Mois : septembre 2022

An old bookstore colleague of mine hated writing.

She loved stories. Novels, short stories, essays, kids’ literature of course, and the whole book world stuff.

But she had no interest whatsoever in becoming an author.

My dream career, earning a living writing novels, was her nightmare.

Changing Paradigm

I woke up at 4. Went into the living room.
Candle first, then a swipe of that beautiful before-dawn cool, fresh smell.

Tea tastes better when we’re a bit cold and ready to wrap ourselves up in a fluffy blanket, right?

Better yet, autumn is coming around here. In the trees, red, orange, and yellow are slowly taking over the dark green of the late summer leaves.
The air gets colder, and the first fallen leaves smell divine. There’s nothing like it!

Then, I got cozy on the couch and I wrote, wrote, wrote as much as I could.

Like I was taking in as much air as I could before plunging into the abyss.

I left my kiddo and hubby-to-be all on their own for the first time in 5 years.

Into the car I got. Into the traffic I got. And straight up to the retail store I’ll be working at the next year, at the very, very least.

Today, the dream career took a break from 7am to 7pm.

Today, I typed email addresses and pressed F2, F12, and ESC many times.

Not a single word was written down.

I didn’t have time to think about it, being the first day in a new place with new people.

Now that I’m here,
legs hurting factor aouchy-aouchy-aouchy-yayayaya,
safe and sound wrapped in a fluffy blanket even if really not that cold,
I declare (not too loud drumrolls because kiddo is sleeping already): it will not happen again.

Vintage Pen&Paper Mama Strikes Back!

I found myself playing video games during my half-hour break, which I spent in the back store.

Video game. Back store. Sounds and FELT like the 15-years-ago me.

Thing is, the now-me have a very big writing goals plan. I will have to find a way to take advantage of that time to do what I love: write!

Once I got kiddo in bed, and tomorrow part of the lunch out of the way, I put a pen&notebook in my handbag/backpack/not-grown-woman-classic-going-out-accessories.

The only thing left to do is find a spot in that, let’s face it, incredibly crowded back store to write in peace for half an hour.

Otherwise. … … …

Yeah, I would be scared, in the long run, to be overtaken by the day job.

The day job is not my nightmare job. However, it’s not the dream career either.

Better be careful there. Between dream and nightmare, nothingness may await.

What do you think?

Thanks so So much for being here, I’m very grateful for you.

Until next time I hope!

A popular tv chef said that once.

He could only rest while doing something.

Truth be told, fellow writers, I found him a bit intense but today… today I understand.

It’s the last day before I start the day job. There’s a pile of novels beside me, a notebook nearby. In front of me, soft daylight brightens the colours in the backyard. So many flowers.

Right there on the deck, there’s a pretty comfortable chair and a pretty comfortable cushion in the shades of the trees. It started to smell like autumn.

A beautiful day off to enjoy outside the house.

Well, I was supposed to enjoy the beautiful outside that is.

But.

Sitting still on that with a fun novel wouldn’t do, see? In order to tone my creeping stress down, I had to do something.

And what better thing to do than work on a novel and on a blog post while doing research and groceries online while listening to a radio show…

Yeah, something quickly went wrong.

Too Much Sometimes Is – Yep! – Too Much

It’s Labor Day in North America today.

A few years back, it meant pretty much everyone had the day off.

Not anymore. Lucky ones have the day off today. Why can’t national holidays be a time for everyone to rest and get together and enjoy life?

Next year, it’s almost certain I will be missing out on the beautiful pre-autumn weather.

I’ll be working!!

I was aware of it but somehow it took a comment from my kiddo to truly stop myself and realized I was overdoing it.

« Maman, tu es comme la maman-pieuvre dans le livre de bibliothèque! »

Mom, kiddo said, you’re like the octupus-mama from the library book.

First, I laugh, hoping at least my hair looked better than in the book.

Second, I took a breather and calm the heck down.

How to Rest in Action Without Overdoing It

I’ve learned through therapy there was such a thing as active meditation.

The technique is fairly simple. Instead of focusing on your breathing, you focus on the way your muscles react when you make a fist or move your toes.

I was too restless to give active meditation a try, but I could take a pick among all the things I wanted to do just because most of my time would not be mine anymore. It will belong to a business, for an honest hourly rate and social advantages.

I decided to set a limit of one hour for each thing I needed to do and discarted what was not an immediate necessity, like research and listening to the radio.

An hour for writing this blog post was followed by playing at throwing cardboard airplanes with the kiddo for a bit.

Everything went smoothly for the rest of the day, even though it was not perfect.

I did let the kiddo have way too much screen time, but for my own sake and sanity, there was no way around it.

Now, time to wrap it up and try to sleep before our lives take a new course, yet again…

Take of yourself, thanks for stopping by!

Where to begin?

Since I rather like happy endings, I shall leave the pros for the end.

The Cons of Daily Writing Goals

1- It can become a bit stressful to make the writing goal of the day…

2- … as well as it can become discouraging when we can’t make it.

3- Sometimes it can even be counter-productive since we might write-on just for the sake of making the daily writing goal happen, thinking we’ll revise it later.

That’s why I tend now to not only use the daily writing goals as motivation.

I set some weekly writing goals too, as well as giving myself a little reward if I, at least, got halfway there.

Now For The Pros

1- As mentioned above, it’s a great way to feed the writing motivation.

2- Seeing daily progress is really encouraging, especially when re-writing or revising/editing

3- It is a sort of daily pep talk that helps get out of bed before dawn or get to it after a long day job day.

I keep the daily writing goals count in a school-type notebook, where notes about research or friendly reminder can be added.
True, I could do that on the computer, but hey, I’m a vintage pen and paper mama!

If you think « daily writing goals » are a bit vague, it’s on purpose! They can vary depending on what kind of week lies ahead. Writing goals set in stone are too stressful for me!

It also depends on what I write, the time I have to do so, and how long the parent-teacher reunion will last.

For now, the way I planned the daily writing goals is still working for me, but, September is setting in, and with it, a whole new era for my family and me.

It may certainly change a bit as the weeks go by.

So far, so good! Thanks so very much for being here, it means the world.