I decided to track down the last time I wasn’t feeling like I was slowly sinking in a sticky mess of overwhelmed craziness. It’s been over six months. HALF A YEAR! Since mid-July of 2016, it’s been illness and injury and mishap around every turn.
That leads me to my insecurity. It’s been half a year with little to no progress toward my personal goals. And honestly, I’m not sure that’s going to change, because every time I put forth effort towards accomplishing what I want to do, something else steps in to swat down my attempts.
I could regal you with my tales of woe, but really, I’ve moved beyond frustration to simple resignation. Things probably won’t let up. There’s nothing I can do to avoid it. I can’t keep the snow from falling, I can’t keep the kids from catching colds and other stuff at school, and I can’t keep my husband from getting injured.
If you’ve read Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss, I’m stuck in that most useless spot called The Waiting Place. I’m just trying to figure out how to escape.
Optional IWSG Question: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader? I now notice the use of past progressive verbs. It drove me nuts when I was attempting to read The Passage, so much so that I didn’t finish the book. That might be a personal problem though.
About Insecure Writer’s Support Group
You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.
On another note, C.G. Coppola tagged me in a thing called First Day, First Paragraph.
- Publish your own post on the first day of the next month (March).
- Use the graphic above
- Thank and link back to the person who tagged you. (Thanks, C.G. Coppola!)
- Explain the rules, like I’m doing now.
- Post the first paragraph of a story you’ve written, are writing, or plan to write someday.
- Ask your readers for feedback.
- Finally, tag someone to do the post next month and comment on one of their posts to let them know the good news.
I’m going to tag ChemistKen at My Hogwarts Sabbatical. I’ve been interested in reading his stuff for a while now. This gives me another thing to prod him with. 🙂
Here is a segment from Murder Most Fowl, which is still a WIP. I tend to lean toward super short paragraphs when writing the Cera Chronicles, so you get a bit more than just the first.
At times, alternate worlds could be seriously foul. Or was that fowl?
A winged shadow made another pass over my head. He’d been circling me since the town before last. Not that I minded the occasional bit of shade. But his unnerving screech raised the hair on my arms.
He swept low, giving me a glimpse of razor-sharp beak and glistening gold feathers. A disconcertingly intense gaze met and held mine as he cut across my path.
Normally I liked attention. But I could’ve sworn this creeper was waiting for me to keel over and die.
Hopefully you enjoyed the snippet. If not, please let me know what bugged you. 🙂 Thank you for tagging me, C.G. Coppola. If you don’t know her or haven’t checked out her writing, you definitely should. I super enjoy her work.
How is life treating you? Read anything good lately?
Hopefully someday soon you’ll escape all that waiting and staying, and find the bright places where boom bands are playing.
I feel your pain. I think that maybe when I retire I’ll have thetime I really want to devote to my projects. Or at least when the kids go away to school.
That being said, I’ve got about 28 days, 9 months and 19 days left until I can retire, so I’ve got to find SOMETHING to keep me distracted until then…
I’m so sorry that you’ve been mired down in overwhelming craziness for so long. Please hang in there! I firmly believe that…
“Someday you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where the Boom Bands are playing…” (even if it takes a little longer than you’d like.)
Oh, and I enjoyed the snippet very much.
Hang in there, Loni. You know that saying, this too shall pass. Unfortunately, “this” is taking longer to pass you by. But it WILL pass. Just like the snow WILL stop falling. 🙂
Oh goodness. Here’s to hoping for at the very least a lengthy reprieve. I’ve started coming to similar conclusions myself. Things are going to happen and I have to roll with it and just keep plugging along.
As for me, things have been…interesting. That’s probably the nicest possible way I can put it right now.
Just keep plugging along. A little here and there adds up over time. Not the fastest path, but one that is still moving forward. If you need someone to look at something, feel free to hit me up. I’ll probably need a break from the hair pulling.
I liked the snippet!
Sorry you are stuck in waiting. It will change.
Resignation can be useful, as long as you don’t let it get you down.:)
Enjoyed the snippet. Now I want to know more about this winged shadow and what part he/she/it plays in the story.
Thanks for the tag. It’ll force me to go back to my first chapter and clean it up.
Oh goodness. I’ve been in a similar situation the past couple of months. All you can do is roll with it and keep going (even if it’s at a slower pace). You’ll get there!
As for me things have been…interesting. That’s the nicest way I can put it.
If you need someone to look at something or whatever, feel free to hit me up. I’ll probably need a break from the hair pulling.
Aw don’t let life’s chaos get u down. I hadn’t made much progress in my writing for about two years before this year. I’ve done more writing in January than I have in the previous six months combined. You’ll figure it out. Keep the faith! ?
I’m sorry your goals aren’t working out, but don’t push them aside totally. Chip away at them when you can. I love your writing, so thanks for sharing that teaser. 🙂
I like the excerpt a lot! Sadly, I know how you feel. I thought January might be a fresh break, but alas, I was wrong. I know how exhausting and mentally draining it is that when you have time to write, you really just need a nap. Hang in there. Squirrels overcome–they are amazing strong and resilient and that’s why they’ll take over the world.
Yikes! I just downloaded the
Passage. Now I am scared…lol. Let me know if you need anything. I am happy to help if you feel stuck and you need a creative and crazy brainstorming mind. Love the passage! Vivid! I loved the first sentence too. 🙂
I’m sorry you’ve been stuck in that most awful place. I’ve been there too and I had no time to do things I wanted to do for me. For my life and career. That time is here now though in every stage of life there are things that take over. I hope you find your way out soon.
Yuck on being stuck. Let me throw you a cheese lasso so you can get can out of that rut.
Great snippet. If I had more of a brain, the line editor in me would rear its head, but that part of me pretty much died the death a few hours ago. No worries, it will be alive tomorrow and out for blood. 😉
I sympathize. I was forced to stop writing on my half-finished WIP for 9 months while I took care of other things. Now I’m back at it, but only revising because I need to get back in to the story and characters. By the time I start actually writing again, it’ll be 11 months. Meh. What are you gonna do? It’ll be finished eventually — and so will yours. I liked your paragraph. Eerie and ominous as well as funny. It took me two readings though since I didn’t understand if the first line was figurative or if this was a real SF alternative world thing.
Hang in there, Loni. Maybe this is just the crappy time you have to pay for a really amazing one yet to come 🙂
Loved the snippet! The only (seriously – only) criticism would be the first four sentences of the paragraph are short and read the same in my head. Maybe extend/shorten some? Or combine the last two? Other than that, loved it! I want to know more about why he’s following her. I’m intrigued. I need to know more!
I probably need to learn what a past progressive verb is 🙂 I love the First Day, First Paragraph challenge. What a great idea and what a great excerpt from Murder Most Fowl. You totally hooked me with it.
Love your snippet! The tension starts right from the first line.
Sorry life treats you poorly, but it will pass. Sometimes, there are periods in our lives when bad things happen, one after another. I promise you, it will stop. Everything will be better one of these days. Hopefully soon. Good luck!
I am totally with you in The Waiting Place right now, just for different reasons (AKA an unsuitable day job). Your second paragraph sums up exactly how I’ve felt lately; every time I gain a little momentum, something comes along and throws me back down again.
I love your snippet! It sounds like it will be a story worth reading 🙂 And I like this First Day, First Paragraph tag, I may have to follow it.
Waiting is just another season. Not a fun one though. Take the time to be still and listen.
I can sympathize with that. I’ve had a series of things piling on, too, one after the other, and it gets discouraging. But hey, the clouds have to clear eventually, right? You’re not a bad writer for dealing with life stuff first! That stuff’s important, too. 🙂 Take care of yourself.
Also, I liked the snippet a lot!
It’s the things out of our control that can cause the most anxiety. I hope things settle down for you soon.
I enjoyed your snippet. 🙂
That’s a fun snippet! I know a lot about your world/character already – well done 🙂
We’re going on 15 months of chaos at this point so I know how you feel!
As an editor and former English teacher, I have a hard time with pleasure reading because of all the crap I notice, lol. It gets in the way of my creative writing too, but little by little I’ve been turning off the inner editor. Yet even with fast-paced easy reads with relatively straight forward language, I quickly turn out when certain language usage issues keep cropping up.
I know what you mean about illness and injury putting one off center. I’ve had some of those times that were rather unsettling. On the plus side I tend to read more if I’m bedridden–that and sleep is about as much as one can do when laid up.
Fortunately things have been mostly good lately. Slow, but good.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Oh my, Sending your positive energy that your challenges are conquered and the rest of the year brings joy and prosperity.
Happy IWSG Belated Day!
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit
I believe it’s been much longer than that for me. Not that I’m competing, I’m just saying I know how you feel. Yes, I have read “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” and know where you are. (I’m the one sitting closest to the door, drinking red wine and staring at the floor.) 🙂 Here’s to things letting up a bit for you. Be well.
I love the MMF excerpt. I love the story, as you know, but also your style when you write Cera’s books.
I hear you on all that, and I hope things settle for you soon, or at least get a little easier to deal with. >_< Trying to plot has been like that for me lately – nothing works. I'm trying to push through, but… gah.
And I liked the first paragraph bit. ^_^ There's a good mix of immediate detail and suggestion of something larger going on, and I like the way whoever's talking phrases things – I'm getting a little bit of insight into their character, and they could easily be someone fun to read.
Best of luck getting out of The Waiting Place. I hope the music they’re playing isn’t irritating! Great first paragraph. Made me laugh. 🙂