Dear Children’s Writers and Friends,

I’d planned a different blog for this month, but I can’t quite muster the enthusiasm for it. I still believe in it, but unlike last year where there was first fear and then resignation and then guiltily joyful productivity, this lockdown is simply getting me down and I’m struggling to find my creative spark. I’m feeling unmotivated and just plain ‘meh’. Don’t get me wrong I’m well aware that compared to my Victorian and even more so my counterparts abroad, I don’t have much to complain about, still I guess like many Sydneysiders I thought we were sitting pretty 😎and that’s possibly why we’re in the position we’re in.😏😖

Still, I know it would be foolish to waste this ‘gift’ for want of a better word, of extra creative time so I’m drawing again, that seemed to kick start me last year. It’s fun, relaxing and as I’m not an illustrator- pressure free. Isn’t it funny how writing which was once purely a leisure time activity is no longer pressure free? I need to rediscover my youthful joy of words, words put together beautifully on a page. Playing with them until they sit just right. They also of course, have to tell a great story and that’s what’s causing angst at the moment. No stories are jumping up and down begging to be written, written by me.

So I’m drawing as I said earlier, looking up old stories I’ve written for potential rewrites, using my AquaNotes* to jot down any inspiration while I shower- anything at all. Unfortunately, this is all subject to making myself do it. Who else is finding this lockdown harder? What are you doing/ did you do for Victorians to help keep your creativity in tact? Would love some new strategies, so please respond and we can help each other 🙂 *Note (no pun intended, it’s worth looking up Aqua Notes Australia for Aussie made versions of different types and sizes)

Well that’s it from me this month fellow travellers,

Savour the quest,

Journeygirl