Priorities

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" - Ray Bradbury

So, to start off, I'm seeing a therapist. It's not for anything serious though - I started going 8 months ago when I was told by my doctor that stress and anxiety might be making me sick. I took that serious enough, and so far it seems to be helping.

But anyways, the point. 

In my appointment this week, I was bemoaning about the stress of work. Finally my doctor looks at me and says "You aren't putting yourself first. Before anything can change, you need to do that."

And I realized just how right she was. For months now I have been whining that I wasn't able to devote time to writing like I wanted, that I  wished I could just sit at home and write all day, etc. But really, I just didn't have my priorities right. Typing this now, it seems like this should have been pretty obvious to me. But sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in every day life that we forget to stop and think, and breath. I would come home exhausted, plop down on the couch, and zone out, and then later think "Oh, I wish I had more time." Or we make plans every single night of the week, and then later say the same thing. So now, I am devoting the last two hours of my night to writing. It can be writing here, writing my books, or writing for Chicks With Crossbows. Whatever it is, I want to make what makes me happy a priority each day, and that is writing. And for me, sometimes that is hard to force myself to do. 

The biggest struggle in this comes from being in a positive attitude when I am home from work. Everyone is tired after a long day, and sometimes that funk just sticks around. So I've taken up walking from work, or doing pilates, or doing something to separate my writing from the rest of the day. When I'm ready, I have a cup of tea, put on my iPod's writing playlist, and tune out everything else. So far this has been happening between the hours of 10pm and 12am, and this seems to be the witching hour that works for me. 

I really hope I can stick with this pattern! I enjoy feeling excited to sit down and write, and knowing that I have set aside time to write each day has me feeling less worried that I won't get to it. 

So put yourself first when it comes to your writing! Don't let stress and anxiety take control. 

If anyone has other methods you have used to get yourself into the groove of writing after a long day of work, please feel free to share!

What Am I Doing Here?

"You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will." - Stephen King

I started my journey of writing my first novel back in January of 2010, for JaNoWriMo. I only wrote 25k words, but just doing that was enough for me to realize - Hey, this is something I really want to do. I actually hadn't thought that I could write even that much, and now I am at 50k words, and even more surprised. I had always loved writing when I was growing up, and had even started college as an English major. But back then I thought that all that degree would get me is a teaching job, which I didn't want, so I went into Theater [and then after 6 more jumps, finally landed in Communications]. I had dabbled in short stories and fan fic, but JaNoWriMo really helped jumpstart my drive to write once more.

Part of my reason for starting this blog is because I want to talk more about the process of writing my book - it's been an interesting time in discovering who I am and what I want to do. As the title of the blog suggests, this isn't my day job. My wonderful aunt, who is also a writer and has finished her first book, has been an amazing inspiration, and after I texted her ranting about having to work a full time job one day, she encouraged me to start a blog to share my frustrations, and possibly find others who are going through the same thing, so that I could keep my sanity slightly intact. ^^

So keep an eye out, there will be more to come on this blog!