I made pretty good progress this week, I think, though I did better in some areas than in others. For one thing, I picked a terrible week to start Couch to 5K, because it snowed on what was supposed to be my second day. And we have an actual blizzard warning for tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be holding off on re-starting it until the bad winter weather is out of the way. But I did faithfully do the first day last Monday, as promised, as soon as I got home from dropping Sasha at the vet, and I didn’t die (even though it felt touch-and-go there for a little while), so that’s a victory.
Speaking of Sasha kitty, in case there’s anyone reading this who doesn’t follow me on Facebook and who is wondering, she’s doing great. They were able to cut out all of the bad stuff (as far as they know) and she’s recovering. I knitted her a sweater to wear over her sutures so she doesn’t have to wear the Cone of Shame anymore, and since I put it on her last night she’s seemed much happier.
Anyway. One thing I did manage to stick with all week was getting up earlier on a consistent basis, and I also managed to sleep better for the most part, save one morning when I woke up at 4AM for no apparent reason and couldn’t get back to sleep. Unfortunately, I was still too busy with freelance work to translate any of that into consistently making writing time, although I did get a tiny bit written on Eucha Falls.
I also surprised myself this week by writing a new song. It’s only the second one I’ve written, but I like it well enough that I wish I could make more time to cultivate my musical abilities so I could actually do something with it. But it just sort of occurred to me, the same way my best stories usually do, which is a positive sign, because I’ve been feeling so uninspired and creatively drained lately.
It’s probably no coincidence that it came to me the morning after I bit the bullet and let go of one of my unprofitable contract jobs, and made the decision to wrap up the other one and phase it out as soon as possible. Making those decisions felt akin to laying down a big bag of wet sand that I’d been carrying for too long. I’ve still got a lot to do to wrap up the other job, but I can see the light and it’s clear enough and close enough that I’m pretty sure it’s not a freight train barreling down on me.
I also wrapped up and launched a client’s website, freeing up even more room on my plate. I’ve got one more web dev project to wrap up (I’m waiting for the client to pick out a web host), and then I’ll be down to just writing for Demand Studios — which is FINE. I mean, DS isn’t something I want to do long term, but it’s a decent gig for keeping the lights on while I take a step back to figure out where I want to take my freelancing business next. In the mean time, I think I’m going to take a break from worrying about that and focus on novel writing, on marketing my books and cultivating my fan base, and on helping Matt build his photography business, all of which I think is WAY more conducive to my ultimate goal of noveling full time than the kind of work I’ve been stuck with lately.
But really, you guys, it feels so good to have some breathing room again, I can’t even tell you.