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!
Whitney, I think you should also include your decision not open your etsy store in your list of successes. Being able to recognize that not everything you’d like to do is going to work with your current schedule/life craziness is a really big deal!