WINTRY WOES...
Winter has well and truly settled in. It's cold.....not even brisk but cold. Can't feel your fingers and dragon's breath cold.
It has been very wet with days of rain and you can't help but want to hibernate when the days seem so short and dark. People are dropping with colds and flus and tonsillitis and throats on fire.
There are some that love winter....they venture to the snowfields....spend weeks and weekends walking up mountains only to slide down them again. I'm not one of them. I find the grey and drab oppressive. I want nothing more than to snuggle down with a good book, or two or even five...and wait till the sun decides to shine once more.
However I can't. So I muddle along. And this year has not been helped by our Italian escapade----going from 36 degrees of sunshine in Rome to a brisk top of eleven here has taken a bit of getting used to.
Once down in the wintry woes...I can't help but think that it is half way through the year and wonder what on earth have I done?
First thought is ...bugger all. (Have I told you I'm a natural pessimist?)
However the silver lining in this case is that I have just had my work appraisal (what fun those are) but....it did help me see what I have actually accomplished during the past year. It was quite interesting to see how much training, how much extra work, extra duties I have taken on.
So I decided to apply this to my writing. Instead of thinking I've written bugger all....
My calendar had this extra piece in the centre---you came upon July and here was this 2014 year planner. I threw it in the bin.
Then I pulled it out. What if I wrote down what I HAD written each month? Adapted it so that I could see at a glance what I had achieved...and if nothing then that would be adamantly clear.
In the space for Sunday I wrote down if I had gone to a poetry venue- also any reviews I had written. I write picture book reviews for BuzzWords ...as well as junior and young adult book reviews for two sites at work. Bookswamp and Quicksand. So far seven reviews for the year.
For Monday I put down the number of poems I had written (not many), Tuesday was for short stories (I had hoped to write six for the year, so far I have four). Wednesday I wrote down whether or not I had submitted something, somewhere for that month. So far so good. (It's the waiting to hear back that is the killer)
Thursdays I left as a bitta this bitta that space. Whether I'd worked on a draft of work, edited, re jigged etc. Fridays was for my junior novel I'm working on (nice to see that the chapters had grown).
Saturdays is also another bitta this bitta that area--- statistics on the blog....royalty cheques (or not) ...workshopping and feedback on pieces of work.
Now this planner is not brimming with work achieved. There is a lot of white space. A real lot of white space BUT there is something written for every month. So when I think back and decide I've done nothing...that's wrong. I have written. I have edited and drafted and added words and then taken them all away again.
July of course now stands crisp and white, waiting for me to put something down.
But there is a glimmer of light ahead. The days are getting longer. It doesn't feel like it but they are...slowly...ever so slowly.
And I am writing. Not a lot. Not frantically throwing poem after poem down in a fit of inspired creativity. ( I find this difficult when I wish it would stop raining long enough for me to mow).
Sometimes I need something as simple as a large sheet of paper so that I can see at a glance that I have done something. That I have not wasted a year (although any year we are still here is so not wasted).
My yearly planner has chipped at my pessimistic side...allowing me to reconsider what has been achieved.
To understand that it is not as dire as first thought.
Vicki
http://vickithornton.weebly.com/
It has been very wet with days of rain and you can't help but want to hibernate when the days seem so short and dark. People are dropping with colds and flus and tonsillitis and throats on fire.
However I can't. So I muddle along. And this year has not been helped by our Italian escapade----going from 36 degrees of sunshine in Rome to a brisk top of eleven here has taken a bit of getting used to.
Once down in the wintry woes...I can't help but think that it is half way through the year and wonder what on earth have I done?
First thought is ...bugger all. (Have I told you I'm a natural pessimist?)
However the silver lining in this case is that I have just had my work appraisal (what fun those are) but....it did help me see what I have actually accomplished during the past year. It was quite interesting to see how much training, how much extra work, extra duties I have taken on.
So I decided to apply this to my writing. Instead of thinking I've written bugger all....
My calendar had this extra piece in the centre---you came upon July and here was this 2014 year planner. I threw it in the bin.
Then I pulled it out. What if I wrote down what I HAD written each month? Adapted it so that I could see at a glance what I had achieved...and if nothing then that would be adamantly clear.
In the space for Sunday I wrote down if I had gone to a poetry venue- also any reviews I had written. I write picture book reviews for BuzzWords ...as well as junior and young adult book reviews for two sites at work. Bookswamp and Quicksand. So far seven reviews for the year.
For Monday I put down the number of poems I had written (not many), Tuesday was for short stories (I had hoped to write six for the year, so far I have four). Wednesday I wrote down whether or not I had submitted something, somewhere for that month. So far so good. (It's the waiting to hear back that is the killer)
Thursdays I left as a bitta this bitta that space. Whether I'd worked on a draft of work, edited, re jigged etc. Fridays was for my junior novel I'm working on (nice to see that the chapters had grown).
Saturdays is also another bitta this bitta that area--- statistics on the blog....royalty cheques (or not) ...workshopping and feedback on pieces of work.
Now this planner is not brimming with work achieved. There is a lot of white space. A real lot of white space BUT there is something written for every month. So when I think back and decide I've done nothing...that's wrong. I have written. I have edited and drafted and added words and then taken them all away again.
July of course now stands crisp and white, waiting for me to put something down.
But there is a glimmer of light ahead. The days are getting longer. It doesn't feel like it but they are...slowly...ever so slowly.
And I am writing. Not a lot. Not frantically throwing poem after poem down in a fit of inspired creativity. ( I find this difficult when I wish it would stop raining long enough for me to mow).
Sometimes I need something as simple as a large sheet of paper so that I can see at a glance that I have done something. That I have not wasted a year (although any year we are still here is so not wasted).
My yearly planner has chipped at my pessimistic side...allowing me to reconsider what has been achieved.
To understand that it is not as dire as first thought.
Vicki
http://vickithornton.weebly.com/
Comments
Post a Comment