Being MIA & August/September's Writing Experiment! (Patreon)

Hello, hello everyone!! It's time to vote on this month's writing experiment! And as it perfectly pertains to why I've been so offline, let's go ahead and jump into things...

Why I've Been MIA!

I need to start by taking y'all all the way back to my preteen years, when I had my first migraine. (Imagine a Smol Me trying to explain experiencing a visual aura for the first time: "Umm there are colors. And they flash. And then they get big. And then I can't see anything.....????? And then my head feels like it's exploding and I throw up repeatedly???") 

I missed a lot of school on and off for years. In part because of the migraines, but in another part, because I was so scared I was going to get a migraine. (A very fun anxiety spiral, 0/10, do not recommend.)

Since being an adult, my migraines have mostly chilled out, with the exception of a few years (2011, 2015) and I've been able to navigate around them without too big an impact on my ~daily life~.

Cut to about four months ago, when I started getting more migraines again...or what I thought were migraines *dun dun*. I'd panic take my medicine, which usually only ~chills out~ the migraine but doesn't get rid of it...

Only...the aura never fully developed? Like, the weird, vague blur in my vision that starts the aura is there, it doesn't go away, and I have a small headache, but like...nothing else?

So this confusion persists for months, until the mysterious, small blur in my vision is basically an Every Day Occurrence. Eventually I realize that it's made worse on especially long writing/work days, or when I'm binge-watching TV.

(I'm sad to say how long it took me to deduce that perhaps my screen time was exacerbating these issues bahaha.)

Anyways! For the past couple weeks, I've been limiting my screen time until my doctor had availability to see me. My appointment is tomorrow. (I'm very excited for potential answers!) And then we'll see if we resolve the issue or if I'll be sent along to another specialist. I will happily take any and all well wishes or your stories about going through something similar. 💜

This brings me to what I've been doing in the meantime!

• I've read a lot of books (best one: Emily Henry's BOOK LOVERS. I'm back on board the Emily Henry train after loving BEACH READ but not really enjoying PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION), 
• I've listened to a lot of podcasts (my two new favorites: By The Book and Missing Pages, cannot recommend them enough!),
• I've completed a lot of housework (turns out the house IS nicer if I vacuum every day, who could have guessed?),
• and I've learned to work in hour-long chunks and then cut myself off (this was actually really tough at first, because I'd be like BUT I ALMOST FINISHED THE CHAPTER and would break for five minutes and run back to finish it, only to realize that finishing it took another thirty minutes -- oops! I'm better at this now though.)

Really this means that I've had to accept that I can't do as much as I want to, and I've had to weigh what's MOST important to use my screen time for. (So livestreams and videos have been lacking as I attempt to finish out slowly revising Project Death.)

But as it turns out, this way of working isn't too dissimilar from a method I read about in Lauren Graham's TALKING AS FAST AS I CAN, where a screenwriter friend helped reveal how to have a healthy writing routine that you don't beat yourself up about.

It's called The Kitchen Timer Method (based in part on pomodoros)!

Here's a Bustle article that basically copied Lauren's instructions, so I'm including their screenshots for you to check it out yourself:

So that's what this month's experiment is going to be about! All of the options presented are doable with my current restrictions AND promote a healthier relationship with creativity and making. :)

And for your other poll choices, I'm going to take my inspiration from the By The Book podcast, where hosts Jolenta & Kristen try to live their lives based on the rules in self-help books.

I figured I'd take the books people have recommended to me the most (some of which I've already read, but haven't tried to "live by," so to speak).

So second up, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert:

Now I haven't read BIG MAGIC since I was on my Super Mega Solo Road Trip way back in 2018, which I think means it's time to jump into it again! I don't remember there being "steps" to follow so much, but that will be part of what I condense down as I read to make this more sharable/followable.

We also have Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon (which By The Book also covered in an episode recently! I talked about this inspiring me to attempt copying writer's styles, and y'all voted on Neil Gaiman for that experiment a few months ago!):

And finally, The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I haven't read (or listened to) much Brene Brown, but she's a name that's recommended a lot and this book in particular has 10 "guideposts" for life and creativity. (And as most of us struggle with perfectionism, I figured this could be....perfect! Lolol, I apologize.)

Okay, okay, is this post long enough? I think so! Please let me know which of these ~"methods"~ you'd like me to use FOR A WEEK and also let me know if you're interested in joining me. (Maybe for an hour-long stream every other day bahahaha or daily updates and check-ins in the Discord??)

Thanks everyone and I'll keep y'all posted on how my doctor visits go!! Happy writing! 💜