Cosplaying as an Author and Other Ways to Trick Your Brain

In the Before Times, I had a great routine. I’m a Taurus; I love consistency and a steady pace to my life that includes changing locations sometimes to get inspiration (Aquarius moon). So every Monday, while my spouse was at work, after I’d done some cleaning, maybe some laundry, or watched Netflix on the couch with my dog, I’d go out to write.

My favorite was the local cafe in my town’s tiny downtown area, with big wood tables and delicious coffee. Best part? No upcharge for non-dairy milk! Suck it, Sta—ahem. Their playlists were usually good, and I love to have a background atmosphere while I write. Changing where I wrote was always something that helped me. Best example I can think of is how I wrote over 10k words during the Day of Writing Everywhere for NaNoWriMo 2019, and that’s with driving instead of being in the carpool van and writing during the commute. I’m a quick typer but even I’m impressed with myself.

So, when the pandemic basically made “changing location” to mean “walking across the living room with my laptop to the couch,” it’s safe to say I was feeling incredibly stifled, creatively. On top of pandemic stress? What’s writing??

When my job sent us home with big desktops and dual monitors, I was incredibly lucky that I had two places with desks set up in the house. The inconvenience came from there only being one desk chair. The library upstairs had a desk (next to a coax outlet for internet) and a door, since my job involves a bit of customer interaction and noise carries in the house. Also cats. But I quickly got into a routine of waking up, getting things around the house done, and watching TV with my spouse until it was time for my day job. Lunch breaks and evenings were spent anywhere BUT the office where I worked. Not a ton of writing got done.

I absolutely pined for being able to go to the coffee shop and the library with lots of light and open space and no distractions like chores or sweet furry babies who want and deserve my attention. So one frustrated and fed up Monday, my day off and typically most productive in my writing week, mid-August 2020, I decided I’d just pretend. And Café Kitchen was born!

It worked shockingly well. For a while. I made avocado toast and drank coffee, complained about my barista (me) and looked out the window. If I could get in the headspace of being somewhere else, it helped get some words going. It’s entirely possible I queried my now-agent from Café Kitchen, and started doing edits there when we signed. But as Autumn rushed in, so did the election.

I’m guessing you remember Election Week 2020. Steve Kornacki in his khakis sleeping less than anyone in America for the duration. Arizona memes. The Supernatural... just Supernatural. All of it at the same time. I was, in an understatement, distracted. It was hard to write. But being November, I was attempting to edit one novel and also write one for NaNoWriMo. That’s usually my zen place: NaNo, speed-drafting, and drinking way too much coffee.

But as it felt truly like the world was on the brink of falling apart, I happened to see a TikTok: a guy claiming he’d written a ton while listening to Mario Kart music. Wait, what? He said the music for video games like Mario Kart is meant to feel urgent, because it’s for racing, and has a good rhythm to keep outside distractions from breaking in, and Nintendo also has some nostalgia but no lyrics to get caught up in.

Um, it worked?? Actually, though! I wrote some, and edited a ton. It kept me writing at a good pace while ignoring the nail-biting will-they, won’t-they of counting the votes to certify the election. It’s also impossible to think about what’s not in front of you when hearing some weird whistle sounds and beeps interspersed in the music to keep your brain thinking, gotta go fast! Honestly, this is something that I recommend you try if you’re having a hard time getting down to business and focusing, or have a lot of distractions in your work environment.

After a long winter, more editing, and a drafting slump like no other, I still felt far from being able to get back to “normal,” whatever that is. Being on submission, I needed something that could distract me from my phone and lack of new writing, and from worrying in an anxiety spiral that most authors on sub know very well. I decided after making fried rice one morning to stick a toothpick through the rooty butt of a green onion and put it in a cup of water to grow it back. The sheer amount of serotonin that came from the little bit of growth on a piece of onion scrap made it clear that gardening might be good for me.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that I have come a long way from where I started, trying to sprout herb seeds in the kitchen, to having a raised garden bed, a full porch of peppers and herbs. I’ve canned banana peppers and made jam, my spouse has made hot sauce, and I made some truly divine pesto (definitely growing more basil next year). I know not everyone has the space or ability, but it’s really great to have your hands in some dirt and be moving boards around and building stuff with your hands if you’re anxious about anything, especially submission.

During the heat of the summer when it was too hot and humid (at least here in North Carolina) to be outside more than a few minutes if I didn’t want to have to take a shower immediately after, I knew gardening was harder to achieve for me, I fell back on the same habits I developed with

Café Kitchen: play pretend!

Once I had a very summery, hobbity outfit on, I spent a few minutes in the garden, got myself an iced coffee, and sat outside until the bearable morning became the unbearable mid-morning. When I came inside, I sat myself at my writing desk and told myself I was in a Summer Writing Residency, and it was an honor to be there. I made a little graphic for it and posted on Instagram and Twitter, but it didn’t exactly take off. Second-guessing myself, I pulled back and stopped posting about it. It could have been really fun, but maybe sharing my Author Cosplay real time might have been too vulnerable?

I'm certainly not the only one struggling. I've been on Twtiter, on Instagram, seen the "hiatus" tacked on display names (and done it myself, not very successfully). It's harder than ever to be creative right now. Trying to trick my brain into thinking Everything is Fine has been difficult, but when I do manage to get myself into the zone, or flow-state, whatever you want to call it, I'm always surprised where I can write. Most recently, my car during my lunch breaks have been good, although harder to pretend I'm not a writerly goblin with a day job and my limbs positioned awkwardly to type.

The last thing that does work for me a lot is writing sprints. I'm not incredibly competitive. I've accepted I'm not great at video games or sports. But writing? If I hit my stride, I'm good at writing, and fast. When I'm struggling and need to write, I use Write or Die (in this case, the website, not the podcast, which is also wonderful!), where it starts deleting your work if you stop typing. But nothing else like a sprint with someone else who's story you want to get written pushes me to write harder.

This Autumn and Winter will surely have their own iterations of my habit of LARPing as an idyllic writer in an isolated cabin, but it’ll have its obstacles. This November, I'll have another chance to NaNo! ...Just as long as I can convince myself to do some plotting before hand. Maybe I'll come up with a new way to trick my brain into productivity. Maybe I'll tweak some of the things I've done before. Having an arsenal of tools and tricks to keep putting words on a page or polishing words is essential for this industry.