It's finally spring in Kansas (which means there are some nice days and some days that feel like summer). Amazingly, this seems to have cured most of my ailments.
I've been suffering from one illness or ailment after another for the last five months, everything from colds to flu to bronchitis to sinus infections to dental and mouth surgeries. I've been to the doctor and the dentist and I've been on inhalers and steroids and antibiotics and my own array of herbal supplements. It figures what finally cured me was just time and a change in the weather.
The other ailment the weather seems to be slowly curing is writer's block. I'm starting to feel creative energies flowing again, and I actually have an idea or two percolating. I think it helps that my head isn't as full of snot or pain and that my seasonal depression is fading.
At any rate, I haven't started actually writing yet, but I have written a few wine blogs (you can check them out at Red Wine Reminiscence), and now I'm writing a blog here. I've poked around some short story markets on Duotrope. I finally read my NaNo novel from last year, and decided it wasn't the pile of trash I originally thought it was. It's a start. A small start, but it's something.
This weekend is ConQuest, and the boyfriend and I are going all three days. I will write a story for Story in a Bag - the contest I won last year (well, three way tied for first). I will listen to writers and publishers and editors and artists talk. I will write down a thousand book recommendations. And I will relax with my man on his birthday weekend. I've taken several days off work, so I am going to rest, relax, read, and hopefully write.
The third course in my editing certificate starts tomorrow. I earned a B+ in both the first and the second courses, have learned a ton, and am looking forward to the next class. Just two left until I am done with the sequence. I just finished copyediting a friend's manuscript (my first paid gig).
I am making slow and steady progress towards my goals again. The post-NaNo blues took me down hard this year, and I wandered aimlessly for a long time. But I'm taking it back now. I'm ready to reclaim my writer title. I know I never really lose it, but sometimes I put it away for awhile. During those times, I always worry I'll never get it back out, but as all of my writing friends remind me, it will always find me again, even if I can't find it.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Baby Steps Forward
As I mentioned last week, January brings crippling bouts of writer's block and a wide range of insecurities and depression. My writing always suffers.
It's a familiar cycle, although it's still painful every year. I am trying to take comfort right now in the fact that I have, on record, the last two painful Januarys, and I survived them both. I have learned not to push myself too hard or expect too much and be very proud of myself for any forward motion.
And so, I applaud myself this week. I was struck with sudden inspiration and managed to write my next two Confabulator Cafe assignments, including a not-so-flash-fiction retelling of a fairytale. That will go up next week. It's a twisted tale, of course, because I put all my pain and misery into my writing, but I am happy with how it turned out. So you should go read it. I'll try to remember to advertise here when it goes live.
Not only did I get those things written, I started poking around Duotrope (which, I'm sad to say, is no longer free - but for $50 a year, I decided it was an investment in my writing career), which culminated in me sending out all of the stories that had come back rejected at the end of last year. I even found another market to submit my novella to, once I clean it up a bit more (it needs about 1000 more words in the revision), I'll send that out, as well.
Lastly, my next class in the professional editing sequence started this week. Even after the trauma of my grammar class last semester, I am geeky-excited about it right now. I'm sure I'll complain about it plenty down the line, but I'm excited now. I wrote all of my reading assignments out on sticky notes and put them in my textbooks. I was the first person to introduce myself on the forum. Looking over the syllabus, I think this class may be a little more fun and a little more in line with what I was hoping this certificate would be like. I'm allowing myself to be hopeful right now, because I start having panic attacks if I think about how miserable I was during the grammar class.
Even though it seems like the rest of my life is in chaos, at least I'm still making steps towards my writing and editing goals. I just have to keep holding on (tightly) to that.
It's a familiar cycle, although it's still painful every year. I am trying to take comfort right now in the fact that I have, on record, the last two painful Januarys, and I survived them both. I have learned not to push myself too hard or expect too much and be very proud of myself for any forward motion.
And so, I applaud myself this week. I was struck with sudden inspiration and managed to write my next two Confabulator Cafe assignments, including a not-so-flash-fiction retelling of a fairytale. That will go up next week. It's a twisted tale, of course, because I put all my pain and misery into my writing, but I am happy with how it turned out. So you should go read it. I'll try to remember to advertise here when it goes live.
Not only did I get those things written, I started poking around Duotrope (which, I'm sad to say, is no longer free - but for $50 a year, I decided it was an investment in my writing career), which culminated in me sending out all of the stories that had come back rejected at the end of last year. I even found another market to submit my novella to, once I clean it up a bit more (it needs about 1000 more words in the revision), I'll send that out, as well.
Lastly, my next class in the professional editing sequence started this week. Even after the trauma of my grammar class last semester, I am geeky-excited about it right now. I'm sure I'll complain about it plenty down the line, but I'm excited now. I wrote all of my reading assignments out on sticky notes and put them in my textbooks. I was the first person to introduce myself on the forum. Looking over the syllabus, I think this class may be a little more fun and a little more in line with what I was hoping this certificate would be like. I'm allowing myself to be hopeful right now, because I start having panic attacks if I think about how miserable I was during the grammar class.
Even though it seems like the rest of my life is in chaos, at least I'm still making steps towards my writing and editing goals. I just have to keep holding on (tightly) to that.
Friday, January 11, 2013
January Desolation
January is always a tough month for me, writing-wise. I tend to suffer from seasonal affective disorder, so I'm always bummed out, I still feel burned out from writing frantically for the entire month of November, and I'm exhausted from the holidays. And lazy from the holidays. I always take a lot of time off to do nothing with family and friends, so when January hits, it's all I can do to get myself back into my responsibilities as an adult, and to get back to work.
This year is just like every other. The only difference is work is overwhelming me right now - we're down a staff member and my boss is going on vacation next week - so when I get home at the end of the day, all I want to do is watch TV and go to bed early.
Combine that with another botched job in my mouth by my dentist, and my motivation to work towards my writing career is nil.
I have to keep reminding myself that I go through this every year. I make a lot of goals at the beginning of each year and get down on myself for not immediately working on them, but January is a brutal month. I can forgive myself for slacking in January. Or at least not get too down on myself for slacking in January.
Which basically means I have nothing to report, as far as my personal writing career progress.
You should go check out the Confabulator Cafe, though. It's still going strong. We have a new member, new topics, and a new look for this year. For any new material from me, that's where you'll have to go to find it for now. I post every Tuesday.
This year is just like every other. The only difference is work is overwhelming me right now - we're down a staff member and my boss is going on vacation next week - so when I get home at the end of the day, all I want to do is watch TV and go to bed early.
Combine that with another botched job in my mouth by my dentist, and my motivation to work towards my writing career is nil.
I have to keep reminding myself that I go through this every year. I make a lot of goals at the beginning of each year and get down on myself for not immediately working on them, but January is a brutal month. I can forgive myself for slacking in January. Or at least not get too down on myself for slacking in January.
Which basically means I have nothing to report, as far as my personal writing career progress.
You should go check out the Confabulator Cafe, though. It's still going strong. We have a new member, new topics, and a new look for this year. For any new material from me, that's where you'll have to go to find it for now. I post every Tuesday.
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