I've got to go back to real world next week and I don't want to!

[MintyCedric]

Just a whinge really. Started writing again back in May after a few years hiatus and am loving it.

Have been fortunate to have 4 weeks annual leave where I've been largely able to please myself (single, teen DD doing her own thing) so have spent most of it with my head in my laptop and have 4 WIPs on the go, 2 of which I will hopefully finish by the end of this week.

I'm back at work a week today and dreading it. I don't love my job and in September particularly I know it will be the perfect storm of incredibly stressful and mind numbingly boring.

Does anyone else find it quite hard to adjust back to the real world after a prolonged period of writing? Any tips for how I can switch off/compartmentalize without being a grumpy cow about the fact I have to actually earn a living?!

I have two hobbies which I can totally lose myself in. One is writing, the other is sewing. While I'm engaged in a project it's really hard to think about anything else.
What I have learnt to do is switch it off at work. It's not easy, but I suspect once you're back, you'll find the same. And going to and from work is an excellent time to plan the next chapter.

It's a relief to hear I'm not the only one.

I often find myself completely disappearing down a rabbit hole when I'm writing.

My sleep patterns are also all over the place which is how I am generally but much worse when I'm really into a project.

At the moment I'm sleeping from approx 3-4am until about 8.30am, then having an afternoon nap from 3.30/4- 5pm.

I'm going to have to discipline myself back into normal sleeping/waking hours too...ugh!

Those would be my ideal waking hours too with slight adjustment!

Ah, Minty, I was wondering how you were.

I’ve had a couple of breaks between contracts and always try to get up at the job time for a few days before. I’m naturally a night owl but have only ever found one job that pays enough and fitted a bit better with my natural patterns.

I did a bunch of writing in periods of time off but am not the person to ask about doing it at other times!

Hi Rosa.

I stupidly started a couple of shortish fanfics at the beginning of the holiday, intending them to be 6 chapters each (I aim for 1500-2000 words per chapter online).

They have both run away with themselves and am now looking at 12 and 15 chapters respectively.

I've only got another 4 days off!

As you can imagine, from the other thread we're on, I'm rather enjoying the escapism.

RL doesn't have so much to recommend it at the mo!

Are you planning to publish them?