The summer slump

The column that you currently cast your eye over is meant to be, give or take the odd unnecessarily long sentence, four hundred words in length. That’s not a lot of words. And yet, it has taken me – quite literally – weeks to reach this point.

Now, I don’t consider myself to be a lazy person (although some may disagree) but my goodness am I having trouble getting motivated; no matter how hard I try, whenever I sit down to attempt to write I end up with a sentence or two of absolute tosh and the overwhelming desire to make a coffee. Or polish the car. Or go for a walk, check up on Facebook, look for a holiday, bake some bread.

Seriously, I actually spent three solid hours roaming the streets of our fair city trying to find somewhere to buy fresh baker’s yeast last week. This really happened. And why? Because since marking the full stop on my final exam paper and sprinting for the clear springtime air my brain has simply switched off. It no longer cares about Descartes or Dickens, it just craves a diet of sunshine and real ale, with the occasional festival or two thrown in for good measure.

Do you know what I found out recently? It’s August! Already! It’s dissertation time next year. That’s next year as in October, less than two months away, and what have I done? Made lots of bread, that’s what. It’s all well and good taking a well-earned break following weeks of exam cramming but I seriously need to pull my finger out, and I suspect I’m not alone. The summer has a nasty habit of flying by in a heartbeat. A few late nights followed by the inevitable lie-ins and it’s all gone before you can say “student loan renewal.” Next thing you know it’s October and you’re frantically adding items to your Amazon basket in the hope that your books will arrive in time for the beginning of term. It’s crazy.

In an attempt to counteract this lull of lethargic procrastination I intend to make a pledge: I will, from this day on to the beginning of term, read, write, or at the very least think about one thing relevant to my continuing studies each and every single day. I will. And as luck would have it I study creative writing so this little piece will do nicely for today’s offering. Man, that was easy; time to go make some chelsea buns.