BANISHING THE BOGEY MAN: DEALING WITH ANXIETY — FEB. 16

SHROUDED IN MIST

 

Sometimes the road ahead seems shrouded in mist.

We know what our goals are; we struggle to achieve them despite the endless details that clutter our lives; and we think we’re managing.

But then something catches us off guard and we lose sight, for awhile, of the goals ahead.

Tax time is one of those obstacles that seemingly grabs out at me every year.  I’m not sure why this very regular annual event seems to be such a source of anxiety.  I wrote about it yesterday over at my Hump Day Potpourri post.

Well, that’s not quite accurate…I do know why.  It started the year that I was blindsided by a rather substantial extra tax liability.  It seemingly came out of nowhere, although, as it turns out, I should have realized.  But I’d been wearing blinders, hoping that, if I didn’t study the issue too closely, it would go away.

On the advice of my accountant, I made arrangements to have extra money deducted every month that should make this issue null and void.  And that worked.  So why the anxiety?

Perhaps it’s like that whole childhood thing about the Bogey Man.  He appears in the dark, unexpectedly, preying upon his victims.  And nothing we do makes him disappear.

As an adult, I know that if we take the appropriate measures, deal with the details, if you will, we can avoid the unexpected.  We are not children, nor are we bound by the childhood bugaboos that threatened us then.

Despite my logical self talk, however, the issues sometimes present themselves in my dreams, cloaked in frightening images, terrorizing me and revealing themselves in the light of day as that same old Anxiety.

Perhaps I should take up yoga.  I know that meditation is supposed to help us clarify, focus, and banish the anxieties we sometimes carry with us.

What do you do?  Is there anything that works for you, helping you focus and zero in our your goals?  Smart weapons to help banish that old Bogey Man?

 

 

DESIGN IS IN THE DETAILS — OR RATIONALIZING 101 – JAN. 27

What? Take care of the details???

Here I am, on a Friday, with a rainy day outside, the perfect time to work on my manuscript.  I’m doing everything possible to focus on my goals.  But the details keep grabbing at me or hitting me upside my head.

First there are surveys to complete, e-mails to respond to, a book review to write….it goes on and on.

After all that, I managed to complete my review of Diana:  In Pursuit of Love, by Andrew Morton (click the title).

Then I went over to my Creative Journey site and wrote about the coziness that surrounds me.

Am I trying to bury myself in minutia?  Even after all my vows to keep my eye on the goals?

Sometimes, in spite of ourselves, we do accomplish a few things, even as we deal with the details.  I’m now reading my fourth and final book on my list for the week:  Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan.  I’m loving it so far, although I haven’t made a lot of progress.  Some of my details today involved running some errands, despite the rain.

As I was out and about, I picked up the mail and found a new book in my box.  Yay!  You know what they say, the “design is in the details.”  Now I’m interpreting that to mean there is a plan.  But there’s another saying about details, too:  “the Devil is in the details.”

I’ve decided to ignore that one and focus on the first.  Despite all the little minutia that has occupied me today so far, I have a good feeling about how things are coming together.  And what about the manuscript, you say?

Well, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

EXAMINING OUR DEFINING MOMENTS — JAN. 26

Speaking of how life informs our choices, my journey toward my current WIPs could also be described as a series of defining moments.  Which, incidentally, is the title of one of them.

I began writing Defining Moments early in 2010, and set it aside to work on Interior Designs during NaNoWriMo 2010.

Another writing challenge led me back to Defining Moments, and into total rewrites.  I changed the points of view, writing in first person narration for the MC and third person for the others.

I’ve whittled a few POVs out of the mix, changed the order of events, and the whole process has been another defining moment.

In my first post here, I described how I’ve procrastinated along the way.  However, despite these brief time outs, I’ve made an astounding amount of progress, thanks primarily to writing challenges and other incentives.

At Snow Chronicles, I talk about how my life in the trenches defined me.

Can you point to specific moments in your life that seemed to be defining moments?  How would you describe their impact on your journey?

I HAVE “MILES TO GO” — JAN. 26

When I think of journeys, I often think of the Robert Frost poem, which you can see in the top left sidebar here.

That poem so informed my journey that it became the major theme in the first book I wrote.  While I didn’t publish Miles to Go until I had already brought out three other books, it was most symbolic of my life journey.

In the story, we follow two MCs who meet in college and stay connected for more than three decades—the point where the story ends.  Lindsay Malone and Gia Greenbaum will appear in some of my other stories, too, but as minor characters.

In MTG, their lives take them along very different paths at times, but they are like touchstones for one another.   When they met in college and found common ground in their radical causes, they had previous pathways that also informed their individual journeys.

Most of us find that our lives intersect with certain individuals at pivotal moments along the way.  Sometimes those intersections are brief and never happen again.  Or perhaps, like Lindsay and Gia, the intersections continue and the bonds strengthen with time.

In writing this story, I was able to reexamine some of my own life choices and make sense of events in my life.  In a way, this novel was like a catharsis for me.

If you are a writer, do you have a specific book that reveals your own journey?  Did you find that some events helped you define your journey?  If you are not a writer, is there a book you’ve read that resonates with you in just this way?

ON SEEING THE FOREST…. – JAN. 26

About the Journey

As a writer, I sometimes look around and see all the minutia, overlooking the big picture.

What are those Big Picture Goals?  How do I whittle through the numerous trees and find the forest?

Sometimes I’m so lost amongst the trees and not seeing the forest that I develop a serious case of avoidance.  Procrastination, even.

That’s happening now in my reread of one of my WIPs.  I’ve reread, edited, tweaked, etc.; it’s been through some Beta reads.  All I have to do now is that pivotal read through that might just release this one from the purgatory of Unpublished Manuscript.

So what’s stopping me?  Why am I reluctant each day to open the document and read?

For one thing, one of the critiques revealed aspects of the writing that I hadn’t seen before…and I’m afraid that it crippled my self-confidence.  Overuse of words and phrases.  Killer aspects.

I’ve gone through and fixed some POV issues….and now I’m searching for those extraneous words and phrases that bog the writing down.

Details.  And they are important, but I mustn’t lose sight of the forest.  The Big Picture.

So off I go to whittle away at those little trees while keeping my eye on the forest.

What keeps you focused in your journey?  Any special motivational tools that help?  Come on by and share….