Hello friends! I am back after a brief and unanticipated hiatus, thanks to a combination of bad weather, bad luck, and bad habits. In a rather large nutshell: my daughter got sick, I started feeling under the weather, and speaking of weather an ice storm struck north Texas where I live, bringing our flimsy winter infrastructure to a screeching halt, which meant I was cooped up at home for four days with three kids rapidly developing cabin fever, and oh yeah I ran out of my anxiety medicine and the pharmacy was closed because of the aforementioned ice storm and then, on top of everything else, I learned upon opening my laptop to get some work done that my charger was broken and my battery was on its last legs, but of course a new charger couldn’t be delivered in a timely fashion because… ICE STORM.
Yeah. It was a clusterfuck to end all clusterfucks.
It almost came as a relief to come to work today, because that meant I could at least make a token attempt at re-establishing my routine. Although, I’ll be honest: it was very, very tempting to just say screw it, I’ll wait til Monday. After all, this evening I’m going right back home where I still don’t have a laptop (should be rectified tomorrow, Universe willing), I’ll still be cooped up with three stir-crazy kids (ice still on the ground, unfortunately), and where routine has a tendency to flounder even the most ideal of circumstances.
And I think my reaction to that impulse is the biggest indication of how much I’ve grown over the last four or five weeks. Because I knew the moment that idea crossed my mind that I couldn’t possibly wait three more days. I have too much I want to do, too much I was in the middle of when all this hit, too much I need to prove to myself. I don’t want to wait until next week. I want to get back to it now.
A Month In Review
Although January didn’t end the way I wanted it to, by and large the first month of this new year was incredibly successful for me. We all joke about New Year’s Resolutions falling by the wayside within a week, but for the first time in my life I actually managed to stick with mine for almost the entire month. I maintained a 26 day blogging streak, I wrote 11693 words toward my WIP, just shy of my 500-words-a-day goal, and while I definitely didn’t read a book a week, I still did a lot more reading than I normally accomplish in a month. It wasn’t perfect, but January saw a huge step up in my productivity – and that, in turn, provided a major boost to my confidence and mental health.
So, while I don’t get to reward myself with my special chocolates or the laptop fan I had been eyeing, I can’t look at January with anything but immense pride – a rare emotion for a chronic depressive like me – and that’s an important reward in and of itself.
What’s Next?
Though February got off the same rocky start that January ended on, I’m not going to let that deter me. Today will mark the start of a new blogging streak, a new 2-page-a-day streak, and a new reading streak. 21 days to start a habit, right? Let’s check back in on February 24th to see how these streaks have held up.
Something else I want to establish this month is scheduling my blog posts ahead of time. I played with this a little bit in January with my Mercy May posts and not only did it help me maintain my streak, it also felt really good to know I’d already put in the effort and could focus my time on more mentally challenging tasks. Things like my Drabble Rock posts, Mercy May installments, and even some of my topic-focused Thursday posts can be written ahead of time, when I have time, rather than in the moment. This will free me up on days when my day job is just too demanding, or if I get sick, or if I just plain forget.
If I manage to establish that habit, I’ll be in good shape to ramp up other ambitions. Like my RedBubble, for example.
Shameless Self-Promotion Central
I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m really terrible at self-promotion. It’s the chief reason why I know I’ll never be a successful indie author and plan to go more for traditional publishing. A few weeks back, I launched a small RedBubble page with a few designs. If you’re looking for some writerly swag that will go to support your fellow creative, it would mean a lot to me if you checked it out. Again, there’s not much there at the moment, but I’m looking forward to adding more designs in the near future!
For more, please visit my RedBubble shop!
And lastly, friends, a new Twitter-alternative I’m really excited about launched this week. Spoutible.com already has a growing and thriving #WritingCommunity, and I’d like to invite everyone who has grown concerned over the last several months about the direction Twitter has taken to check it out. You can follow me @KerryShare. Hope to connect with you soon.
Until next time, friends, may your writing be plenty and your struggles be few.
Kerry Share
Just Another Struggling Writer 
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