At 3:45, I gave up.

I checked my email, said hello to a friend in Papua New Guinea, and had my morning devotions.

I didn’t feed the cat until the customary 5:30.

Wide awake, I went to my upstairs office.

As customary, I’d left the manuscript at an easy place to return to writing.

But I’d no sooner opened it when I got an idea for a blog post.

Why not use the time to write a blog post?

I wrote the blog post, including photos, tweets, and all the other items necessary to make a blog post work.

Then, to my surprise, another blog post idea came up.

I wrote it.

By then, I was ready to get into my book.

I really needed to finish chapter five that weekend.

Biography writing is very time-consuming. I have to check, recheck, and reexamine everything, and I like to do it as I write.

An hour or so into that, another blog idea struck.

I wrote another blog post.

Then I ate breakfast, tossed in the laundry, and cleaned the kitchen.

Then I kissed my husband awake, let the cat in and out, and drank a cup of coffee.

Back to the book.

I could only write until 11 o’clock if I wanted to get a walk in before an appointment. We then had a movie date (4 o’clock showing, we knew I’d never last any longer).

I had several glasses of water, a discussion with my husband, and then I got ANOTHER blog idea!

(This time, I made note of it, but I didn’t write).

When I returned to the last four pages of chapter five, I finished it all by 10:50.

Dazed, astounded, so very thankful, I bounded down the stairs to my husband.

I turned on the printer, moved the laundry, let the cat in and out, then got dressed!

My husband read the chapter.

He loved it!

By 11:15, we were out for a walk.

No matter what siren called from the keyboard and screen, I was done for the day.

I’ve had writing mania before.

While finishing A Poppy in Remembrance, I knew exactly how it ended. I wrote the final 25,000 words in five days.

It’s a glorious feeling–the words poured and I couldn’t type fast enough (I type 125 words a minute).

With all the cylinders firing, I lost track of time. I was shocked to see it was 12 hours later.

A week later, I read through my work with a critical eye and cried.

I wept reading the ending. The writing was good, yes, but also because I couldn’t believe the intensity of the ideas.

I still can’t believe I wrote it.

Truly a marvelous, wonderful, awe-full, incredible feeling.

I’ve got 10 chapters to go on this book–about 30,000 words.

I can hardly wait.

Frankly, though, I’d really prefer to live like a normal person, living manageable hours.

Tweetables

Writing mania–what it looks like in real life. Click to Tweet

Living with writing mania. Click to Tweet

Writing mania–read it and weep. Click to Tweet