How my facebook friends pulled me out of a death spiral. #amwriting

Having admitted the problem, it becomes easier to come up with a plan of attack ... especially if you have smart friends who care enough to make suggestions in your Facebook feed (as mine did last Friday) which pulled me out of my death spiral.

Marta Szabo, Mudd Lavoie, Jessica Arinella, Corinne Friesen, Julia Wolfe and Tracy Wuischpard had ace suggestions which I’ll boil down to:

- get out and move your body

- have some FUN

- start scribbling like there’s no tomorrow

With the one exception of wishing that I hadn’t sought ‘fun’ in walking past the weirdest storefront window in the Village (with the large rabbit, on Waverly near Charles) I recommend following their suggestions to a ’t’.

I’d gotten sucked into the old perfectionism trap and was trying to come up with seven, beautifully constructed, tightly written pages to drop into the middle of the script.    

Having gotten out and 'moved my body', I relaxed ... and had an idea! Do what art students do at museums: copy from the masters.

And so I googled ‘best eps of 30 rock”, watched the 30 Rock episode called ’best-structured” (acc to Vulture: 1. “Tracy Does Conan” Season 1, Episode 7), understood for maybe the first time EVER what people are talking about when they talk about ‘structure’, watched it again and wrote down what happened scene by scene and a third time to see how long each scene ran, watched some I Love Lucy and did the same thing.

I’m probably not going to win any speed race in finishing this rewrite but at least I’m working on it and even having fun with it which is a huge improvement from the panicky death spiral during which the fingers were clenched around the pen, the shoulders brushing the ears and sounds of anguish coming out of the sides of the mouth.

Thank you my dear friends for your love, support and ace suggestions!

(Click on the Like button below the picture for something instant and delicious ...  And if you want to Share this, please hit the 'Share' button right next door. Thank you!  \o/ )

Traumatized author after unintentional shock therapy with a five foot tall rabbit

Go Big or Go Bust: Day 201 (Before & After telling the truth on Facebook)

How can I thank you for rallying around!. Your generosity and acceptance took me completely by surprise. 

There's an old saying: "A joy shared is doubled, a sorrow shared is cut in half."  Well, In this case, my baaad feelings were more than cut in half by your stories and encouragement.  I've never DARED to talk so openly about such a clearly miserable situation and never in my wildest dreams imagined that doing so on facebook would be the fastest route to getting through it.

I bow to you.  And I thank you.

Go Big or Go Bust: Day 113 (FRIENDS APPRECIATION DAY!)

So unfortunately, Squarespace doesn't let you put titles of blog posts in italics, cause otherwise a part of today's title would be both CAPSLOCK and in italics. 

Social media and I are not always 'like that'.  Especially when I've been busy and erratic and all trails have gone cold.  We all know the feeling, kind of like trying to push a car uphill.

But recently, social media's been feeling like home.  Marilyn Robertson, Paul Neshamkin, Marie Pope and Marian Evans rushed to the scene last night with love and wisdom to talk me off the ledge.  (the metaphorical ledge)  Thank you for your insights and suggestions!  They are already making a difference in the way I think about scheduling a day. 

And to the many of you who regularly check in and make your presence felt, thank you and more for being my circle!  Thank you for making me laugh, think ... feel! And thank you for saving me from the anxiety that I'm ACTUALLY JUST TALKING TO MYSELF.  Louise Harrison, Victoria Trestrail, Marta Szabo, Zita Giertl, Julia Wolfe, Rachel Dangermond, Ned Buratovich, Julie Clark Shubert, Susan Sinawsky, Barbara Boyer, Mudd Lavoie, Mhairi Morrison, Schahan Tchapraste, Stephanie Beroes, Deb Micallef, Kerry Isaac-Rossow, Linn Schaifer, Ellen Temple Fagan,  KellyAnne Hanrahan, Bianca Han, Lisa Stein, Thomas Attila Lewis, Alexandra Rosas, Xavier Trevino, Xiane Sierocka-Stock .... and so many more. 

Millions of fans (or as Julie Clark Shubert likes to call them "imaginary friends") couldn't make me feel as connected as you do.  GROUP HUG!!!