I haven’t written a word since before Labor Day. It’s been more than four weeks since I’ve made the time to create amid the chaos of wedding planning, learning a new job and moving into a new house. For a writer to go a prolonged period without writing is like an athlete not training for a month. I feel like my words are dull; out of shape.
I also think my absence from creative work is taking a toll on me physically and psychologically. I’m stressed, moody, irritable, exhausted. I’m drained and feeling depressed.
I truly believe that not writing contributed to my foul mood and maybe even the nasty cold I got a few weeks ago. A 2005 study found a link between writing for 15-20 minutes a day a few times a month and decreased levels of stress and illness — even improved blood pressure.
Without my usual release through writing, my emotions and frustrations are bottled up, dammed like a river and threatening to overflow. It was making me morose and physically sick. I need the safety valve of my writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog, a short story, a play; I need to exercise my creative muscles. I need to vent the stress of life onto pages.
Just like an athlete needs to make time to hit the treadmill, I need time to devote my mind to the practice of fiction. The muscles of my subconscious need to recover from a long month of atrophy before I start to feel like myself again. It will take time to build up the discipline I once had, but I will get there, one sentence at a time, to a place where both my stories and I can thrive.
— 30 —
Jonny Eberle is a writer in Tacoma, WA. How do you schedule time in the day for your passions. Leave you comments below or tweet him at @jonnyeberle. Thanks for reading!
J.W. Eberle 
5 responses to “Writing Is The Best Therapy”
Regarding time-making, I sometimes try waking up an hour early to write before breakfast, but that often doesn’t work after a late night. Or an early one, if I’m being honest.
That is the trouble with a schedule that’s already full of things you can’t do without. I have to go to work, have to eat, have to do chores and run errands. It doesn’t leave much time for writing. I’m not a morning person by nature, but I might have to start faking it.
True. With a surplus of tasks and a deficit of time, it’d hard to sacrifice sleep. Sadly I’ve not found a solution that doesn’t involve sleeplessness or time travel.
I would be interested to compare notes about time traveling to accommodate writing time. Are you using a DeLorean, an H.G. Wells-type machine, blackholes, wormholes, shortwave radio through a solar disturbance, time turner, TARDIS?
I had a time turner, but it was confiscated by the ministry of magic, so I met up with the Doctor and, spoiler alert, I’m the new companion. Even though I only have him take me into the past so I can write more. . .