Soup Brain

My brain's been about as useful as an expired, cold can of cream of mushroom between my ears this week, so I wondered if blogging about it would help. At least heat things up a little. Give it a stir. I think the culprit is a combo of hormones, end of year burnout, and leftover Thanksgiving stress. It's also a little bit of expecting too much with regards to being able to dive right back into big daily word counts on Monday. 

The final push to get a book released, those last two or three weeks, is always consuming. Other WIPs get pushed to the side and that about-to-release book becomes my sole focus work-wise. It's difficult to enjoy reading or pay attention to a new show. The creative part of my brain gives way to the pragmatic, and by the time I turn the book loose...soup brain. Every time. The answer to this, I know, is to take a few genuine rest days, recharge mentally; read, watch movies, refill the well, so to speak. You have to consume art in order to create it. This year, though, once I wrapped BOW, I dove right into party prep mode, and that didn't end until last Thursday night. Cue a half-dead Friday of binging Hallmark movies and doing absolutely nothing. I thought I'd be ready to roll on Monday, but, well, there's been the whole aforementioned cream of mushroom situation. 

Right now, the only WIP I want to tackle is one I Absolutely Shouldn't, one that Literally No One Asked For, and which is Not A Part of My Ongoing Series. 

So that's of course the one I want to work on most. Le sigh. Every time I think about Lionheart, and the fact it was supposed to be out last year, it adds another shovel of anxiety on top of my Generalized Writer Anxiety. And then there's TWC to finish, and Drake book four, and a half dozen other abandoned WIPs. Stress inspires new WIPs, which in turn inspires more stress, and the vicious cycle repeats and repeats. 

I've tried (unsuccessfully) to convince myself that three releases in one year is perfectly acceptable, though it doesn't feel that way at all. I think I'll dabble this next week, write a little of one thing and then a little of another, and see if a breakthrough will happen. 

Or watch a ton more Hallmark movies. Either or. 

Here's hoping things are less soupy soon. But now I want actual soup...darn.