For about a month I’ve been on a self-imposed blackout. I cut all unnecessary things in my life. No Twitter, no blogging, no critique groups, no phone calls I didn’t have to make, no events I didn’t absolutely have to go to. You may be thinking, what was left to do? This was one thing: How We Roll. And SHE was another.

About the time I started my other blog, joined this one, started Tweeting, joined critique groups, sent my MS to agents, and generally dove head-first into advancing as a writer; when all of that happened, she stopped taking naps. You have to be a mother or a nanny to really understand the severity of that sentence.

Fast forward six months. The agents have responded, the blog is getting traffic, the tweeting is well, whatever it does, and I’m so strapped for writing time I’m taking rough drafts to critique group. One day, being the decisive, action-oriented person that I am, I decided to do the blackout.

I was like Alice in Wonderland when she falls down the rabbit hole and everything is upside-down. I fell from the ceiling and the world righted itself again.

When I reemerged a week ago and went to a critique group, Lisha asked, “Where have you been?” I told her I was reading books, writing, doing the occasional exercise video, taking my daughter to the park. I said, “You know what I learned? I like my daughter. She’d kinda fun.”

By the grace of God I checked my calendar and saw I was supposed to post today. And I’m okay with that. But truth be told, I’m not ready to end my blackout quite yet. (Partly because of this: Dancing) Social media is wonderful, great, irreplaceable. I wouldn’t have the writer friends I do, the critique partners, this blog, or half the knowledge I have without them. But every once in awhile it’s nice to get perspective. I’m in a different stage of things right now, I need that gold pond to sit and think, I need a room of my own to write, and I need to make castles in the sand with a three-year-old. These are the things that are making me a better writer.

What about you guys? What’s working for you? What are you doing to grow this month?