Burnout

Heya guys.

Just so you know, this isn't a rant post or a "please feel sorry for me" post. It's late here and I had an hour free and wanted to draw something so I thought I'd go for this.

As some of you might know, I've been writing my first novel since last November. I am really enjoying it, like REALLY enjoying it, honestly it's the most creatively inspired I've been for years it is bloody tiring work. Aside from Christmas and the two week break I had to Portugal, I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a day where I haven't worked on it in some capacity.

So right now I am editing the first draft, which is effectively splitting my time between reading through the 297 page printed version (which cost me £90 to print) and annotating it, and then hopping onto the computer to apply the edits to my manuscript. And this isn't even taking into account the work I do that actually pays the bills, which is my art.

Just to put it in numerical terms, on average I spend 8 hours a day Mon-Fri working on commissions, reward pics, sale pics, YCH's etc etc. Then I usually try to work on the book for a couple of hours, I then use whatever time is left to unwind with either playing a game, playing guitar, watching the telly or going to the gym.

In a nutshell, I am absolutely exhausted, like damn near all the time. And it's like, after working all day on art I have to try and keep my brain going to make words on a page work and then going through draft 1 line by line, seeing what works and what doesn't, it puts a strain on the old noggin XD

The thing I hadn't expected was how writing big passion projects like this is quite a solitary venture, I can't help but feel I get on people's nerves when I want to share new ideas for characters, the story etc. You know when you just get the feeling over text or in person that someone is just not interested in the slightest? And to be fair, it takes a lot to just outright ask someone "Hey! Would you mind reading through my 166k word book please? Thanks!". So I don't blame anyone for being just a tad disinterested, but still, a little support can go a long way.

But when you are the only one you can easily share and analyse ideas with, it makes you quite fatigued.

And I'm not thinking about publication whatsoever at this point. I used to think like that when I tried to write screenplays, constantly thinking about how to pitch it a studio and all that bollocks. Whereas now, all I wanna do is write this story for me, and if one person enjoys reading it then that's a bonus. And if it does get published, that'd be an even bigger plus! But why put unecessary pressure on yourself?

So yeah, I just wanted to get a few thoughts out there, and I'm sure the cider and rum has had nothing to do with this whatsoever XD

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I'll be back with more regularly scheduled masterpieces! ^^