Our prompt word for January 29th is “exercise.” Thanks so much, Wendy, for the energetic prompt!
I try to exercise every day.
Okay, maybe try is a big word.
Maybe it’s more like I plan to exercise every day.
Okay, okay, okay. I think about exercising every day.
During the height of the pandemic, when Alex wasn’t going to school and the library was closed so Chris, my other son, stopped going out once a week, I bought a treadmill.
Are there months when it doesn’t even get used? Sure.
I still try to go out for walks when it’s not too snowy or icy or cold or hot and humid.
But does it get used when those conditions are not the case?
I used it a whole three times last week. And once so far this week.
I need to try harder.
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This self-motivational post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Wendy! Please be sure to check out Wendy’s blog here!
Our prompt word for January 27th is “amenities.” Thanks so much, Kim, for the neat prompt!
I’ve been having issues with one of my amenities today. Specifically, my internet. Which is part of the reason I’m posting this so late. My reason for yesterday’s late posting? I forgot to hit the publish button.
But I digress.
I learned something new today!
As I often do when I’m looking for inspiration for a post, I opened the dictionary. (I’m such a nerd.)
And I found this in Merriam-Webster:
usually amenities: something (such as a conventional social gesture) that promotes smoothness or pleasantness in social relationships
<maintaining social amenities>
Who knew?
Now that I know, it explains a few things for me.
I come to my blog and to most of the social media sites I visit to be social. To have nice conversations with nice people.
Which, I’ve realized, is why I feel icky when I use social media (or my blog) to try to sell my books.
Sure, they tell you when you advertise that you’re giving the consumer something they need (like my books), or something that will make you happy (definitely my books), but I can’t help but feel that it’s unsmooth and unpleasant to talk about buying my books (which you absolutely want to do) with people who are just trying to have a nice conversation with me.
So perhaps the subliminal approach is best.
Because the truth is, I’m excited about my books. Especially when I have a new release coming out soon. And although it might seem to lack social amenities to talk about my books, I’m sure there are people out there who are excited for me.
Right?
Yeah, no. Totally unsmooth.
***
This totally subliminal post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Kim! Please be sure to check out Kim’s blog here!
Our prompt word for January 26th is “family.” Thanks so much, J-Dub, for the wonderful prompt!
When I was growing up, I always wished for a bigger family. For brothers and sisters. But I never got them. I used to envy my friends their siblings. I imagined idyllic friendships between them. Constant happy companionship. Ah, but I was an only child and knew only what I saw when I was playing with them. They were either getting along or avoiding each other, for the most part.
And I still have a hard time imagining it. When I write a story with siblings, they either get along famously or avoid each other. Yeah, I have three kids. But they’re atypical, two of them being disabled.
*sigh* I’ll never understand. If only I’d had brothers and sisters.
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This retrospective post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and J-Dub! Please be sure to check out J-Dub’s blog here!
The prompt word for January 23rd is “paintbrush.” Thanks go to Paula for the colourful prompt!
When we paint our woes with broad brushstrokes, we don’t really convey everything we’re living.
Ugh, I have so much to do!
It tells a story, but the behind-the-scenes to-do list is not anyone has time to hear about. They have their own to-dos.
Ack! Everything hurts!
It might not be accurate, but it conveys the message better than an inventory of all our aches and pains. And just about everyone can agree that aches and pains are all-consuming when we have them.
But when we paint our accomplishments and happiness, it’s usually more defined.
When was the last time anyone said to you Everything is wonderful! And when they did, could you relate? If not, ask yourself why not?
Because there’s almost always something we didn’t get around to doing. There’s almost always a discomfort or pain somewhere.
But if you take the reverse, when there’s so much to do, isn’t there something you’ve accomplished somewhere along the way?
When everything hurts, is there not usually something that doesn’t?
We let the negative keep us from painting our happiness in broad brushstrokes, but the positive rarely gets in the way of the broad strokes of our woes.
Let’s change that. Right now.
Repeat after me:
Everything is wonderful!
And let’s do that every day.
***
This hopefully uplifting post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Paula! Please be sure to check out Paula’s blog here!
The prompt word for January 22nd is “seasonal.” Thanks go to Kaye for the wonderful prompt!
I’m starting to realize, rather belatedly, that my writing is largely seasonal.
I try to do NaNoWriMo every fall, so that’s when I write the bulk of my novels. Also during the spring and summer NaNo camps, though I’ve never attempted 50,000 words during one of those.
Blogging daily has become a January thing.
I used to do it every day, but then a career or two happened, and I seem to run out of either time or steam by the time I get around to doing much else.
Seems whatever I do, though, I can usually do it in my pajamas.
Hibernation season is all year round.
P.S. My neck is a bit better today. 🙂
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This writerly post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Kaye! Please be sure to check out Kaye’s blog here!
The prompt word for January 20th was “phantom.” Thanks, Tuba, for the fun prompt!
I’m a day late with this one, in part because I’ve had a stunningly busy couple of days, and in part because of a crippling stiff neck.
It plagued me all day yesterday, but it was better this morning. Now it’s back, probably due to the fact that I’m stressed over not getting everything done.
It’s a circle.
The circle of life.
Is a pain in the neck. Apparently.
But really, I can pretty much count on some kind of ailment showing up when I’m busy.
Grrr…
See what I did up there, though?
Now I don’t have to write a separate SoCS post.
Sneaky me.
***
This sneaky yet agonizing post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Tuba and SoCS! Please be sure to check out Tuba’s blog here!
Once upon a time … You’d think this would be easy for me, wouldn’t you?
I tell stories all the time.
And yet, every single time I write one, I ask myself, Is this autobiographical? Am I writing about me?
I don’t want to write about me when I write fiction, so I try to steer away from it.
But I think it’s a common thing for writers to wonder. How else can we write aside from relaying what we’ve observed about the world? And how much of those things, those experiences, has seeped in to make us who we are?
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