I would have to say the first thing I discovered pretty quickly was I’d have to find my own way to structure my writing day. This was definitely a big one. I googled a lot and tried to copy what other writers were doing but I struggled with that. I needed to find what worked for me and not be too driven by word count or how many hours a day I wrote. And it looked different from one day to the next. And once I accepted that, I felt much more at ease. I let my writing take on a life of its own while still prioritizing it over the external pulls of life.
Setting short term goals was also a big deal! I needed to feel the satisfaction of finishing something, I was feeling frustrated at how far in the distance the finish line of this project was. I painted, wrote a poem, did a quick sketch…all of these things helped with that feeling of accomplishment I was needing.
Another important thing I realized pretty early on was I needed to enjoy the process. I needed to have fun! I was pretty strict with myself in a general sense, sometimes I’d have to remind myself to feel into the moments of my day and really feel the joy of what I was doing. And I also discovered that taking a day off was not only okay, it was necessary.
I could go on…ha ha…but I’ll just add one more point that I didn’t speak to in my Instagram post: it will take longer than you think…and that’s ok! However long it takes is the time the story needs to come into its own and be the version it needs to be. This became really apparent to me when my memoir was published…I could totally see the many reasons why it needed to take as long as it did, and there was a real peace and contentment that came with that.
No One in Their Right Mind is a revealing account of my 15 years with a narcissist.
This is part of a Q&A series I’m doing on Instagram, check it out at c.a.good and follow along!
Leave a Reply