Time for a WRITER RESET! (And a little rant about publishing in 2023)

 I'm back! Decided to restart this blog as part of my Writer Reset process. This was an idea from Sarra Cannon at Heart Breathings. Please check out her channel if you haven't already. She's not just a writer, she's also a productivity, time management, and planning expert who teaches courses in planning and self-publishing. She even created a whole planning system called HB90 that is based around the idea of planning in quarters (90 days, hence the name). The course is a bit out of my price range, but she also talks enough about it on her YouTube channel to get the general gist of it. She also has a resource library that you can access if you sign up for her newsletter. And no, she is not paying me to say any of this! I just really love her YouTube channel. Her monthly Notebook Challenges are fun to watch, especially for plannerds like me!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I decided to grab the free workbook for her Writer Reset series and start my own reset. I've been desperately needing a reset, not just in my writing, but almost everywhere in my life. I'm happy to say that certain parts of my life have benefited from this reset. I'm starting to form a daily routine that actually works! I'm waking up earlier, getting housework done more regularly, and keeping things semi-organized (still have a way to go, but getting there 🙂). I still struggle with my evening routine, but I'm not giving up on it just yet.

As for my writing, the main thing I'm in the process of resetting...it's been going slowly. But that's ok. I'm not pressuring myself to do anything. Just giving myself gentle reminders that I want to write. That I have other things I can do besides stare at YouTube all day/evening (but it's totally fine to do so if I'm attending live writing sprints! lol).

For this reset to really work, I need to let go of past Mary's anxiety, all the pressure I put on myself to produce something to publish and sell. I'm fully embracing the idea of never publishing this series I've spent most of my life on and just writing it for fun, just because I want to. I'm also slowly opening the door to other ideas, stories that I could publish in the future, but I'm not pressuring myself to do so.

One thing's for sure. I don't plan to publish any of my writing for profit anymore. I've been hearing way too many horror stories of writers getting scammed and dealing with technological fiascos. I'd rather post them here on this blog or print them on my own dang printer and stick them in binders than let KDP or IngramSpark EVER touch my book babies. I've heard of books being pirated, accounts being frozen and hijacked as a result of said pirating (KDP), preorder fiascos that could've easily been prevented by real people instead of escalated thru countless copy-and-paste emails (IngramSpark), and more. I'm never putting myself thru that. My anxiety (hell, my LIFE) is hard enough to manage without all that stress!

As we're already rushing headlong into the second half of 2023, I'm doubling down on my word of the year, HEALING. I've been focusing on healing my body, mind, and spirit as much as possible. I'm doing my best to take care of myself more and not allow stress to overtake me as much as it used to. I'm thinking (hoping) this blog can help with alleviating some of that stress.

I'm also slowly getting back into journaling, which is helping a lot. It's like the journal is a vessel to catch the steam and the pen is the valve to turn and let that steam out. My ADHD brain is constantly trying to run away with me and feels so cluttered all the time. Therefore, I'm doing some mental and emotional decluttering!

Ok, this post is probably longer than it should be by now. I'm gonna go ahead and hit publish. See ya next time! ☮