Writing is bad for you

despairThere, I’ve said it. I’m deep in the last third of my sixth book and I should know better. The crisis is coming, the characters’ nerves are shot and all I see is failure and death. I can’t sleep more than five hours nor stop thinking about those poor souls living under oppression or the brave efforts of our heroine to attempt to liberate them.

Every obstacle seems to be in their way. But I’m the one who put them there. The heroine’s lover has disappeared, their group is running out of money, their cause is met with sympathy, polite indifference, sometimes hostility. And the villain is in their minds, corrupting their normality.

Imagine what it’s like living in this world. Well, I am. I am in thrall to it. Little housework is done, that the garden is not a wilderness is solely due to visitors arriving this weekend. Lunch is as ad hoc as it can be.We haven’t been out to eat for weeks. My back aches and my caffeine consumption has rocketed. And let’s not mention chocolate. I can’t bear to look at the scales. I’ve replied and reacted to essential emails and deadlines, but my Facebook posts have dwindled to almost nothing. That’s a sure sign something’s up.

I’m off to a major conference in the UK  in less than two weeks’ time. I’d better get over this by then.

 

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITASSUCCESSIO and AURELIA. The fifth in the series, INSURRECTIO, was published in April 2016.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines…

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