After I finished typing the title, I realized that there were several possible meanings. To "Yuck." Several of which apply in this case.
Meaning one could be "The Yuck" of cold that I was unable to escape. I successfully held it off for several weeks, but it made an attack which overwhelmed me three weeks ago and, for the first week, I was lying low. I was sleeping nine to ten hours a night, was cancelling everything except work, which included interpreting a play, so that I could stay home and rest. Get over The Yuck. It took a long time, nearly three weeks. I'm now at 90 - 95% over it and ready for it to be done. That Yuck impacted my writing because it took everything I had to get to work, prepare to interpret and interpret the play, and get myself to those places. Week one was only those activities; week two was a couple of other meetings; and the third week was my normal schedule, although I was exhausted at the end of the day.
Meaning two, I don't like what I'm writing. That is only partially true, fortunately. There are a couple of the pieces in the short story collection that I'm not happy with. I liked them previously, but right now they are on my Yuck list.
Meaning two, and what I originally intended when I wrote it, was the "this writing project is Yuck." Stuck and hopeless and overwhelming and it can't be saved. It's sad when I hit the wall with both currently active projects. But I did. Wondering where to go with them? Are they any good (oh, what dangerous words those are)? Should I just scrap them and start over? Do they make any sense? What's the point (more dangerous words)? And more.
One way I'm addressing The Yuck right now is by knitting. I know, it's not writing. But it is keeping my hands busy, it's creative (I'm knitting a sweater - the first in a long time; I've been knitting hats off and on but wanted a bigger challenge), and it keeps that fussy part of my brain occupied. It's funny that while I'm knitting, I've been thinking about those stories and the novel. I've worked out a couple of things in my head - though I haven't transferred them to the page, yet. I will. But I think that my chattering and figure-it-out brain has been satisfied with the knitting and my writing-brain has a bit of space to move.
We'll see how it goes. But once I get through the expectations and scrambled schedule of the holidays and another major project I'm consulting on gets a little more under way, I expect writing will return more regularly. I'm looking forward to that return.
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