How to know when your Serious Writing Tiara needs a break
Most of you that follow my blog know that when I sit down to do Serious Writing, I have to put my Serious Writing Tiara on. This is no metaphysical tiara. I mean a real, live tiara, with shinies and everything. You can see one of them on my About Page.
Now, I’ve had one for several years. I call it my NaNoWriMo Serious Writing Tiara, because I bought it as a joke, during my very first NaNoWriMo that I officially signed up for. I told people that I was coming to the Night of Writing Dangerously with a freaking tiara on. They didn’t believe me. So I bought one.
It was pink, like my laptop was then. That year, I banged out 185,ooo words (approximately). From that moment, I put that tiara on every time I needed to focus and get words on the page. It’s always been the tiara I go to the most.
But lately, it’s been having some issues. The comb on it is breaking off, piece by piece. Three of the pink stones on it have fallen off. As sad as it is, it’s time to retire my NaNoWriMo Serious Writing Tiara. It’s weird to have an object so silly be so important to you. But this tiara and I have been through a lot together. I’ve literally written millions of words with that tiara.
So it’s time to put this tiara on the shelf. I won’t throw it away. We’ve been through so much together. But it’s time for a new every day Serious Writing Tiara. I went to Sam Moon this weekend, and bought two new tiaras.
One is small, and red, meant for editing power. I’m calling it my Serious Editing Tiara.
The other is larger, and has purple stones in it. This is my new Serious Writing Tiara.
Neither of these will ever replace my NaNo tiara. That’s not what I’m attempting to do here. But I do recognize that for the tiara to retain its writing power for me, it needs to rest. It will no longer be held in my hair by its comb, since it’s missing most of it. I think that it’ll be now held by pins. I’m not entirely sure yet. The thing I do know is that I realize that it’s time to begin a new chapter in my life, and while that tiara did me so much good, I need to move on, to allow myself to love another tiara.
Sure, this sounds crazy, right? That’s okay. I’m a writer. I make shit up for a living.
