Changing direction, New plans, and (hopefully) Less stress

Oct 11, 2024

3 min read

I'm taking a MASSIVE step back.

If I continue to push myself to tackle the million projects I've started and never finished, then I will never actually get anything done. Pretty regularly, I find myself in this never-ending cycle of trying to take on some massive project, throwing my entire self into it, and never seeing it to the end. (Yes, I'm ADHD.) But, I can't keep letting it control my life.

Sooooooo...I'm taking back control. Or at least, trying to. It's going to be a slow process, but if I want to make a career out of writing then I need to start treating it like more than a hobby. Every effort I've made thus far to do so has failed miserably and it's solely because I keep getting in my own way. That ends now (I hope).

I've been so entirely focused on getting stories as quickly as I can I've worn myself out. It's been just over a year since I sat down and wrote for the first time in over ten years. As soon as I did, I treated everything like a sprint and I've been struggling to get myself out of that mindset, so now, I'm forcing myself too.

I ended up forced to take a break due to a change in projects for work and I had to focus on learning the new system and onboarding. My days were long and my head was so full of information, I had no room left for my imagination. Days and weeks started to pass and imposter syndrome creeped its way on in. To feel like a 'real' writer, I had this delusion that meant I had to write every day.

This is not true.

I know I'm not the only one who needs to hear that. You are still a write and/or author even if you don't write every day, week, or even, month.

And once I believed that myself, I was finally able to breathe and it felt like I had done so for the first time in a long time. All those crazy writing sprints that rarely lead to a story of substance left me with little--well, most of the time, nothing. And that's okay. All of this is a massive learning moment, which is why I'm slowing myself down.

I'm going to be finding the writing process that truly works for me, not one that I'm forcing myself to be able to follow. I'm going to allow myself the breaks I need and give myself permission to step away from it all when I need to--completely guilt-free. The plan is to stay as stress-free as possible.

Or at least try to with this next big plan of mine.

After self-publishing multiple books (which I will still be doing), I have decided it's time to see if I can get traditionally published. It's a crazy idea, but I think it's just what I need to slow my pace to keep me from losing my mind. I've put so much pressure on myself in all the wrongs ways, it's time to do so in a healthy, methodical manner. For me, this is the right kind of push.

Throughout all this, I will still be updating the subscription stories on my site regularly and possibly even add more , but the story I want to try to get trad published will remain off all sites until it's in the hands of the publisher. Not even a basic plot summary will be released until it's time to find an agent.

I'm so excited for this! (and super nervous)

I will be cataloging my journey, so keep an eye out on updates!

Thanks for reading!

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