Whitney:

Hey writing friends! If you’re up for a little blurb on handling stress, why don’t you sit down for a spell because it’s about to get real.

Anytime I think about handling stress, I immediately downplay my stress because I can think of so many people who have more to stress about and yet handle it a lot more gracefully than me. But then I think, “eff that, stress is stress no matter how small.”

Today I made a point of writing down all the things that are stressing me out—and yes, writing is one of them. At the moment, I just can’t factory produce a good chapter like I used to. I’m going through and rewriting a ton of things to implement newer and better ideas and sometimes I don’t give myself a break. How much I’m not writing is directly affecting how I think about my writing in general.

I also wrote down some solutions. I realized that my pride in being a “pantser” writer has gotten out of control and I need more structure. I tell you, I am incredibly organized in just about every other aspect of my life except my writing. That mess is spaghetti noodles stuck to the ceiling. So I need to be like other writing friends and write more concrete goals but figure out a schedule that works. And also just not be mad if all doesn’t go according to plan.

If you’re feeling the heat, I would recommend writing down the stress and the solutions so you can see a concrete list of what you can change and how you can change it. I feel like once I fix things that have no direct relationship to writing, said writing will still improve because I can imagine I’ll be sitting at the computer thinking good thoughts rather than rushed and anxious ones.

I also want to write a random list of cool things I did this month to therefore prove to myself that I’m not a waste of space:

• I exercised for roughly 16 hours this month. I keep track of how many minutes I’m active each day. It averages out to 38 minutes/day. I’m therefore not a lazy sack.
• I edited/rewrote 13,395 words or 4 chapters. My goal was either 10,000 words or 4 chapters, which means I actually double-achieved my goal even though I was fairly whiny about it. It was a lot of throwing away and recreating.
• I play the organ in my congregation and guess what? I only goofed up the songs a little.
• I’ve lost 4 inches on my waist since February. I’ve got the best cheerleader (Travis) in the whole world, because whatever I decide not to eat, he doesn’t eat it, either.
• I got a promotion at work! I was blessed enough to earn/receive one as opposed to having to apply for one, which has never happened to me before.
• I happen to be currently wearing a cute outfit.

So you see, life isn’t rotten. *knocks on wood*

Goals for September

• Implement writing/blogging schedule and not be 100% slave to it.
• Write 10,000 words or edit 4 chapters.
• Create 2-3 lovely cross stitch samplers.

Travis:

Hey everyone! So I haven’t had a lot of exciting updates this month. While I didn’t meet my goal to write every day, I definitely improved. I’m looking forward to carrying that goal forward into September and . . . well, forever really.

Wit and I are trying to find ways to further incentivize our writing efforts, and one of our ideas is to come up with a way to reward ourselves at the end of the month, depending on how we’ve done. Any suggestions for good rewards? Otherwise we’ll be 3-D printing fun things through our local university library.

Have any stellar goals for the month? Share below!