Tag Archives: Writer Self Care

Back on the Writing Road Again

Writer Inspiration, ,

Back on the Writing Road Again. My last post “Writer’s Life Resolution Time” urged us to assess what we carry in our kit bags that will support our writing lives into the new year. I was not suggesting we cease all motion to perform this assessment but that is what happened to me. I should also have resolved not to get Covid. But I did.

Suddenly I was No Longer Motivated to Do Anything. I dropped out of the flow of my usual life. All I felt capable of was rest. All I wanted was to heal. As human beings we each experience times when recuperation – both physical and mental – is more crucial than work. The past month has been that kind of time for me.

Meanwhile – though I Avoided Brain Fog – I Experienced a Bad Case of Purpose Fog. I was disoriented. My weakened body forced me to do nothing. Even my certainty of what I should be doing slipped away – what I should be doing during Covid or post-Covid or anytime.

The Need to Take Care of Myself and Return to Health was Clear. But my work direction fell into shadow. Day after day turned into week after week. Still the shadow refused to lift. I longed to emerge into the light of certainty again but could not manage to do so.

One of my Career Mentors – Stephen King – offers Advice for such a Situation. He says – Sit yourself down and write as much as you can as well as you can. I ask – But what about those times when you are unable to accomplish that? The way I was unable to get Back on the Writing Road Again.

I Think of Mr. King in his own Horrible Health Crisis. Mowed down on the roadside by a rampaging driver. His leg encased in a medieval-style torture device. Confined to a back hallway. Sweating out a record-breaking heatwave with only a small oscillating fan as relief. He wrote the wonderful book On Writing.

Here is a Very Important Thing this Past Month has Taught Me. I applaud Stephen King and I admire him but I do not have to be him. None of us has to be him. We only have to be ourselves within our own minds and our own bodies and our own capabilities.

I have Finally Emerged from my Purpose Fog. My purpose is to Do the Best I Can. This is a strong standard to live by in our writing lives and in our daily lives. Most important this is an appropriate standard to expect of ourselves if we seek to be healthy individuals. And this is precisely what we should seek and expect.

Here is What it Means to Do Your Writerly Best. Think like a writer. Run snatches of dialog through your mind. Put sentences together to describe the scenes you happen upon in your day-to-day life and in your imagined life. Write all of that down if you can. Do not worry about it if you cannot.

I have Spent too Much of My Life Beating Myself Up with my Own Expectations. Maybe you have too. How about we start taking better care of ourselves instead? If your body urges you to rest – Rest. Then rise up to write another day. I promise you that day will come and you will be Back on the Writing Road Again.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr has published 14 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her  novel – A Year of Summer Shadows – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2 – is a available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows: “Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows has moved up to one of my favorite books.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

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Go Confidently Into This Good Year

Motivation, ,

Go Confidently into This Good Year. My grandchildren gave me a very important gift one Christmas. That gift was a mug with these words printed on it. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” I’d pointed that mug out one day at a Barnes & Noble where the kids and I were indulging in a much beloved pastime – book buying.

The Dread Begins. I coveted that mug from the moment I saw it, but now I actually had one. Sitting in my writing corner, that day and every day, holding my coffee and my trepidation. Sometimes, after a sip of the former, I would put the mug back down with the words facing deliberately away from me, in order to avoid confrontation with the latter.

A Helluva Assignment. Truth was, I didn’t feel equipped to Go Confidently anywhere. My first great critic, next to myself, was my mother, and I could hear her speaking from beyond this material plane, plain as day. “You always take on more than you can chew.” She’d said a mouthful of unchewables, and I had no smartass response. Would you? Well, we’d best get one.

We Need a Plan. That’s a pic of me standing at a podium, like I did for 30+ years, hardly ever appearing to lack confidence. Want to know why? Look at what I’m doing. Checking my notes. When I need to look, and maybe even be, confident, I make a plan. I write that plan down. Then, with a few smartass digressions thrown in, I follow it. We need to do the same now. In writing. With lots of specifics. Make a plan for how to Go Confidently into This Good Year.

What is “the direction of your dreams”? What do you want to accomplish right now? By which I mean, over the next 3 months. Grab a paper product or device you can write on. Don’t ponder much. We’re brainstorming, not brain-straining. Remember what I said about specifics. List anything that comes to mind, as long as it’s a concrete action. And write really fast,

Map Those Directions for the next few miles. New page(s). Still in rapid-response mode. To each item on the above list, add 3 specific actions you might take to make that accomplishment happen. Don’t edit or judge or compare the validity or practicality or whatever of your original list items just yet. Simply whale away into that brainstorm. No self-harpooning allowed.

Refine Your Route. During that last exercise, my guess is you found yourself responding more enthusiastically to some of your original dream accomplishments and less so to others. Go back over your combined list now – dream achievements plus specifics to get there. Asterisk the dream categories that excite you most. Once again, don’t ponder. Follow your gut.

Prioritize Your Trail Markers. Draw a big circle around each of your asterisked achievement categories and the how-to’s that go with each. Still fast-tracking. Rate those circles in order of importance to your career as you see it right now. Or in order of which ones turn you on most. Number them. And there you have it. A Plan for Your Next 3 months.  After that time has passed, simply grab a tablet and your stormy brain and repeat the above exercise for the next 3 months, then the next, and so on.

Now – Here’s the Kick-Start Kicker. If you did what I asked. If you moved ahead fast as gangbusters. If you short-circuited any and all temptations to edit/judge/second-guess the storm gusts your brain was gifting to you. Then my guess is you experienced little or no self-doubt during this entire slam-bam process. You were Confident about what you were doing.

What Comes Next. Whether you realize it or not, you have made a bold move toward “Living the life you’ve imagined.” But don’t dwell on that too much just yet. Celebrate instead. Because you did it. You made it. You are now ready to Go Confidently into This Good Year.

P.S. These two pics are years-back shots of our grandkids. Maya after winning a Tai Kwan Do Championship she didn’t think she should even enter. Julian, well, ready to take on the Hulk. They must have Go Confidently mugs of their own. In fact, Grandma is confident that they do.   Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

A Wrong Way Home – Alice’s Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 1 – is a FREE Kindle eBook HERE. Enjoy!

Alice’s latest novel is A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE.

Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “The best one yet!” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”

Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

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