Hello Lovelies,
Can you believe it is already March? Well, February did not go as planned. There were a bunch of shifts for me at the day job and that cut down on my hours of availability. Mounting stress around the world, still struggling to recover from Covid, and my bathroom remodel finally finishing up really ate into my availability and I just cannot work 60 hour weeks anymore.
I took a week off the grind to mentally recover and re-evaluate. I realized in my current physical state I am very limited in what I can do and trying to force myself to push through that is doing more damage than good. Trying to focus on too many things means that I am not getting enough done in any one area and I can’t keep circling like this. So I have decided to scale back and focus on the top three things that are impacting my life, make major progress on those to set me up to bring the other elements in as I get stabilized.
So for the next bit my primary focus is going to be on my health, my family, and getting my PMP certification. I’ve accepted that I need to explore more aggressive means of dealing with my DDD and SS and am exploring a surgery that my doctor hopes will help. I have a consult on the 15th of this month but I suspect that it will take time to address this element of my life. Should know more at my next update.
The PMP certification is the thing I expect will be resolved most quickly, but even that is quite time-consuming. I have about 30 more hours of education needed and have to put together proof of my project hours. So I expect it will take me more than a month, even with it being my primary focus.
As for focusing on the family, my youngest is a senior and that is quite time-consuming, especially with his sports and performances. Add onto that, the demands my condition place on them and the stress quotient is really high. As hard as it has been for me to adjust to my new limited level or normal, it’s been really tough on them. They’re the ones left to cover what I can’t do. We are striving to find a balance, but that’s tough too because from day to day what I can handle varies greatly. So we’re constantly trying to adjust and adapt, which is mentally and physically exhausting. It has eaten into their self-care time and increased their stress levels, which really sucks.
So we’re working on ways to parallel work so they can help with parts of a task that are difficult for me, but they aren’t stuck doing it all. It’s a work in progress, but one that needs my attention before we all hit burnout. I’m really hoping the first two goals achieved will help alleviate a lot of the struggles around the third goal. Time will tell.
I will continue doing the IWSG posts each month- to keep myself accountable and to keep in touch, and will continue working on re-releasing my books (Just got contacted by the cover artist for The Hunters Saga and will be moving forward with that as time allows) but will likely be less active on social media and re-releasing old posts. As every good project manager knows, a project’s timeline is impacted by time, money, and resources. I don’t have enough of any of those right now.
#IWSG March Question of the Month
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
You ready?
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
March 2 question – Have you ever been conflicted about writing a story or adding a scene to a story? How did you decide to write it or not?
Every single series. Actually, I debated for years whether to even write Hell School as it is very triggering for me, as it is based on my own experience with a stalker. When I run into these issues the first thing I ask myself is whether it is integral to the story. If yes, it gets written. If no, I ask is it integral to character development? Yes, write it. No, then I ask myself what is the purpose of this scene?
If it is just for shock or solely to elicit a response from the readers, I don’t write it. That’s not my voice.
The few scenes I was very nervous about writing, I got feedback from my betas on it. Most of them hated those scenes but also agreed that they added an important element to the story that would be lost without it. Ironically, those scenes are the ones that most often get mentioned in reviews too and most of them don’t say it should be taken out.
So my system seems to be working for me. Want to see how others handle this?
You can see the rest of the hop at IWSG Bloghop
Until next time,
Keep Writing!
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