"Despite the onset of depression returning to haunt me yet again, I somehow managed to work through it, to eventually complete an entire re-write, including further corrections and alterations and another proof read of my Memoir manuscript. At last it now appears to read more smoothly, yet with a more distinctive faster pace throughout. This would not be possible of course without the ongoing inspiration from others in their effort to maintain my courage from within" ~ Facebook Author Page ~ 18 November 2011
What did I do to eventually overcome the absence of writing, you ask? Again, I quote:
"When I felt as though I'd literally lost all my energy, let alone my ability to write , particularly as my depression continued to swamp me for the remainder of that year; my writing, which had been my sanity saver at that time merely took a devastating dive and crashed into oblivion! Unknown to me at that time however, my personal life was also about to take on a whole life changing experience... Towards the end of December 2011, I had received an unexpected request from an overseas Writer, known only to me as Pen Musings, who had kindly asked me to write a short piece about: What Inspires Me to Write - for a web edition of her Writing magazine, which was to be included in an Inspiration column in the New Year of 2012. While I never got to see the printed or web version unfortunately, I had decided to use that exact written piece in my own Facebook Author Page (and again two years later when I eventually set up my new Writing website" ~ Facebook Author Page ~ 27 December 2011
And what became of me once I had taken on that unexpected life changing experience, you ask?
I became a much stronger person and that new-found strength within me eventually flowed through and reflected once more into my writing in the following year of 2012 when I eventually took it up again, following yet another lengthy absence of writing and blogging... Again I quote:
"I realize that it has been a long while since I've had anything worthy to write about, particularly since my sudden and unexpected 'transition' into a new life of unknown adventures and experiences. However, while I have only managed to write the occasional long and chatty personal letters to family & friends, at least I have still been writing even if it hasn't exactly been deep and meaningful, but it can still make for excellent writing material for future reference, especially when you consider the particular subject matter, so all is not lost" ~ Facebook Author Page ~ 9 April 2012
Now my dear reader, let me bring you further forward - another two years forward to be exact to where I now find myself - in the current year of 2014...
Therefore, I have since found throughout my own personal experiences in life that there are consequences when the absence of writing and blogging takes hold. In fact, these consequences can actually have both a negative and a positive effect: The negative effect of course is the emotional frustration caused by the unfortunate lack of being able to write creatively, let alone write at all, which is what can often bring on the depression, particularly for us Writers.
However, the positive effect of not writing - if there is ever such a thing - is that what was previously written, but not yet published, can now be re-written and polished and eventually re-created into something much better than the original written piece - through a fresher pair of eyes and clearer thoughts! During any absence of writing I find that my mind is still ticking over with literally hundreds of thoughts of words running through my mind - piecing it all together - while planning how the finished written piece will eventually look like.
Having said that of course, I will now admit that even this very Blog was originally written last month in early June 2014, but which suddenly disappeared - never to be seen again, I thought when after I'd pressed "Publish" the entire blog did not appear here! Here we go again, I thought! Life just seems to keep knocking me down every time I get back in the saddle and begin to write... That was the Negative Consequence and I decided that I was not going to be beaten...
What did I do next to overcome this latest hurdle, you now ask?
Firstly, I quickly re-wrote everything down - from memory! The positive consequence of this of course, was that while rewriting this entire Blog - from memory - it had also been written in a much better light and different frame of mind. I then left it sit for awhile as I worked on other writing projects, which I will blog about here another time... meanwhile as I continued to get my head around the ins and outs of computer technology, which once again kept me absent from my website, I discovered that I was once again able to re-visit my website - but don't ask me how - the fact is I am back online - back to my writing - and back to blogging and hopefully on a slightly more regular basis and to not experience such a long absence between my Writing and Blog Posts... :)
Heather Golding - Author ~ Copyright ~ 2 July 2014