Monday's Mug 018

Hello Everyone! Welcome back to Monday’s Mug! I always love to be drinking from my mugs daily, but Monday is the day I like to catch up on what has been happening since we last talked. Tonight I am drinking an herbal mint tea and loving it. So, tonight we would definitely be outside enjoying this mug because it is colder weather here and I love it!! Have I ever told you Fall is my most favorite season of the year? What is your favorite season?

While we sip from our mugs, I’d tell you it been a long time since I checked in with everyone. July was a busy month with family medical issues. It was stressful waiting for answers only to have more tests to be run and more waiting. Even now, a month later, we still have no answers about what is going on. I know I am a little cryptic here, but I need to work on my patience is the moral of the story. 

While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you have been doing a lot of reflection these last couple of weeks. I have been talking personality test, which I love and reflecting on myself as the person I have become now. I was marked as an INFJ, which I have been for years that really didn’t surprise me. I took an enneagram test and found out I was just as much a 1 as I am a 4. These all made sense about who I am as a person. I am a perfectionist striving to be creative. I have not quite figured out that path. It isn’t like I base my life on what these tests say; it helps to understand who I am more. Do you ever take tests like these?

While we sip from our mugs, I’d tell you I haven’t been writing much. Not writing is driving me crazy. I have been redoing websites, and while it has been a creative outlet for me, it is not the same as writing. I love creating a website to be visually pleasing. Write though has been my lifeblood for so long that it has been strange without. It’s like I am walking around without the watch I wear daily or whatever you have daily, and you forget it at home. I was on a kick at the start of July writing. I had gotten back on my favorite site 4thewords.com and was busting through the ceiling of what I was trying to do just get the words out.

While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you haven’t got to be part of writing groups much lately. I have had internet problems a lot this last month, so tonight was the first night I had gotten to see by StoryADay people in like two months. It was great to see people’s faces and to get to know them better. I think I talked a couple of people’s ear off towards the end of the call. I miss talking to people, but my favorite way is one on one. 

While we sip from our mugs, I would tell you right now I don’t know where my writing is heading. I still want to be published, but I haven’t been making any process towards that. It is like saying I will run a 5 k, and I only walk 10 minutes a day. Again I think I am too hard on myself because I have to process many life events, and then I wonder if I am too easy on myself. Perhaps soon, I will find a balance and overcome my struggle. 

Until next time just write. 

Monday's Mug 013

Welcome to another Monday’s Mug. There were a lot of things in my life happening this last week. I will be settling in with a nice hot cup of tea because I’m minimizing my coffee intake. Can I get something for you? The weather has been fickle around here with its up and down temperatures. It is raining in the morning and snowing at night. I felt I was a lot like the weather this last week in my productivity.

I few new things for 2020 I am doing are night pages every evening before bed on the 4thewords.com. If you don’t know about this website, it is for writers, and you can try it free for 30 days to see if you do like it.  I get in some writing for the day, and some days I do prompts instead. I call mine night pages, and I know I am not going by the rules of Morning pages in The Artist Way, but writing my pages at night on a computer at this point is what works for me.  I love the idea of doing a written journal, but I have yet to keep up with journals. 4thewords gives me incentives because I get to fight monsters and go on quests. It is not all about the game, though, and is more focused on writing than I expected. The way you defeat monsters is by writing I find this very fitting. Writing is the way I beat some of life’s monsters as well. 

I had a terrible Monday my dog of 17 years died. She had been going downhill for a while, but she finally gave up Monday. She had been such a huge part of my life through some very dark times. She was my friend and sometimes the only “person” I talked to for long stretches of my life. This might seem strange to you, but I have to say that is one thing that living in the country has always provided for me is a vivid imagination. I have talked to animals my whole life because there were no neighbor kids to hang out with. We grew up on a dairy farm, and it takes a lot of work. There were no times when we were able to leave and take vacations. The cows needed us every day twice a day. It was fun, but I have to say that my imagination and stories were being created long before I ever knew how to write any of them down.

Would you like some more to drink? 

Last week was also the first contest I have ever entered for writing. I was scared, no doubt, but after being with the Story A Day SuperStars for a couple years now, some of the fears I never thought I even had I’m realizing are fading away. I had submitted some of my work in the past, but nothing ever came of it. I was concerned at times with never being good enough. I was taking my world of writing way too seriously. 

In this last year, especially when I have felt like I have been treading water. I have been moving forward with my ability to deal with criticism. The rejection was something that terrified me, but now I am looking forward to being rejected because at least I know I am no longer in my own way, and I doing it. I am fulfilling my dream of being a published writer. I know I will be accepted one day. I have been working on my craft and I am devoting time daily to my art. 

I will talk a little more about the contest later this week, but in the middle of the contest, my family got sick. I had to be miss work a couple of days. I was trying to care for others while I was ill myself, and it was not good at all. It was a tough few days. So during that time, I wasn’t really focused on the short story contest at hand, and it was tough to get back into that frame of mind. I was happy my Story A Day group was there to support me, and one of them was doing the contest as well. We both really want to propel ourselves out into the writing world again. 

I have to go for now but remember to just write.