Word of the Day... Focus

Okay, so about five minutes after I decided to get back into writing, my stress level increased tenfold. In just one week, my diet has gone out the window, my house is a disaster area, and today I chewed off a fingernail for the first time in over four months. What’s the deal??? I’ve got to figure out a way to do this without giving myself a nervous breakdown…

Something else, too, I need to find FOCUS. That’s a big word for me these days. I find myself losing focus all the time. My mind is always wandering (racing, actually) to the next thing before the first thing is complete, or even at a good stopping point. I hate to even think about all the partially finished projects I have, in my sewing room, in my file cabinet, throughout my home.

And why am I in such a hurry to “get it all done?” True, I decided to get back to writing because I really need to make an income. But now that I’ve made that decision, I want it to happen yesterday. It’s not realistic, and its certainly not healthy. We’ve survived the past two years with very little “extra” income, we can sure survive awhile longer while I get things rolling again.

After a miserable week of wrangling with my new writing schedule, and an unproductive hour of brainstorming story ideas, today I decided to throw the schedule out and work on a quilt, just for fun. (We won’t discuss the fact that this quilt is another of those partially finished projects.) I was crawling around on the floor, pinning that quilt, when the elusive story just came to me. Two stories actually, though I think just the one is really worth pursuing. Point is, with the pressure off, the characters and their story were free to speak to me.

Now if only I can remember that lesson come Monday.