Any links to Amazon are affiliate links.1 • If this is your first time receiving posts from Diary of a Stage 3 Writer, you can find the origin post here, the full list of posts here, and you can fiddle with your subscription settings here.
In this issue:
What’s up with exhaustion?
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
What’s up with exhaustion?
So, in trying to increase my stamina, I’ve been dealing with exhaustion. Sometimes this looks like me having worked and wanting to work more, but I just feel like I need to lie down and take a nap. Sometimes this looks like me working on my project and all a sudden I feel exhausted when I was fine and full of energy and focus a moment before.
There’s lots of reasons for exhaustion and I’m not trying to diagnose anyone. I’m just describing what I’ve been noticing in myself lately, specifically with regards to these two particular play-outs of exhaustion.
Nap Exhaustion
So I’ve been changing things up lately, right? Making changes. Habit changes. I’m focusing on being more consistent, showing up every morning at 5, working on my project every day, etc.
When you’re making changes, there’s a moment every day, for each change, where you have a decision to make, the fork moment, and you have two options: You can either give in to the inertia and not make the change (sleep in, skip the writing session, eat the cookie) or you can insist on changing and follow through with a supportive action (get up, sit at your computer, say no thank you). It’s an important moment. And I read somewhere recently (here, I think) that when you insist on making changes that your brain and body aren’t used to doing, you’re really exerting yourself. It gets easier eventually, but for a while, you’re really exerting yourself, and so of course you might feel exhausted. That doesn’t mean you should give up doing the thing and making the change. It just means that you should be kind to yourself as you lean into the lathe.
So since the end of December, I’ve been feeling exhausted. And no wonder. Every day at 5am, when it was cold out and I was at the decision point—Do I get up or do I snuggle under the covers?—I threw back the blankets and got up at five. Every day, after I got my tea, when I’ve had a decision to make—Do I sit my ass down at my computer or do I let myself get distracted?—I’ve marched upstairs, sat on my computer, and reacquainted myself with where I’m at in my project.
Every day, by 2pm, and even though I’ve long since stopped working on my project by that time, I’ve been so tired. Can’t read. Eyes too tired. Can’t walk, do dishes. Body too tired. So I’ve been letting myself take a nap. And feeling bad about it. I shouldn’t be napping. I am so lazy.
But I napped anyway, because I couldn’t not, and the next morning I did it all again, leaning into the lathe every. single. time.
Three weeks or so in, this kind of exhaustion started to improve. 🥳 I even had someone notice and point out to me that I hadn’t taken a nap that day. Huh, you’re right! That lasted another couple days, and then I had another couple days of needing a nap. But I stopped beating myself up about it, and the next day I started another streak of not needing a nap. It’s taken over a month of leaning into that lathe every. single. day. but this type of exhaustion is getting noticeably better.
Momentary Exhaustion
This one might get a little woo-woo for some people, but it works for me and maybe it’ll work for you. So here we go…
Sometimes when I’m working, I’ll all of a sudden feel exhausted. When this would happen back in the day, before I decided to shift my habits and increase my stamina, I would go to my room and take a nap, like it was the same kind of exhaustion as the one above—but it’s not the same. I feel nap exhaustion in every limb, like a weight, like I literally can’t stand up or stay awake anymore. This exhaustion is more just in the head, and it’s like a fog, like I could keep going but I just don’t want to anymore. And it’s a quick shift, light switch fast: I’m energized, focused, present—and now I’m exhausted.
And it happens so suddenly that it just didn’t make any sense to me. Why am I all of a sudden tired?
So I started asking myself what I’d been doing the previous five seconds. And more often than not, I’d gotten frustrated or overwhelmed with my project. In particular, more often than not, I’d mentally told myself that the way the project is going isn’t how it’s supposed to be going. And that’s all it took to trigger a feeling of exhaustion.
So how have I solved this?
Every time I get this sudden exhaustion while I’m working, I take a minute to acknowledge what just happened:
I just now chose to believe that the project isn’t going how it’s supposed to go, and that notion is silly;
I just now chose to believe that it’s all too much work, and that also is silly;
I just now chose to believe that I’m not up to the challenge, and that, too, is silly…
And I relax. For real. Like magic. No more exhaustion.
I may still not know how to fix whatever’s going on in my project that caused me to think that thought in the first place, but the thought itself—and the resulting exhaustion—is gone.
From what I can tell, this kind of exhaustion—random exhaustion, where you were fine a second ago but now you’re tired—is caused by an unserving thought about what you’re doing that’s blocking your energy from flowing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Still, if you notice this kind of exhaustion in yourself, this technique to relieve it is worth trying.
Writing Prompt
Character: PRINCE
Light Attribute: Romantic charm and potential for power.
Shadow Attributes: Using power for self-aggrandizement.Setting: a hospital room.
Object: a water bottle, a shoe, an air purifier.
Emotion: DISAPPOINTED. Disillusioned, defeated, let down.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is about character contradictions.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
site: writeswithtools.com
ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/writeswithtools
wishlist: http://tinyurl.com/WWTWishList
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, and links to amazon.com are affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase through a link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support my work and allows me to continue writing for you. Thank you for your support!