Hey Reader,

Have you felt tired lately? I don't mean just a little tired.

I mean, like, weary tired. The kind you feel in your bones. The kind that saps away your mental energy too.

It can come from being overworked, overstimulated, and overburdened. Add it to sleep debt and a lack of (real) breaks, and life can feel more difficult than it needs to.

And all of these factors piled on your back can drag down your motivation and sense of progress.

One missed day of writing can easily become two, three, even ten days. And the more it compounds, the more the guilt and sense of failure compound.

Trust me, I know. I've been there. I go there and come back with souvenirs. If you read a few emails back about my three-year valley, then you're already caught up on what I've been through.

If you didn't read that message, then the short of it is that life can get crazy, and you feel like you've fallen so far away from your writing that you don't know how to come back. But it's okay to come back from a hiatus, to emerge from the cocoons we've built for ourselves.

And I'm here to share those souvenirs from the hard times, which are lessons learned rather than t-shirts or coffee cups.

Lesson 1 - It's OK to Write When You're Tired

Even when it feels like you'd rather just forget it and try again tomorrow, please write. Even if it's just a few words.

The words don't have to be perfect. Heck, they don't even have to be good. You know the drill: You can make them better later.

Sometimes the hardest part is starting. Those first 5, 10, 50 words.

But after that... things start flowing.

It gets a little easier to feel the scene or see the movie playing in your head.

Take today, for example. I woke up tired, and it didn't get any better from there. I have some sleep debt built up, lots of stress, so much pressure and so many demands, and a house full of the chaos and joy of five kids for the summer.

After trying to herd them all day and keeping them entertained (without turning them into total screen zombies), I finished my weekly planning, built my newsletter and social media "strategies" for the third quarter, completed 1 hour of editing for a client, caught up with a few other clients, and generally just worked on getting my pups in a cup (aka ducks in a row).

Then I had to stop my workday and go shopping because... well, you know. Reasons. 🙄 Either way, I had to do the shopping. And I was not happy about it. But it wasn't something that could wait, so I did it, came back, and got back to work. I hated the interruption, but I refused to let it further derail my day.

I was still low-key aggravated when I opened the Zoom room for writing sprints at 6 PM. But then... the excitement took over. I had handed off the kids to their father (by saying, "I'm going upstairs to write. See ya!") and had the cool, dark, quiet room all to myself.

The Zoom room was quiet (I held it open in case anyone was behind schedule), but our Discord channel was hoppin'!

And we rocked the words!

Taryn always comes in with the highest word counts, and it's inspiring to chase after her (she is an award-winning author, after all).

Now, my current goal is 500 words per day because I'm in what I like to call "Editing Protocol." That means when my publisher sends me edits/revisions, that takes priority over new words. Book 2 edits came back, and I've been reading the feedback (re-reading the good stuff 😅) and thinking about how to best make the fixes needed.

While I am currently in "Editing Protocol," I have one hour set aside 6 days a week for writing sprints to support members of the ATA and the Summer Break Writing Survival Collective.

In that one hour of hosting writing sprints, as long as I get my 500 daily words, I'm a happy writer!

But today, with how things were going, I was not hopeful that I would get much more than that. I thought it would take gritty determination and a whole lot of luck to even get the 500. 😬

Let me tell you how surprised I was when I hit 1,005 words in that hour!! 😱

It was just 4x 15-minute sprints, and I got my words in! I even had short research stints! While most of my sprints were around 250 - 300 words, it didn't even come to mind for me that 4 sprints at that writing pace would add up to around a thousand words.

I did it.

I did it tired.

I did it even though I could have come up with an excuse about family time or feeling too yucky. The kids were happy, safe, playing (mostly) nicely, and their father was available to be the supervising adult.

So why shouldn't I have jumped on it like a frog onto a lily pad?

Yes, I slumped, and the words came like molasses at first, but by the middle of the second sprint, the words felt easy—nay, FUN—again.

As much as I want to tell everyone to take care of themselves first—and I usually do—I also want to tweak that advice, or maybe caveat it.

I want you to fight for yourself. And I don't mean just for basic survival.

Fight for your story and your characters.

Fight for all the goals and dreams you keep pushing off until... "maybe next year."

Keep fighting for creativity in a world that pressures us to automate it so we can be unendingly busy with things that don't set fire to our very souls. They want us scrolling, to be drained of hope for our future, and consuming content instead of creating it.

Or "they" want us to fit into some perfect little box with a perfect little label and do only what "they" think we should do. Nah. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Okay, getting off my soap box, I swear.

Anyway, Lesson 1 is to fight for your writing. Even when you're tired, and you're worried it sucks, and it's only for five minutes.

Five minutes three times a day adds up pretty quickly. And you can say with 'your whole chest' that you're scratching and clawing for a dream that matters to your very being.

It's okay to be tired today and to write anyway. You won't be tired every day. And if you wait until conditions are perfect or you "feel like it," then that dream might keep slipping farther and farther away until it's but a wisp of a "maybe someday."

💥 Action Steps

So what can you do to write when you're tired? Try these steps today (whenever you read this 😉):

1. Damn the torpedoes and say, "I'm going to go write for X minutes/hours. See ya later!" Can't do that? Wait til the kids are in bed, or watching a movie, or playing/reading/marauding, etc., and get a few words in!
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2. Set a timer or run a sprint for 5-25 minutes, whatever fits how much time you have right now. Sometimes a few small sprints are a great warm-up.
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3. If the writing has felt like pulling teeth lately, then set the bar for success at just 50 words. But if you have a little more energy, shoot for 100.
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   That's all. Every time you hit 50 or 100 words, gauge your energy and decide whether to keep going or to call it a day.
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   ​Just hit the first mark (50 words), and 💥BOOM!💥 You are successful! Everything after that is gravy. 😎
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4. If you have kids, like me, do like I'm doing this very minute. Put in headphones. 😂 *
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   * I've picked a series of "old" movies for them to watch that are less stimulating than today's hits. They are on a spaced-out, daily movie-thon. I can see them (in the living room) from my desk (in the breakfast room). I have headphones in with rain and the Skyrim soundtrack because A. sound design in games is meant to make you focus and stay immersed in the game for as long as possible and B. I can still hear them.

And if you want company while you sprint (and a really good excuse for some alone time just for writing!), you can join us in the Summer Break Writing Survival Collective or in the ATA.

Need more help? 🤔

If you're in a space right now where you feel overstimulated, overwhelmed, and like nothing is working, I have a few spots open on my calendar for Summer Writing Rescue Sessions.

In this 1-hour session, we'll:

• Explore what's currently holding back your progress (beyond the obvious) 😉
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• Clarify your most important writing project or priorities (it's easy to feel pulled in a million directions)
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• Build a realistic summer writing plan that fits your life
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• Develop writing session or sprint goals to help grow your writing consistency
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• Design a simple recovery plan to help you keep going after life interrupts your writing

This session is all about getting clarity, being understood, and getting real help to move forward with life. Better still, you'll walk away with a concrete plan (from a fellow human writer who's been there) for making progress on your WIPs in July and August! 🥳 🙌

I want to help you bloom where you're (currently) planted, no matter how hard the soil may be. Sometimes you just need a little help (and to be heard by someone who understands) to make a real, lasting change for the better.

These sessions are normally $97, but since we're already in July, I'm snipping the price of the 5 available spots to $47.

And don't worry -- if you'd rather get help in a more introverted way 😅 , you can still grab my Summer Break Writing Survival Kit. It's Pay What You Can (PWYC) pricing, and you can get all 7 tools for as little as $7. 🙌

I'm starting to get reviews on this, so I'll be sharing them soon! 😻 I can't wait!

Either way, I hope that you use the action steps I shared above, and that you fight for yourself and your writing this week. You can do this, even if it's slower than you want it to be. Progress is still progress! 🙌

I hope you have a beautiful Tuesday ahead of you! 🌻

Keep fighting for your writing,

🌻 Audrey 🌻