A Week in Writing #3

Sickness, Paul Simon and sparkly capes.

Welcome to A Week in Writing, a series where I share what my Monday to Friday looks like while I’m working a creative day job and writing around that. Think of this as part-diary, part-accountability tool for me to think about when, where and how much I’m writing and creating.

Some weeks will be full of inspiration and exciting events. Others will be full of emails and life admin. I hope that most weeks will be a healthy mix of the two. If you’re a long-time subscriber, this is where my usual list of recommended reading, listening and watching will be from now on. If you’re new here, I hope you find some inspiration in those round-ups. I would love to know what you’re enjoying at the moment too, so let me know in the comments.

Enjoy!

The cherry bloosom out in force, more Soft Office™️, schleppin’ my sparkly capes around town plus a little book haul.

Monday

It’s the end of the Bank Holiday weekend and I’m feeling pretty miserable. I’m currently into day nine or ten of some horrible, chesty, fluey illness. I spent most of last week (and my annual leave) in bed, fully depleted and hacking my guts up. This week, I’m still not at 100% but Life™️ is demanding things of me again. Not least, a chunk of writing work that I’ve just been too ill to complete but the deadline is looming. I’m feeling sad and overwhelmed with the work I need to do - which feels incompatible with the work of getting better.

I’m a terrible ill person. Being unwell makes me feel anxious and guilty and I usually keep going until I just collapse under a pile of snotty tissues and duvet for a day or two. A lot of it is tied to my fear of burning out again. I feel paralysed with overwhelm so instead of starting on the writing work, I give myself a bit of time to journal about these feelings. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t think I’ve ever, really fully recovered from my horrible breakdown in 2021. The word ‘breakdown’ feels dramatic as I write it down but I can’t think of any other words to describe it. I broke down, like a car, and just…couldn’t go anymore.

Of course, I had to get up and go again. I had bills to pay, relationships to maintain. But I know that my brain and body were not ready. If I’m really honest, I’m still not back to the pre-pandemic me - but who is? Writing it all down makes it feel a bit relentless so I stop. Instead I reach for

Emma Gannon

’s Year of Nothing, her account of burnout and recovery that I’ve read before. I re-read it, highlighting the bits that resonate, that I recognise in myself both now and four years ago. It’s not moving the needle on the work I need to do, but it is soothing my jangling, still-unwell nerves.

Tuesday

I really, really can’t put the freelance work off for another day. Thankfully, the universe seems to be hearing my panicked pleas for help. I wake up with only the lightest of tickles in my throat and two emails postponing work commitments that were threatening to eat up big chunks of my evenings this week. I breathe a sigh of relief. I will have the time and energy to make this deadline.

I get home from work, eat some dinner and open up my laptop. While I work, I listen to Graceland on repeat. At the weekend we watched the Paul Simon night on BBC2 (cultural programming, yes!), which involved me crying watching parts of his 1991 Central Park gig (I told you, I was ill!). So now I’m on a bit of a Paul Simon kick. Graceland is probably one of my all-time favourites and I know it so well that I can type away without being distracted by the lyrics. By the end of the night I’ve written one of the three pieces that I need to, which feels like good progress.

Wednesday

Today is the start of new creative writing project that I’m running with Primary 7 school kids around the city. So, naturally, that involves me carrying two bags of 30 multicoloured, sparkly super hero capes across town. Of course the kids love the capes and thankfully most of them enjoy the writing too. Working with young people is hard. It takes a lot of energy and patience and enthusiasm that sometimes you have to dig real deep for (shout out to all my teacher friends who know this too well!). But when it comes off like this project has so far, it feels pretty good.

This evening involves more Paul Simon and more writing from bed. Two articles down, one to go.

Thursday

Full disclosure: no writing gets done today. Work is tiring and tricky today and those feelings of overwhelm are creeping back in. When I get home, I don’t even give the googledoc a second glance. Instead, I spend an hour or so on FaceTime with a friend and then go to bed early with a book.

Last weekend, when I was still feeling sad and ill, I bought myself a stack of new books. Did I need these books? No, but dropping 40 quid on some paperbacks felt like an easy way to cheer myself up - or at least give me something to look forward to. I told you, being unwell sends me into a total tailspin. I fully believe that nothing will ever be good again so the dopamine hit of buying some new reading material feels like a lifeline. Of course, we’ll just completely ignore the pre-existing pile of books in the flat waiting to be read…

Tonight I crack the spine on David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day. I am very late to the Sedaris game and haven’t actually read any of his books, but from what I’ve been told I suspect that I’m in for a good time. This book, from 2000, recounts his move to France and his attempts to learn the language, as well as essays essays about his childhood.

I’m laughing out loud within the first five pages.

Friday

The end is in sight…I don’t work at my day job on Fridays so I know I need to seize the day and finally finish this writing. Despite an early night with David Sedaris, I slept pretty terribly. For the first half an hour of the day the typing feels sludgy and difficult before my coffee kicks in and my brain wakes up.

By 9:00 I finish the writing and switch into editing mode. Luckily, the three articles I’ve written don’t read like total nonsense. I spend an hour or so on the edit and by 10:30 I’m done. I hit send on the email to the client and I close my laptop. I vow never to work like this again, knowing full well that a) I couldn’t help being ill, and b) sometimes my work-life is just like this. Working a day job while freelancing and still trying to make time to eat, go outside, see friends, is hard. Don’t let anyone trying to glamourise the hustle tell you otherwise.

The rest of the day is busy but much less brain-intensive. I take a long walk to the other side of town to meet a friend for lunch, relishing the chance to stretch my legs and move my body after too many hours bunched up over the keyboard. I run some errands in town and enjoy a moment in the sunshine with a coffee, before coming home to tackle some of the life admin that inevitably piles up when both of us in the house have been ill for a while.

On Friday evening, I open my laptop again, this time to submit to an open call on the theme of friendship. I decide to send an edited version of this Substack I wrote about long-distance friendships. It feels good to sit with the story again and I’m excited to send it off. Even if its not accepted, I’m pleased to be keeping a promise to myself to share my writing more often. So far, it’s been a much-needed confidence boost and a muscle that feels good to flex. At any rate, it’s way more interesting than all the time I’ve spent watching deadlines and opportunities sail by.

Here’s a round up of some good things I’ve been reading/watching/doing/listening to this past week:

• After thinking and journaling about burnout this week,

  Bree Groff
  ’s rules for not burning out felt like a very timely read.

• In a similar vein, I’ve definitely felt a lot of the feelings described in this post about the perceived ‘sunk costs’ of our careers.

• The Reunion on Radio 4 brings together groups of people who were involved in significant cultural and political moments in recent history. Two of my favourite episodes from April have been about the making of The Commitments (i.e. one of my favourite-ever films) and the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

• Did you also watch the London Marathon last weekend and think, yeah I could do that? Then you’ll probably love this inspiring piece by Sarah Manley on her marathon experiences. I’ve signed up to ballot for 2026 (despite not going for a run that wasn’t on a treadmill since 2024) along with an estimated 1 million other people. So…wish me luck, I guess?

• Kelsey Glennon hits several nails on their heads in this essay about her recent experience of a writers retreat in Paris. I particularly love what she has to say about travel not changing your life but rather your perspective on your life.

• I’m loving the new series of Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr. The perfect low-stakes, warm reality-competition TV that sees designers flexing their creative muscles to transform everywhere from youth hostels to dog shelters. Everyone seems lovely and, six series in, it looks like the show has finally been give a production budget.