So You're Afraid Your Muse Has Abandoned You. Me too.

Writing novels can be a scary thing. Different elements affect our production, and that can turn into writer’s block. (Blog: How to Jumpstart Your Imagination) There have been days in the past when I didn’t feel like writing, or maybe I was sick and wanted to watch a movie or read a book. Other days, when I’d written to a certain point in the story and didn’t know where to go, I’d take a short break. But I'd always get back to my story and finish it. I've done that eleven times for eleven books.

That all changed this summer when I had knee replacement surgery.

I know major surgery, and knee replacement is major, can change the chemistry of our bodies, but in my case it also changed how my mind worked. Everything revolved around my knee. Period. Not only have I been apathetic about writing, I’ve felt the same way about food, about getting dressed, and when I finally could drive, about going to the grocery store.

In the past, I’ve always managed to get back on track after some interruption, but to date I still haven’t been able to saddle up my horse and jump on. I admit, a contentious election has been a major distraction, physical therapy, or what I call physical torture, has also put me off, and now I’m afraid I’ll never find my groove again. Never be able to regain the concentration to finish a book. That’s a scary thought for a writer.

In finding my way back, I first returned to a book in progress for which I’d already written forty thousand words. Reading it from the beginning, I realized it wasn’t believable. I’ve written some implausible story lines before―see Goddess of the Moon―but even I felt this one was off the rails. So I went back to the fourth book in my Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series that I'd left unfinished at twenty-five thousand words. And that’s where I am now.

My critique partner and I took the summer off. The timing was perfect. She was in edits, and I was in pain. This past weekend we traded pages for the first time since June. She had already read the pages when I first wrote them, but I had gone over them, rewrote some parts, and felt pretty good about how the story was unfolding. She thought so too. I’m now on to the next fifty pages, which will catch me up to where I was when I stopped.

For the first time, I feel a slight sense of optimism. I like my story. I haven’t had the urge to play Spider Solitaire or complete a Sudoku puzzle. I did both when I came to a block in my writing, but it was always a short block and the distraction allowed me to get away from the story for a while and refresh. This summer, I became an expert gamer, and my apathy about writing didn’t bother me, which confirmed my apathy.

I’m back on my story and might even be past my sabbatical. I hope so.

Wish me luck.

Polly Iyer is the author of seven novels: standalones Hooked, InSight, Murder Déjà Vu, Threads, and three books in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Mind Games, Goddess of the Moon, and Backlash. A Massachusetts native, she makes her home in the beautiful Piedmont region of South Carolina. You can visit her website for more on Polly and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.