Post Creative Crash

My husband and I worked out an agreement where I get all Sunday to write. He packs up the munchkin and heads out for his mother's house and I get to sit around in my pjs. This has worked out great as I manage to get as much writing done in one day than I usually do all week long.

But I've been experiencing a strange side-effect. The next day I feel all bummed and blah and moody. It's like a low-grade depression. I take things a little too personally and I'm completely unmotivated. At this point I think it's a crash from the high of getting so much writing done the day before.

Does anyone else experience this?

farfromfearless said:

What I usually do to remedy this is to print out the new material and set my inner editor loose for an hour here and there to give myself a little fix.

Click to expand...

That might work.

I was writing in little chunks and dribbles during the week, but what I was producing wasn't great (in both terms of word count and quality) and it was leading to Grumpy Roach Syndrome. This, then, led to the Great Sunday Compromise of 2007. Except for the creative hangover that comes the next day I'm really happy with the arrangement.

Now I'm just trying to figure out minimize the slump. I don't want--nor do I believe I can--eliminate it. Just make it feel less like an angst-ridden funk and more like a mellowing out.

Keep an eye on it, because the tricky bit is when you sit down to write and start anticipating the depression. So you haven't even done the creative high yet, and already your mind is gearing itself into the post-creative funk. That can be disasterous.

Click to expand...

No worries there as I have a hard enough time thinking forward to the next five minutes let alone anticipating what will come 24 hours from now.

Christine N. said:

I think I'm gonna do a Great Sunday Compromise. Once the laundry is done, I'm taking the laptop and going somewhere to write. They can stay home and watch football or NASCAR or whatever else is on.

I try to lock myself in my room, but the kid always finds me. That'll give me a whole week to gather notes, get a game plan and sketch out the next part in my head. AND I won't be chained to the computer every night- I can spend my time with my family...

Oh oh oh, this could work! I'll go to the library or the bookstore or something. YAY!

Oops, sorry, that doesn't help you, does it...

Click to expand...

Not a problem, if it helps you then that's great too!

Part of the Compromise is that my husband has solemnly sworn to watch the munchkin. This means that if he opts to stay at home he is in charge of keeping her from bothering me. This is probably why he goes to his mother's so often.

I've tried to go other places to write, but it doesn't really work for me. And after all I have an office for this. I have it all set up with all my books for research and my sweet, sweet internet connection and my dried plums and tea. Why should I have to leave to write?

What I ended up doing yesterday was calling up a friend and having an hour and a half long kvetch session. Then it was off to the gym in the evening with my husband to lift some weights. By the end of that I couldn't feel my arms, always a good distraction from the blahs.

Well I have six days to come up with some crash response techniques. I'm open to any suggestions. Especially if they involve chocolate.

Roach, when Sunday comes around and you don't feel motivated, maybe take a break from it.

Click to expand...

Motivation on Sunday isn't the problem. I'll write like a fiend all day long. It's the creative hang-over on Monday that's the problem.

I don't think it's an affect of Monday either because I've had this before. Ten years ago I wrote a novel in two weeks. They were the best two weeks, creatively, I've ever had. And when I was done I crashed hard! That's when I first recognized the hang-over effect. I don't remember how I dealt with that afterwards (it may have involved spending time doing research on where to send stories or other writing related things) as it's been about ten years since I've done any serious writing.

Maybe I'll have to start my come down early. Usually I break when hubby and munchkin get back to have dinner and after we put our daughter to bed I go back to writing. Some transition time might be called for. I'll try it this Sunday.

Oh, and can we trade husbands? Mine cannot leave me alone when I write! Argh!

Click to expand...

Hahaha!

P.H.Delarran said:

I was thining about this today and wondered what your consumption habits are like when youo're on a binge writing spree.
I tend to drink a lot of coffee and quickie snackie foods like nuts and cheese but also more than my share of sugar. I kinda feed the rush, so to speak. Some of the let down the next day could be sugar/caffeine withdrawal.

Click to expand...

Most Sunday's I drink the same amount of soda I usually do other days, along with lots of green and Korean brown rice tea. We don't keep a lot of sugary stuff around the house because it's too much of a temptation. I'll keep an eye on my intake this Sunday though and see if there's something that sneaks in.