Why I'm failing at my own writing challenge
It's been a long year
I recently gained some new subscribers after the post about my digital reading journal gained some traction. To all my new subscribers, welcome! I’m so delighted you’re here.
Hi friends,
Everyone I know has been struggling through January. It’s been the longest month of all time, and somehow we still have one more full week. Cue that notorious 30 Rock meme.
Despite the endless days, I’ve barely managed to participate in my own writing challenge, The Write More Collective. I had beautiful visions of myself sipping a hot cup of coffee while penning page after page of inspired prose. Instead, I’ve barely managed to sit at my desk more than a handful of times. Here’s a brief list of all the things I’ve done in January instead of my own writing challenge:
Recovered from 24 hours of flying and a 12 hour time change while having norovirus and solo-parenting a healthy toddler
Shoveled snow
Took care of my husband who had walking pneumonia and could barely pick up our child for two weeks
Shoveled snow again
Treated my child for an ear infection and conjunctivitis in both eyes
Dreamed of writing and reading while washing mounds of dishes
Dropped our dogs off with the sitter, then picked them up, then dropped them off, then picked them up again
Juggled work with watching my kid because it was -20 degrees in Chicago with windchill and daycare was closed for extreme cold
Along those lines: wrangled my child into ten layers of winter clothes every morning
Developed a two-week long cold
Weeped over the second inauguration of Satan
Read about how to resist from Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Sarah Kendzior and Amy Siskind and Jessica Valenti
Fell while getting out of my car and deeply bruised my right knee1
Cried in urgent care cause I’d just fallen out of my car2
Shoveled snow…again
Set my alarm so I could get up early and write, then slept through it
Planned my exit from all Meta platforms
I’m sure I’ll shovel snow one more time before the month’s out, but there were still some glimmers in the shit storm, like:
Singing “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston at the top of my lungs in the car
Meandering through the bookstore and treating myself to a new book
Meeting my new neice and giving my nephew good morning hugs and watching my kid toddle around my sister’s house
Punching a boxing bag for 30 minutes in rainbow wraps and borrowed gloves
Listening to Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs on audio
Binging the objectively enjoyable SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
So, although this month has royally sucked, I try to remember that a full life makes for more interesting writing. May all of this be fodder for a beautiful essay someday…when I finally get to write again.
My foot somehow caught the ice scraper next to my seat, which tripped me. The man sitting in his car behind me was clearly startled to see me literally fall out of my car. It’s okay, you can laugh.
Ironically, I was on my way to urgent care to get swabbed for the flu / covid / strep when I fell. It’s okay, you can laugh.
Thank you for being so honest in sharing your January experience. I find that most weeks the neatly organised calendar planned on sunday night looks nothing like my actual week with its thousand tiny unplanned events. Hope that in February you'll find more space to write :)
Totally agree, it's been a long year and it's only January. Besides all the sadness of our new "president" and all the horror he's going to bring to our world, we also had horrible wildfires in Los Angeles. I live near one of the fires and my heart is so sad to see that community destroyed. It's also been wonderful to see how Angelinos have stepped up and supported the communities that have been affected by the fires. That gives me hope. Here's hoping the next eleven months will be better but it's hard to see that right now.