As always, I’d like to begin this week’s progress report by thanking all of you awesome people who’ve followed, liked and/or commented on my blog!

Here are this week’s stats:

Word Count for Chapters Edited This Week: 8,720

Last Chapter of Third Draft Completed: 11

Chapters To Go (subject to change): 14

Days Until April 18th Goal Date: 40

Thoughts?

Remember a few months ago when I had to scale back because I’d completely overwhelmed myself? Well, true to form, I’ve done it again. Only this time, it was my body that slammed on the brakes, rather than my own common sense.

Last Friday, I woke up tense. So tense, in fact, that it turned into a full-scale migraine within hours, a migraine that sent me home not even halfway through my shift at the day job. The whole ride home, my head hurt so bad and I was so dizzy that I was sweating and nauseous. Once home, talking with my mom, I burst into tears. Not from the pain, although it was pretty intense. In fact, for three days, I couldn’t tell what my problem was. The headache persisted from Friday to Sunday, lessening at times, but never completely ceasing. Not only the headaches and the dizziness, but I was weepy and irritable. My mom tried to cheer me up by making vegetable soup and even bought me some vegan treats. A friend tried her best to distract me with talk about our favorite band. I even tried going to the bookstore and Starbucks. Nothing was helping…until it dawned on me. Paired with a private issue I don’t want to hash out here, I realized that I was burning myself out yet again. Too many how-to books, too many podcasts, too much noise.

So, what have I done to re-balance myself? I’m a list gal, so I made a list of rules in the notes app in my phone that go something like this:

• take breathers from social media (i.e. no more social media in the bathroom, no more middle of the night browsing when I can’t sleep, etc.)
• limit podcasts to a select few that I enjoy (Thinking Sideways and Wine & Crime come to mind) and no more binge-listening
• no more excessive book-marketing research until I’m closer to the first of next year

After a few days of these things, I’m already feeling better. There may be a few other rules I’ll need to make, but for now, those three are doing the job.

This doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working on my book. Self-editing is still going smoothly, although I’ve been limiting myself to one chapter per sitting. My day job already consists of sitting behind a screen for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I don’t need to add an excessive amount of screen time onto that.

As far as reading, I wasn’t reading much at all while the headaches continued. And when I have been able to read, it’s been one of those weeks where I’ve had a hard time settling on anything. I’ve liked the books I’ve picked up, don’t get me wrong. I just couldn’t seem to settle on one until finally picking up Bear, Otter, and the Kid (book 1) by TJ Klune, which I am now completely swept up in.

Goals For The Coming Week

I’d like to self-edit Chapters 12 and 13, per my self-edit schedule.

I’d also like to finish Bear, Otter, and the Kid, as well as an ARC read I’ve signed up for, Teaching Tenderness by Brittany Cournoyer.

Note to Self

Check in with yourself every once in a while and make sure you’re not driving yourself into the ground, preferably before the migraines set in. Chin up, Baisden.