I'm glad it's work that's impeding your writing :); I firmly believe that's something you'll find equilibrium with :).
As for me, I'm only just starting to find the writing again. I've been writing since I left Clarion West, whether that was thousands of words a day or 150 or 250 words a day (which was more common because of that whole holding down 2 + jobs thing, studying to get better jobs, etc.) But it's only been in the last month or so that it's starting to feel like it used to again. It's only recently that I've been able to read again and enjoy it as I used to.
But it's important to remember that I'm one of those Clarion cliches--my life pretty well completely fell apart upon returning home and it's only starting to regain some semblance of normalcy for me, though it's a new normalcy. (And I wouldn't have changed much of anything for the world--my Clarion experience is so precious to me.) But all the life falling apart stuff affected my reading and my writing.
Anyway, I'll tell you what Ellen Datlow told me. She said that it's normal if you can't write or are having trouble writing for a year post-Clarion. If it goes on much longer than that, something else is going on, something else is wrong. But expect the first year to be off and difficult.
As an interesting incidental note, week 1 of CW I forgot how to cook. Connie Willis (my Week 4 instructor) talked to us about how the mind works while we're learning big, intense stuff and that we may have a tendency to "forget" some stuff while we're processing all we learned at CW. I have been cooking *forever*. In Idaho, I was well-known for my cooking. I loved doing it, I was good at it, I could search the refrigerator and come up with all kinds of fantastic meals by just winging it. At the end of Week 1 I couldn't cook rice. Post-CW I went home and ruined Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Eventually I could cook OK, but not like I had. It's only been recently that the cooking skill has been returning to what it used to be a couple of years ago.
Anyway, all that is to just to say that if you find any weird things like that popping up, it happens. Connie said so, and Connie is always right ;). (Though probably not to the extent that it did in me.)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 01:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 05:51 pm (UTC)How's the writing? :D
no subject
Date: 2010-08-21 07:32 am (UTC)How long did it take you to get back up to speed after yours?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-26 05:21 pm (UTC)As for me, I'm only just starting to find the writing again. I've been writing since I left Clarion West, whether that was thousands of words a day or 150 or 250 words a day (which was more common because of that whole holding down 2 + jobs thing, studying to get better jobs, etc.) But it's only been in the last month or so that it's starting to feel like it used to again. It's only recently that I've been able to read again and enjoy it as I used to.
But it's important to remember that I'm one of those Clarion cliches--my life pretty well completely fell apart upon returning home and it's only starting to regain some semblance of normalcy for me, though it's a new normalcy. (And I wouldn't have changed much of anything for the world--my Clarion experience is so precious to me.) But all the life falling apart stuff affected my reading and my writing.
Anyway, I'll tell you what Ellen Datlow told me. She said that it's normal if you can't write or are having trouble writing for a year post-Clarion. If it goes on much longer than that, something else is going on, something else is wrong. But expect the first year to be off and difficult.
As an interesting incidental note, week 1 of CW I forgot how to cook. Connie Willis (my Week 4 instructor) talked to us about how the mind works while we're learning big, intense stuff and that we may have a tendency to "forget" some stuff while we're processing all we learned at CW. I have been cooking *forever*. In Idaho, I was well-known for my cooking. I loved doing it, I was good at it, I could search the refrigerator and come up with all kinds of fantastic meals by just winging it. At the end of Week 1 I couldn't cook rice. Post-CW I went home and ruined Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Eventually I could cook OK, but not like I had. It's only been recently that the cooking skill has been returning to what it used to be a couple of years ago.
Anyway, all that is to just to say that if you find any weird things like that popping up, it happens. Connie said so, and Connie is always right ;). (Though probably not to the extent that it did in me.)
I'm so glad you went. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-20 05:54 pm (UTC)