Oh hello there! Is it Sunday already? Welcome back! I hope your weekend was exactly what you needed. Maybe it wasn’t what you hoped it would be, or you didn’t accomplish everything you set out to accomplish, but I hope it was a gift and you can look back on it and say “well, maybe I didn’t do X, but I did get to do Y.”
I had hoped to go to the fair yesterday, but my husband had an assignment due for his graduate data science class that took all day to complete. So I spent my day watching VRV and reading manga and prepping my prompts for the month. Every prompt gets its own doc file and I like to set up my templates ahead of time. I also did a little bit of writing after dinner.
My husband and I got talking about my writing over dinner and I mentioned how listless I’ve felt since completing the rewrite. I can’t seem to get anything going in any of my other projects. I had believed breaking that completion hurdle would free me of hesitation but instead I’ve been floating around through my story ideas kind of thinking “what now?”
A decent chunk of that aimlessness has come from trying to decide which story to focus on for NaNo this year, so I can start getting all the prep work and outlining done for once. If past years have taught me anything, it’s that I cannot win with just a half baked idea and a handful of characters. I need a basic framework, a beginning and an ending to work toward. As a discovery writer, this is my kryptonite.
I don’t want to despair. I know I have the ability. I can write a complete story from start to finish. I’ve done it. But I need… something. Motivation? I don’t know, I wouldn’t say I’m unmotivated. I’ve still been able to write these dailies even when I’ve had a rough day at work. Inspiration? I have plenty of that here on the blog, but maybe the inspiration I need isn’t in the stories but in other people. With that in mind, I tried to think of someone I admire who has gone through a rough patch and come out the other side. After all, it happens to everyone.
Almost immediately, a name came to me. Novak Djokovic. The world number 1 men’s tennis player and one of my faves. In tennis, there are tournaments ranging in size and scope all year long. The Grand Slams are basically the Super Bowls of tennis, and there are 4 of them. Only a handful of players have ever won all 4, and even less have ever won all 4 consecutively.
By 2016, Djoker already had multiple titles at three of the four slams. The one that eluded him was the French Open title. He’d made the finals for the third year in a row (and the for the fourth time in five years). He was having the best year of his career. He held all three of the other slam titles concurrently. His reign at number one had been cemented, his rankings points more then the combined points of the numbers 2 and 3. This time, this time he would win.
And he did. And it was historic and jubilant and incredible to witness. I remembered watching him lose the previous two years and was so overjoyed for him. He had finally done it. It felt like there was nothing that could stop him.
Except two weeks later, he lost in the third round of Wimbledon to an American. I remember that match too. It was the first time I heard Sam Querrey’s name and I would forever remember him as the man who beat Djokovic at the top of his game. I took my husband to the US Open final that year. Djoker was defending his title against Stan Wawrinka. Maybe those few losses after Roland Garros were just flukes. He would bounce back, right?
He didn’t. It was the start of a spate of losses that would lose him his number 1 ranking by the end of the year. 2017 saw him miss the second half the year to injury and he fell out of the top 20 for the first time in a decade. There was a lot of speculation about how the mental battle of winning tournaments changed for him after finally winning the French. He wasn’t playing as well. He was listless. He had lost his drive.
Maybe that was all true. I don’t know. I just knew I wasn’t seeing one of my favorite players in the big tournaments anymore and hoped he would overcome whatever injuries he was facing, whether they were physical or mental or both, and come back soon.
And he did. He came back better and stronger in 2018 and began winning tournaments again left and right. By November, he had reclaimed his world number 1 ranking and had two more grand slam titles under his belt. He got his mojo back and he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
I’m still looking for my mojo. These prompts help keep the muscles fresh, but I am not writing nearly as much outside of the prompts as I want to be. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of the night reading to get my head back in the right space. After all, Stephen King says “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” I haven’t read any of my in-progress books in a few days, though not for lack of time. My toolbox is looking a little shoddy for it regardless.
While I go work on that, here are some prompts for you to consider for this week!
306. What one invention do you find completely useless and why?
307. When you close your eyes, what do you always daydream about?
308. Do you wish you could press the reset button on anything in your life? If so, what?
309. What do you think is the best use of your time?
310. Have you ever plotted revenge on someone? Was it sweet and what did it entail?
Some good nuggets in there. Let’s get to writing! Have a great night, see you tomorrow!
PS-Like these prompts? Like the short stories I write based on these prompts? Want to show your support? Give the blog a follow! Leave a comment! Buy me a coffee! I put a lot of time and effort into these posts and your support means the world to me! Ok, now go out there and write!
Closet Full of Notebooks 