I love my job. If I could hand-pick any career in the world, I'd choose the one I have now. Writing romance is my sweet spot, and the people I work with only make it sweeter.
That said, every job has its moments, right? For me, that moment is now. This month has been the most challenging of my 15 year writing career. To start with, due to some difficulty with my work-in-progress in February, I'm running a few weeks behind schedule on it. May was supposed to be my re-writing month since it's due June 1, but I only just finished the first draft. Enter working weekends and evenings, but manageable, right?
Except
Secretly Smitten edits also came due in May. Then a contest I'd agreed to judge sent me the entries--20 of them! About 15 more than I expected (Why didn't I just ASK how many???). Of course, these are due in May too.
I'm just hanging by a thread when I get the galley for
The Trouble with Cowboys (Oct release). This is my last chance to see it before it goes to print, so I need to read it with a red pen in hand. These are due--you guessed it--in May.
Add to this all the normal running of kids, chores, adrenal fatigue flareups, plus two weekends of house guests (looking forward to that part--really!), and you can see why I've affectionately named the month Manic May. No offense, Manic May, but I'll be so glad when you're gone.
What are your work challenges? How do cope when you have more than you can handle?
13 Comments:
a bubble~bath ;)
I pick one thing that has to be done and push everything else to the side until I've finished it.
Good advice, both of you!
I'll pray for you, Denise. I had a month like that from Mid-March to Mid-April with state testing for my 4th grade class. Non-stop essays and more essays and then math on top of more math.
I just kept focusing on the end date and praying for the strength to get through each day with grace and dignity.
I'm sorry to hear about all the stress you have to endure to get to your sweet spot.
But really.... when it comes right down to it, when I'm stressed I let you guys write the books so I have something to read.
Quite the oxymoron, or is it irony?
On more serious note; I've observed that when I feel like I'm going to get overwhelmed, I choose not to spend time on 'freaking out', but rather I sit down and plan, and like Timothy Fish said, I do one thing at a time.
We only need grace for the thing we're currently doing. The grace for all the 'other things' we also need to accomplish will come when we're at those 'other things'.
Denise, I ask for more time somewhere. Your health is more important than anything else. If you get adrenal fatigue again, you won't be able to DO anything else. Ask for help. Ask editor for more time. Delegate work at home. Of course, this is coming from someone who has a deadline on Thursday with 19,000 more words to write. I'm going to do the best I can and catch the rest on the rewrite.
Thanks for the prayers, Mary Curry!
LOL Mary Louise. I love the irony! And great point about the grace we need.
Thanks, Cheryl. The delegation at home has begun!
If you just received 15 contest entries that are due in a couple weeks, aren't they being rather unrealistic in their expectations? That is a lot for anyone with other obligations to do. I see a lot of resting in June! :-)
Good luck!
oops 20 entries. Even worse.
I know, Sandie! It's a lot. I'm not doing that to myself again . . .
A Good Laugh , helps too! :)
how's this
"Some write for pleasure.
"Some write for fame.
"But I write only
To sign my name.
*from a book I read :)
I've been caught by the contest "not specifying" trap too - 25 hit me the same month I started back at work (full-time) after having a baby.
It wasn't those writers' fault I hadn't locked in a maximum and I wanted to give their entries the time they needed so it would be fair to say our house looked like laundry Armageddon had hit us and I'm pretty sure our bathroom got mighty close to growing mushrooms!
I also travel a lot for my job and my husband is a Pastor and works Sundays so the time we get together as a family is pretty limited.
We ended up deciding that it was worth sacrificing some of the little that remained of our disposable income on getting someone to help us out. Now we have someone come in once a fortnight to de-fungi the bathroom, vacuum etc.
At first I really struggled, feeling like I was a failure as a wife/mum not being able to keep up with the housework but once I got over my pride I'm a convert - if there's anything that you can and can afford to, temporarily, do it. Knowing that every second Tuesday I get to come home to a clean house makes the neverending hamster wheel seem just a little more doable.
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