D - Don't You Wish You Were Awesome

Date: December 4th
Letter: D
Topic: Feeling of Defeat

Good news. You’ve already reached awesome status by stopping in. Why, because I said so and I’m the labeler of awesome.

I suppose you could say I’m like a King making someone a knight but way cooler because to be awesome means you don’t have to fight in a battle to save your King and his Kingdom which could be more stressful than cool.

You’re welcome.

The reason I chose this AWESOME topic was because there are times in writing (or in life) where you just don’t feel 100%. You’ve lost your game and you’re feeling inadequate.

 I know when I first start a novel I’m very hard on myself. The minute the muse is gone I punish myself by being angry that the words aren’t coming which sends the writer’s block into an even deeper pile of crap to dig through.

Why are we our own worst critic?

We have so many goals and aspirations it’s hard to bottle it up inside, but I’m going to try it. In 2013 I plan on having a few mason jars in a room. They will have labels such as “Ridding Writer’s Block” and “Stop the Negativity” and “No ideas are bad ideas”. They’ll be the jars that block out the bad and keep me in the good.

Each time I say I suck I need to write on a sheet of paper something I’ve accomplished. It can be as simple as “I wrote 500 words”. What is great about this is it allows your mind to tackle one negative and replace it with a positive. Once you do this enough times the negative thoughts will ultimately battle themselves and the jars won’t be needed.

But for now, rather than continually beat myself up for having a bad day I’m creating a positive space by putting all the ugly in a jar.

Chocolate also works.

How do you cope with the negativity and pressure you put on yourself?