The great thing about the end of a writer's conference is coming home. The worst thing?
Coming home.
It never fails that upon my return from a week-long stay away, the house will be in shambles, the dog will be neurotic, and the children will be lost to the boob tube. And yet for some odd reason none of this registered when I first arrived and invited another writer (with whom I carpooled) to "Come on in!" Needless to say, she didn't stay long. Although to be fair, it had been a VERY long week for everyone involved. So I'm sure she was being quite sincere when she said that she and her husband "roll" the same way we do. After all, there are so many hours in a day and writers really should spend a good number of them... well... writing.
Of course, that was not what I did when I first arrived home. First, I had to bounce back into my comfort zone.
Determined to start the new week adhering to my daily writing schedule, I quickly zoomed through the house when the other author left. Over the course of three hours, I swept and mopped floors, cleaned the bathroom, made and ate dinner, bathed the children and more. And at the end of it all? I was exhausted. In fact, I was so worn out that I couldn't even get the entire word count I wanted to the following day (about half of my 4,000 word goal.)
Still, this is how I bounce back. I’m one of those people who can’t write in a dirty house. Cluttered? Yes. Dirty? Heck no. Plus, there’s the bright side. Now that the house is clean, I really can hit my four thousand word goal tomorrow.
So the take away: No matter who you are, you’re going to have a bounce back when you return from conference. It might be that the children need caring or the house is a wreck, that you have to prepare to reenter Corporate America the following day, or maybe you just have to get motivated to start writing after a week-long break. Bottom line, the bounce back is real. So prepare for it and just take heart that the bounce back won't last forever. Good thing, too, because I have a new release which includes a Facebook event to prepare for tomorrow!