Hello everyone! Here's a Friday kitten for you - and incase you don't like kittens, here's a Friday puppy...Anyway... I'm just checking in because, as you may know, I'm not blogging regularly due to my efforts to DE-STRESS MY LIFE! I am, I must say, feeling a lot less stressed - not that it was only the blogging that was causing me stress, but it was yet another thing to fit in. I've still been visiting blogs when I can and trying to leave a comment (if Blogger will let me on that particular day at that particular time, fickle friend that it is).
I have managed to stick to my PLAN, more or less, and seem to have convinced myself that as much as I love writing, it's not worth stressing over to the point that it makes me ill / tired / impossible to live with / inattentive to other members of the family.
I'd like to share a few of my recent discoveries with you, if you haven't got bored yet and navigated away from the page...
- I don't need to write a short story in one or two sittings. I used to feel that my momentum was ruined if I wrote something over a week or two, but I've discovered that a) I don't forget what I was going to write and b) after editing you'd never know it had been written in stages. I know that you already knew that, but I'm a slow learner...
- It is possible to put a "So what?" head on in the face of rejection. I was bad at this and used to check my inbox several times a day for news on stories I'd submitted, and then feel pretty humililated if the dreaded 'Sorry, but...' response arrived. Lately, I've limited myself to checking only once a day when I answer my emails and have also managed to talk myself out of high hopes for each story. If an editor likes it - hooray! If not, never mind - it just isn't the right story for them or - and this is obviously sometimes the case - it doesn't 'work'. So what?! Move on!
- Even if it's a 'writing' night, it's ok to only write 100 words and then go and watch TV with my husband or my daughter.
Oh, and which is it for you - puppies or kittens?
5 comments:
The new unobsessive you sounds like she's figured it out! Well done.
I have no tips to share. I'm the worst person in the world for organising myself/working/not procrastinating. I'm still waiting for the light bulb moment that you obviously had!
I think you have a good plan. I teach Writer's Workshop to my kindergartners...when the times ends I always have kids who say, "But I'm not finished!" And I remind them (every day) that writers aren't always finished with a book in one day...and it might take them all year. A hard concept for kids- even adults!
I can hear breath being exhaled and relief positively oozing from you! Or at least the benefits of a bit of balance and not beating yourself up. I have found, my accident, I love writing in 100 word snatches - and it also seems to help keep creativity flowing in my head so ideas come up all the time.
Keep balancing!
Oh and kitten does it for me every time :) X
Kitty!! My day just got brighter ^_^ Glad to see you're destressing yourself. I might have to hit you up for advice in a week or two...
I'll take one of each please. And be sure to take that time to be with your husband and daughter. Those 100 words will come later . . . maybe even better!
I hopped over from Alex's Insecure Writer Linky to say hello. So glad I did. I got me a kitten AND a puppy. :-)
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