I have been somewhat stuck with my writing lately and am realizing more and more that I should probably focus more on my dino writing, my actual book(s), than on blogging, sharing updates on my life and even creating and sharing my dino art. All of the latter feel like a distraction from what I set out to do, a year and 8 months ago: writing and finishing a book.
The fact that the game depicted in the picture above this post, came up when I planned to write all this, is no coincidence. Although I disagree with the GAME OVER part.
For those who didn't know that this dino showing up in (y)our browser, every now and then, was actually more than a picture, here's some info:
this mini game starts after hitting space bar and can be played by just using the space bar on your keyboard, in order to jump. It stops as soon your computer is connected to the internet and you are Game Over when you hit a cactus or a flying dino.
GAME OVER it says here, after what has probably been my all time high score haha! My running T-Rex bumped into a low-flying pteranodon or pterodactyl.
This post ( and its title ) was inspired by a conversation with 
Long story short, riverflows encouraged me to say NO ( to her ) if I wanted to say NO. I took my time though, as I had felt like saying NO, more or less from the start here, but I wanted to make sure that it was a conscious decision and not just an easy way out or an excuse or a NO out of feeling overwhelmed, lack of sleep, coffee induced anxiety and so on and so forth.
I also started another post that I ended up not sharing, a day or two ago, explaining how my other writing is distracting me from my dino writing.
Then, in this convo with river and pavanjr, the latter pointed out to me that "di no" is actually spanish for say(ing) no. I hadn't thought of that, even though I speak, write and understand Spanish pretty well. Another little sign showing me that saying no might make it easier to focus on my dino writing.
So, after saying NO today, I actually felt pretty relieved, which is a good sign. A NO that makes one feel bad, guilty and so on, is usually a sign that we said NO but actually wanted to say YES ( and vice versa with YES ).
It is probably also no coincidence that, while writing this post ( yeah, I know, focus is far from my forte ), I logged into reedsy.com , where I write / edit my books and I actually started adding some words that felt pretty good, not too forced. Unlike what I have been feeling lately.
I should probably go back to writing soonish, so I'm gonna cut it short here.
Let's conclude by saying that there is a chance that - from now on - I will be mainly sharing progress updates on my book writing here. I won't promise anything though ( as I know myself pretty well by now ) as I am not much of a planner - and believe me I've tried to become one - and I pretty much live day by day, going with the flow, here in Portugal.
As you all know, a lot has happened to our ( daily ) lives, in the last year and three months or so and this sure has had an impact on my writing too. It made me wonder if my message is still one worth sharing with the world. Also, I am not the same person that I was when I set out writing my dino stories. I think my story is still worth being shared though ( and so is yours ) and, being a creative, I will surely find a way to get it out into the world, one day. If it doesn't work clockwise I will try counter-clockwise.
So what about you? Do you struggle with saying NO in a way that feels good? Have you improved in this area lately? I am curious to hear your story. I am also curious in what way ( not ) saying NO impacts your creativity. .
Much love,
Vincent