Friday, May 24, 2013

Don't Panic!

Everyone needs that one friend to smack them upside the head when they start sabotaging themselves. I have a few friends who gladly smack me around from time to time but my grounding totem would have to be the fabulous Miss V.
V. and I have just enough in common and just enough differences between us we have cultivated a pretty solid bond. I don't see her nearly as often as I would like, or should, since I tend to hide in my writing cave tweaking on too much caffeine. It's not easy getting together, we both have kids, husbands who work lots of hours, the other various bull shit that crops up on a daily basis. But when I feel myself panicking over, well everything, I make the time.
V. is a massage therapist, a professional herbalist, and probably the most chill human being I know. She is the perfect person to dig into my tangled mess of panic, find the root of the problem and show it to me.
What am I panicking about this time? Oh the usual, I have loaded my plate with too much, so determined to pursue the writing thingy I forgot I am only human and need things like sleep and sanity. Having a coronary over student loans rearing their ugly head, and trying to potty train a very difficult learner while maintaining several writing projects is making me lose sleep at night.
V.'s response: Well, which project is the most important, what do you want to finish first. The rest can wait.

The rest can wait.
It's a simple answer but one I often forget. One a lot of people forget.
From this I take away : Don't worry about what you can't help, just focus on what you can.
Sounds proverby and stuff.

So the solution, aside from maintaining NE6 (which is a given, this project is what I fall back on when I can't stand working on edits anymore) I can shove everything else off and concentrate editing The Novel. If I can do that, maybe I'll actually meet my goal to submit for pub this summer.

Some advice to pass along to fellow writers, or really anybody: Everybody needs someone like Miss V. in their lives, the person who can give you perspective on life you can't see yourself. It could be your parent, a friend, a spouse, it doesn't matter. What's important is to have someone to turn to when you start miring in your own personal swamp of despair. Because the perspective they give you can turn that swamp into a puddle in seconds flat. Okay, that's enough metaphor for today.

Now if you will excuse me, I've got some scribblin' to do.

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