ROW80

Round One, Week Four — Back on the Horse

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

Despite having had a good week two weeks ago, last week was very “meh.” The day job was partially responsible, in one of those “What crisis awaits me this morning?” sort of ways. Partially, I fall into the trap of being responsible beyond what I should be, so it is not all the day job’s fault. Also, I slept an average of 4 hours every night last week, which is just not enough. I have read up on some things that I can change, and have tried several of them. It may be time to do them all.

So, goals–well, I have been able to get some things done in the past couple of days, so I am on the upswing. I am momentarily alienated from my fiction characters, who now seem to appear only when I am well-rested, but I did finish planning the entire A-Z blog list and have all of the topics briefly outlined.   I have been able to throw myself into the non-fiction, so I’ve gotten a lot of drudge work for the day job written, and outlined/planned/compiled my sabbatical project.

I hope for this coming week to be better, and hope everyone is having a good week.

Published by Elizabeth Anne Mitchell

I am the youngest of four children, raised in the old-fashioned Irish-American way. I suspect my mother encouraged me to write from an early age to keep me out of her hair, although she may have regretted the decision when my teachers began to call about the controversial stories I was writing. Thus I began my career of butting heads with the good sisters at my Catholic elementary school, and ended it by leaving high school for college with no diploma. I wear my high-school dropout badge rebelliously and proudly. In college, I became fascinated with the Middle Ages, which was described as a “starry night” by one of my professors. So began a trek through languages and legends that informs my narrative non-fiction and historical fiction, as well as my blogs. I love feedback and enjoy discussing ideas. I have an accountability blog for the Round of Words in Eighty Days entitled Leavekeeping; I write a blog on literary history, intellectual history, and the history of words entitled Lapidary Prose. I'm on Twitter and Facebook; my email is lapidaryprose@gmail.com.

11 thoughts on “Round One, Week Four — Back on the Horse”

  2. Sounds like you are making some very good progress despite the lack of sleep. That can be rough. I hope it gets better for you soon.

  3. I will go for about four days in a row with 4 or 5 hours of sleep before I start to crash. As I already mentioned in a comment on another blog, I have discovered a combination of essential oils which I call a miracle. Cannot believe by rubbing it on my feet, wrists and behind my ears, I start to dose off within minutes, and stay that way until I need to wake up. And I have a day job that causes me to lose a lot of sleep too.

  4. Before retiring, my job chewed up so much time and energy that 5-6 hours of sleep became normal, with very little left over for writing. I know we need more sleep and hope you’ll find a way to get that rest. Congrats on getting your A-Z list ready — and on the progress on planning your sabbatical. Will that be soon? Will that involve some writing as well? May the coming week be a good one for you.

  5. It’s good you managed to make some progress in spite of sleep deprivation! I hope you have a better week and find a way to sleep more and better, as the quality of sleep is essential too.

  7. Sleep is a rare and precious commodity these days. Some of it I suspect is stress and the need to “get it all done”… even the relaxation your body demands). I’m sorry it’s been so difficult for you (though I can totally relate to taking on more than my share… and whats worse, there are people who know about people like us and happily dump all they can off their own plates onto ours)..

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