A Mental Takeover

When you take time off from your daily writing schedule to attend to other hobbies you have, be it gardening, scuba-diving, whatever, do you switch off truthfully from your writing persona?  I have been wondering about this lately because my hobbies outside of my writing are suffering big time. Now that I think of it, it is my writing life that is impacting on my hobbies. It has always been like this I know but ah, it’s got out of hand I tell you.

I walk in the mornings, and it is my chance to think and get my thoughts in order. I plan my day and think about family stuff and then without realising it I am thinking about the story I have not finished and my characters are talking to me. The plan for the day is pushed aside. I sometimes take my mp3 and listen to a mix of music and hey, presto, certain lyrics hit me that would make great titles for a novel. I can’t listen to a song without analysing the words.

Even when I am with friends chatting and having a good laugh, something that is said, gets stored in my head for future use in a story. Or I wonder what if, when I notice another event happening nearby in the café we are sitting in. It’s not that I am not paying attention when I’m with my friends or family, it’s that my head is storing all this information and I cannot allow it to be wasted. 

Going to the cinema, another thing I like to do. Yet I’m sitting there and mentally I am editing the film. Making suggestions to what they should have done, all in my head of course.

So my dear friends, any tips for me on a past-time that I can enjoy without my writing life butting in and jeopardising it?