How I recalibrated my life

And lost 2 inches off my waist in just 7 days!

Photo by Brian Mann on Unsplash

Hello and welcome.

Last week, I wrote about how I had lost my focus and whether I wanted to keep writing. Publishing is a tough world to break into. But I did break into it. I had a cosy crime published and I am incredibly proud of that achievement.

Paths to publication

There are several paths a writer can take. Well, more than several if we take into account that some people enjoy putting words down on paper and leaving them there. Or they are happy to let their words languish on their hard drive for nobody else to see.

For the writers who want to have their words read and enjoyed by others, millions would be fantastic, a few is fine and, to be honest, anything in between, then getting your words out into the world is the next step. As we all know, there is the self-publishing route, which comes with a heavy burden of self-marketing. There is the indie publishing route, finding a traditional publisher and, what is considered to be the crème de la crème, being agented. This last one appeals to me on so many levels, not the least of which is that, although they take a larger proportion of any profit made from your book sales, they know the industry inside out and can place your book with the best publisher. This in turn enables the best possible deal for you as a writer and them, of course. But it is a business deal and with any business, people have to make money to survive. They also help to market the book and publicize it. I am happy to go down this route and am now actively seeking an agent to represent me. Thank you, Alicia, my good friend, for guiding me through the choppy waters which are prevalent in the writing world. Talking things through has helped to crystalize my thoughts going forward.

This last week has been tough, but not as dark and daunting as previous weeks. There is light at the end of the tunnel, albeit a tiny glimmer, but it is there. I have always been a happy soul and very optimistic, even in dire situations. I see the best in people. I strive to keep moving forward towards my goals in life. But the events of the past few weeks have knocked me sideways and I started to question whether I wanted to keep writing. Me! Stop writing? Yes, it was that bad. Several factors have impacted this loss of self-worth and the happiness that I once found in writing.

I have always been tough on myself

With the passage of time, plenty of walking and daily exercise, I have shifted my focus. Each morning, instead of parking myself behind my laptop, I roll out my yoga mat and do some gentle stretching exercises. This has been something I have done spasmodically over the years, but recently, following a minor RTA when I suffered a lower back injury, I have enjoyed the gentle flexing and easing out my aching body more than ever. After that, I follow Lucy Wyndham-Read’s 7 day challenge and am ready to start my day. An added bonus was that after 7 days, I lost 2 inches off my waist, so, it really works! I enjoyed it so much that I am going to keep doing it ad infinitum. Or for as long as I am able to. It is just 7 minutes each morning and I feel so energised afterwards and ready to tackle the day ahead. There are so many positives to exercising, not just the way that we look. The health benefits are incredible, from strengthening our core muscles, improving our balance, lowering high blood pressure. The list goes on. Not to mention the benefits to our overall well-being and mental health.

Writing should not be an obsession

Before the events of the past few weeks, I would sit at my desk in my writing room early each morning and tap away, letting my fingers fly across the keyboard as I happily wrote my way through producing my next masterpiece. That hasn’t happened for almost 6 weeks and, the sad thing is, I haven’t missed it. That was because there was too much going on. My brain couldn’t cope with the extra workload and pressure that I had unwittingly burdened myself with. I needed time to heal. I needed to take a step back. Sometimes, we put an unnecessary amount of pressure on ourselves and we have to question why. However, I can feel the excitement building. Even as I sit at my desk formulating this article. I can feel my mojo returning. Slowly, but surely.

The wonderful Gene Hackman, who was sadly found dead last week at his home in Santa Fe, said something that resonated with me. He said he loved acting but hated everything that went with it. That just about sums up the way I feel about writing.

I love writing but I hate everything that goes with it

I am not a salesperson. Never have been, never will be. But when you have a book published, you need to get it out there, into the big, wide world. Scatter it across the globe by whatever means you can. That is why I am going to start pitching to Literary Agents, in the hope that they can get my writing out there. But, in the meantime, I have shifted my focus. I am not hell-bent on just writing. It is no longer an obsession. I have started to focus on other areas of my life. My fitness levels, exercise and focusing more on myself and my well-being. I have pressed the reset button and, hopefully, I have managed to recalibrate my life. I feel stronger and, more importantly, happier about the future.

What I am reading

My daughter gave me a copy of the Booker Prize Winner 2024, Orbital by Samantha Harvey. The first thing that struck me was how small it was; a thin book with only 136 pages. However, let that not fool you. Chie, one of the characters aboard the spacecraft, describes how her grandfather missed going to the Nagasaki munitions factory because he was sick and avoided being vaporised by the atomic bomb. The baby he was looking after that day was the character’s mother, so she would not have been born had he been well enough to go to work that day. The sentence that struck me after the author had written about the incident was: The family shuffled sideways through the crack of fate.

Samantha Harvey writes beautifully. She is succinct and you imagine yourself there, on the spacecraft. I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy it or not but I am halfway through and mesmerised. If only I could write like that!

Look after yourselves,

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