The Inbetweeners: My Experience With Post-Novel Fatigue.

I never thought this would happen.

Six weeks have passed since I signed off on my novel series. In my mind, I figured that I’d just walk away, and move onto my next project. I already have a storyline plotted out for another Inspector Ambrose story.

But strangely, I’ve found myself stuck. It’s not a confidence thing, or writer’s block. It’s not even the fact that I’ve started a new day job. The best way I can describe my current experience is a period of quiet settling down – an inbetweener period, if you will. It’s as if the fatigue of pushing so hard to finish this story I had to tell has finally caught on with me.

So, a few things have been running through my mind during this period. I’ve thought about stories from the world beyond the Empire. I’ve mulled over Inspector Ambrose’s journey, and where he’ll go next, and I’ve been looking into the next steps in terms of getting my novels published. As I’ve tried to get going on the next thing, I’ve found myself losing focus, and struggling to even put pen to paper for planning purposes.

The hardest thing about this period, however, has been the listless feeling as I’ve tried to gather my thoughts and redirect my creative energy. It’s been tough, but at the same time, I think it’s necessary to give your mind time to unwind from the intensity of writing for so long. Rest isn’t easy to settle into, but as I’m coming out of this period of downtime, I’m feeling hopeful for the future.

So where to from here? Well, today I’ve decided to finally leap into actually writing the next Inspector Ambrose novella I’ve been planning for about a year. It’s gonna be a wild ride, but I’m looking forward to shaking off my fatigue and getting back into writing again.

Inspector Ambrose is on his way.