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Why January isn’t a Time for Writing by Sarah Marie Graye

Why January isn’t a Time for Writing by Sarah Marie Graye

Today I am excited to welcome Sarah Marie Graye on to the blog with a fantastic guest post on writing!


Why January isn’t a Time for Writing

The beginning of the year can be a tough time for someone with mental health issues. Whether you’re lifted by Christmas or crawl into bed to avoid it, the period following it can be much harder to slog through.

We’re surrounded by people proposing New Year’s Resolutions, which sounds like a great way to get your life on track. But anyone with depression knows that when resolutions fall by the wayside, we feel like failures – and the very things that were meant to assist us send us hurtling towards rock bottom.

So I don’t have any writing resolutions for January.

I actually write very little around this time of year. What I do instead is twirl ideas around in my head, questioning and rethinking my characters’ decisions – all of the behind-the-scenes thought processes that writers need to go through without having to look at the dreaded manuscript!

(I sound like I don’t like writing. I do. I just find it incredibly hard too.)

By far my biggest task in January is to read other people’s books. I’ve rearranged my lounge so that my favourite chair is positioned next to the radiator and I’ve teamed it with a footstool from a local charity shop.

I believe I learn the most about myself and my mental health by my internal reactions to stories and characters created by other people – it’s a controlled way of questioning life. And it’s the thoughts and ideas that brew from reading that end up informing my next novel.

Hopefully, I’ll feel like writing in February!


About the Book

Would your life unravel if someone you knew committed suicide? Theirs did.

Faye’s heart still belongs to her first love, Jack. She knows he might have moved on, but when she decides to track him down, nothing prepares her for the news that he’s taken his own life.

Faye is left wondering how to move forward, and whether or not Ethan will let her down again. And when she tells her friends, the news ripples through their lives too.

Perfect for fans of Maggie O’Farrell, Elizabeth Strout, Patrick McGrath and Nathan Filer.


About the Author

Sarah Marie Graye was diagnosed with depression aged 9 and with ADHD aged 42. She believes mental health issues have shaped her whole life – and they prompted her to write a novel so she could use fictional characters and a make-believe plot to explain the thoughts and feelings behind her mental health to others. She has a Masters degree in Creative Writing and her debut novel The Second Cup was longlisted for the Book Viral 2017 Millennium Book Award and made it into Read Freely’s Top 50 Indie Books 2017.

Website. Facebook. Twitter.


Can you write in January?

2 Comments

  • Janet Gogerty

    Writing a novel seems the ideal way to help others understand your mental health. Yes I can write in January, but I don’t think it matters at all if you write not a single word, thinking up ideas, reading and a little pampering to ease gently into a new year sounds the perfect preparation for writing in February; by which time everyone else will have forgotten about their New Year resolutions!

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