Comments | stephanieburgis: Impossible Attempts, Do-Able Goals, Mountains and Scones and Good News

stephanieburgis

Impossible Attempts, Do-Able Goals, Mountains and Scones and Good News

Jul 12, 2014 12:05

Oof. It's been a slightly frantic few days between one thing and another - most of them having to do with MrD's school year coming to an end and me trying to do All The Things beforehand! Er, as you might be able to guess...that attempt really isn't working out so well. Oh well! At least, by the time he's finished with school, I really should have ( Read more... )

writing process, courting magic, short fiction, publishing, short stories, kat novella

Comments 4

jessica_shea July 13 2014, 01:27:07 UTC

So excited to read COURTING MAGIC!

I'd love to read a post about Do-Able Goals, too. I've been struggling for a while with the Never Enoughs, and for various reasons writing started to become this fraught thing filled with anxiety and dread. I really want to rediscover the joy of it and make it a "want" again instead of a "should." And since I'm not under contract for anything except the anthology, I've decided to slow it way down this summer. Like, my goal for this week was some research and then rewriting 10p. So far, this has really helped me WANT to work! It's like - rewriting 2p? I can totally do that!

stephanieburgis July 13 2014, 14:35:23 UTC

I love that goal for the week! It makes a HUGE difference to make goals that *feel* easy to accomplish. Did you ever read Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star? That was the book that introduced me to the idea of making goals SO small, they were impossible to get scared of. And of course, once you've sat down to do that ridiculously small thing, most of the time you'll end up just naturally doing a bit more, whereas with a huge goal, nothing might ever get done at all. But even if all you've done is that small goal - voila! Success! Which is SO much better and more helpful than shame/failure when it comes time to get moving again the next day.

And I really hope you enjoy "Courting Magic"! :)

jessica_shea July 17 2014, 05:25:37 UTC

Ooh, I think I HAVE Finding Your Own North Star but haven't ever read it! I must look for it, because that sounds like really helpful advice! Thanks for the recommendation!

stephanieburgis July 17 2014, 10:22:34 UTC

It's the only self-help book that I've read multiple times - but it's genuinely helped me every single time! I love it.