How ya doin'?

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.

So, this is the new, un-obsessive me.  How are you doing?  Are you feeling the stress of day to day life interfering with your writing?  Do you have any useful tips for the rest of us?  

Oh, and which is it for you - puppies or kittens?

Feeling the fear and giving it a jolly good go anyway!

  Yes, it's the first Wednesday in JUNE - how on earth did we get into June?  I saw people in town earlier today in Ugg boots and coats - no wonder I'm confused!

So, it's that day when we get to tell each other how insecure we're feeling without feeling whiney. Hooray!  I'm looking forward to reading some of the other blogs in a minute, but first my insecurity...

On one front I'm feeling very secure and excited as I've recently had two stories accepted for online anthologies, but that doesn't compare to the number I've recently had rejected by women's magazines!  I find discovering those emails in my inbox so stressful that it's almost put me off submitting altogether.  I think I have a good idea for a new womag story and I'm going to start it tonight and see if it fits the requirements (in my opinion, anyway) but I'm almost too scared to submit it (sad face).

Fear not, fellow-writers - I am not the sort to stick my head in the sand so I WILL submit it, but please think of my bitten fingernails and stress-induced IBS and wish me luck!

On a more positive note, an almost completely formed plot for a novel popped into my head the other morning, so I can spend the summer attacking that!

Happy Insecure Wednesday to you!

Find out who else is participating on Alex J Cavanaugh's blog HERE!