April Update 2023

Hello, friends, it’s been another month! In March, I set myself the lofty goal of writing 4 chapters. I managed to finish 3, which is still nothing to sneeze at, considering that one of them turned out just shy of 5000 words. I am now finished with Act I, ready to get into the meat of the story, the segment I’ve been dying to write for years!

Both my writing habits and my mental health have improved this month. I’ve long suffered from social anxiety, which has held me back from forming habits and taking actions to improve my life. Just this month, I got some perspective as to just how bad and unusual my condition is, and how it has shadowed my view of what it’s like to be a human. I had taken for granted that everyone around me was on the brink of panic all the time, just like I was. The moment I realized this was not true, I suddenly saw that the world is not a Lovecraftian nightmare realm, it’s just my own overactive nerves, and there are techniques I can use to calm myself and latch onto the solid rock of rationality.

On the writing side of self-improvement, I’ve scheduled myself 2 hours of writing a day, except on the weekends when I spend 3 hours at it with my writing group. 2 hours seems like the perfect amount for me right now, keeping me at it long enough to get into the zone, but not so long that I wear myself out. When I think back many years to when I used to write 30 minutes a week with breaks that sometimes lasted months, I’m proud of how far I’ve come, and the dream of being a full-time writer someday lives strong.

Next month, I’m aiming to tidy up one of my chapters and submit it to my critique group, then write another 3. These next few seem like they might be shorter, and as I continue to score victories against anxiety and improve my self-discipline, the time I’m able to spend writing and my productivity during that time should only go up.

I’ll be back with another update in May.

—Chris