Funk

I'm in a funk.

My "structure" plan isn't working either. Well, actually that's not quite accurate. I think the plan works very well and will make me a more disciplined and productive writer.

But it's not achieving the desired results because the plan doesn't kick me in the ass and get me moving. I lack motivation. I'm fatigued and feeling very down lately. And while writing will usually help me through times like that, I can't find the energy and motivation to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard.

I have plans and outlines for several articles, a short story and a few posts for my sports blog. Yet they sit in their respective folders, unfinished. Unwritten.

And I can't seem to find my way back to them.

However, perhaps you'll notice the box in the left hand column with recently published items - topped by a new sales article. The one thing I've finished lately. Now if I could just make my way to Parts 2 and 3 of it.

So far, so good......

Perhaps the structure plan was exactly what was needed. Something to give me a little push when I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by life. Maybe I needed to remember that writing used to be my way of dealing with that overwhelmed feeling.

I'm making progress on several different projects, and haven't had a day where I've failed to pick up my pen and notebooks. And I've revived my Twitter and Facebook accounts as platforms to promote projects while also reconnecting with those who have supported my writing in the past.

I've even restarted my sports blog with this post: Let's try this again....

I'm feeling very good about this so far.

Or possibly I was wrong......

OK, so I kind of gave the fun plan a shot. Then my salesperson background kicked in.

Maybe the key is structure. As a salesperson, when I found my motivation flagging I'd lean on structure; a game plan - tracking my activities and setting goals for what I was going to accomplish that day or week.

So I've created a system to follow - a plan that requires a certain number of submissions, blog posts, etc. per week. A "kick in the ass" on a sheet of paper, so to speak.

We'll see how it works.

Attitude

I think I may have stumbled upon the solution to my recent writing "blahs" - in, of all places, my son's hockey team.

For the past three years, I've been coaching his teams. And put very simply, I base the team's plan on a very simple coaching philosophy:

1. Have fun
2. Improve as hockey players
3. Focus on the value of sportsmanship

And while the team battled their opponents this Saturday, I realized something. I didn't start writing when I was younger because I wanted to make money. I grew up planning to be a nurse. (Long story.) Writing was fun, not drudgery.

Now obviously sportsmanship doesn't apply much to my writing. But perhaps I've been missing the point. I think it might be time to go back to planning my writing based on having fun and improving as a writer......and then let the chips fall where they may.

Stagnant

I have no idea what's wrong with me lately.

I'm fulfilling my New Year's resolution of writing every day in some fashion. However, lately everything I've written is toward one specific work-in-progress that:
(a) I'm not even certain where it's leading, and
(b) Has zero chance of making me ANY money in the near future. And possibly zero chance ever, since I don't have a clear plan for the project.

My fledgling sports blog stagnates, as I've struggled to find the motivation to write for it. My goal of submitting to more paying markets this year has also fallen by the wayside, and I even missed the deadline for a quarterly contest that I always enter because it simply slipped my mind in my recent state of writing apathy.

And my damn elbow still hurts.

OK, I'm done whining now.