Feeling Stuck or Bored? Take On a New Challenge
It’s snowy/sleety/icy here today. I spent an hour and a half shoveling slush from my walks and driveway (bonus: I got a killer workout). The groundhog has officially declared six more weeks of winter. (I live in New England, where we realistically have more like 8-10 more weeks of winter. Not that I’m counting.) We’re in that long dreary pre-spring time where nothing much seems to be happening, which is especially true in this ongoing pandemic.
Thus, it is the perfect time to start a new Challenge.
Imposter Syndrome Is an Imposter
Are you a Writer?
What’s your immediate answer, when I ask that question? Is it a resounding “YES!”? Or a quieter, “Well, maybe… sort of…” or even “Not yet, because…”
If, like me, you’ve set your writing goals for the year, it’s important to start the year off with the right mindset, and foremost is thinking about our identities as writers.
Challenge Accepted!
This week I started a 22 Day Pushup Challenge – to do 22 pushups a day for 22 days, to raise awareness of the high suicide rate of combat veterans. (I know there are various estimates of how many average suicides there are per day, but this is the one the challenge uses, so it’s the one I’m going with). Twenty-two pushups is doable for me, although on top of other workouts it can be a little tougher (yesterday, between false starts filming and a workout that already included a bunch of pushups, I ended up doing 98. Today, closer to 50).
The point is, I like challenges. I tend to do my workouts as “challenges” anyway to keep them interesting and keep motivated. I’m not invested in becoming a super-athlete, but challenges are a way of setting goals and working toward them consistently.
The same goes for writing challenges. If the prospect of the blank page is de-motivating, or if your energy on a project is flagging, or you’re in query hell and feeling discouraged, a challenge may be a good way to get out of your slump.
It’s Only Too Late When You’re Dead
Okay, that’s pretty blunt. But lately I have been seeing a number of variations on the theme of “is it too late for me to pursue my dream of writing?”
Is Writing Frivolous Right Now?
I’ve been hearing many writers say they have been too depressed to write, and that with everything going on in the past six months, they can’t even focus on reading a book for pleasure, never mind writing one. And worse, what does it even matter, whether they write or not? Or they worry their subject matter is too frivolous – who really cares about some made up stories when there is so much Really Important stuff going on in the world?
