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Tag: self-care
Writing Exercise: Dear Diary, today was an adventure
Photo 67785157 | © Konstantin Iuganov | Dreamstime.com (picture paid for)
“Dear Diary, Today was an adventure.”
I’ve never personally been much of filling journals or diaries. This blog and the vlog over on TikTok is the closest I get, and I think I miss out on something important with that. Filling a journal keeps track of the amazing things that happen in your life that all blend together over time. An adventure of going to a store you have never visited. Laughter a child shared with you. A near miss on the street. All these peculiar, wonderous, remarkable things. Or you can take the ordinary and mundane and make it extraordinary. The fight to get out of bed. Doing battle with the garden. Drinking the mystical elixir of wakefulness. Life is magic and journals and diaries give a writer a chance to capture it.
Today’s writing exercise is particular helpful if your well is dry or a writer’s block has appeared in your wording road.
WRITING EXERCISE: Create a diary entry taking an ordinary event and making it fantastical. How did you fight gravity today? Any of your drinks containing liquids from other continents? Did you use a tech today that when you really think about it, it becomes amazing (such as running water in the house)? Aim of 100-500 words for your entry. If you are in a writing slump, aim for the higher end.
Other Cool Blogs: The NaNoWriMo Blog – Cat Advice
Photo by Bogdan Farca on Unsplash
NaNoWriMo is looming its 50K word head again. Last year I Frankensteined it, stitching together several projects including getting this blog prepared for 2024. It has held me in good stead not to worry about creating things on the regular and I’ve been able to concentrate on longer works throughout the year.
One of the cool things about the NaNoWriMo team is their constant support of writing throughout the year at their blog “The NaNoWriMo Blog”. (okay, not the most original name, but it is easy to remember.)
A great post is “Write Meow! 4 Writing Tips Cats Teach Us” written by Megan Jenkins posted October 30, 2023. (https://blog.nanowrimo.org/post/732643913309011968/write-meow-4-writing-tips-cats-teach-us?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NaNo%2023%20Engagement%201&utm_content=NaNo%2023%20Engagement%201+CID_caf0cfb6a1acca00b6c60815d98e4e90&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Write%20Meow%204%20Writing%20Tips%20Cats%20Teach%20Us)
- Have a Routine – Cats love their routines for foods and pets, plan your writing around them.
- Take Breaks – If you need a nap, grab it. Don’t stare at the laser pointer all day.
- Prioritize Meals – Don’t make your cat drop a mouse on your keyboard because you forget to feed yourself when typing. Eat regularly and it gives you the energy to hunt and peck at the keyboard.
- Focus on the Present – Write now, edit later. Take advantage of that scrolling memory and look at the novel with fresh eyes for the second draft, after the first draft is done.
Your cat wishes you luck, though they will never admit it.
Other Cool Blogs: Write with Fey – Fung Shui
Photo 51791512 © Strnfoto | Dreamstime.com
During A-to-Z, I discover lot of cool blogs, one of which is “Write with Fey”, a very helpful writing website. To give you an example look at her April 7, 2023 posting “F – Feng Shui + BONUS” (https://www.writewithfey.com/2023/04/f-feng-shui-bonus.html).
Now don’t go turning up your nose at the concept of Feng Shui. While crouched in mysticism and “energy flows”, most of it is basic how the eye follows things around a room and how people move from the entrance of the house to the back of the house. If the house is messy, the house will be tiring to live in and difficult to create in. If things block the way, people will bump into things more – breaking the things and/or themselves.
Ms. Fey’s post gives advice on where to position your desk and how to decorate it.
Me, I have two monitors – absolutely essential when editing. My desk is set up so my back is to the room (bad fung shui), but I can see the door out of the corner of my eye and it faces the front window which is totally covered with blackout curtains – basically creating a lighted wall (good). The second monitor turns me closer to the door. If I didn’t have the window covered, the view would be of a shopping mall parking lot.
I have a middle desk with the primary monitor, keyboard on a lower surface and the upper surface are all my tasks. My left has the second monitor, files, and a printer. The right has a hole then a shelving unit with my research materials.
The image on my computer screen is “Don’t Chase Your Dreams – Humans are persistence predators – follow your dreams at a sustainable pace, until they get tired and lie down.” It is surrounded by pretty vine work. (great fung shui)
I try to clear the central position by the end of each night, but truth to tell, it is never empty. But Spirtuality is getting less messy; I am getting better at controlling piles of work. The left back position – Wealth – behind the second monitor – is a dragon and my con badges. The health position is all my folders of things to do – overstuffed mess. I need to get that better organized. Better than it was, it still isn’t a “happy” place to look at constantly.
I’m missing on the right side “helpful people” – no surprise there. I do have a small piles of notebooks a little further out – so Creativity is within reach, but I need to work for it.
Creating this post and reviewing my desk made me add two beaded roses I created for the Love and Relationship but also doubles in the Creativity section. I’ll need to get a real little vase for them to keep them in front of the books.
Clean work area, but with touches of beauty, memories, and encouragement.
Connect with “Write with Fey” – lots of her posts are interesting and helpful. This is just one example.
Writing Exercise: Self-Care Time
Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
I constantly talk about BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard). This is essential for production writing. Telling stories to myself in my head makes me happy, but if I want to publish, they need to come out of the fingers.
The challenge is not only finding time to stay in the chair working, but stay HEALTHY while staying in the chair. Sun, food, water, movement, and friends keep the body and heart moving. Today’s writing exercise is to develop a self-care reward or routine.
WRITING EXERCISE OPTIONS – DO ONE TODAY
- Spend five to ten moments outside during daylight hours. Feel the sun on your face.
- Use a smaller water glass, to make yourself get up from the desk regularly.
- Make a meal at least once every other day that is worth eating, not just fuel. Eat it away from screens (TV, phone, computer) – maybe on the porch or with friends. No phone; no doomscrolling. Concentrate on the experience of eating.
- Get up and stretch once an hour – up on tiptoes, out to the bookshelves either side, down to the floor (might have to bend at the knees). Turn around in a circle and sit down.
- Text or email three friends or family today, just because.
Which of these do you think will feel like a reward for you and which a chore? Any other suggestions on simple pick-me-ups or ways to keep the mind and body healthy while writing? Comment below.