October 26, 2022
Week 107
Emotional State: Keeping it Easy
Wait, wait, wait… GO!
We’re ten days away from our move to North Carolina. The past week has been a crazy ride of go, go, go and then… crickets. But we’re in the final countdown and everything is falling into place.
Mostly.
When we moved from Canada back to the US, I was a ball of stress. Everything was hard and my stress levels made it that much harder. Don’t get me wrong, that move was a total cluster and even if I’d remained calm, it still would’ve sucked. But having learned from that experience, I went into this move with a totally different mindset.
I was going to allow things to unfold as and when they did. I’d push where necessary, but wouldn’t drive myself crazy trying to force things to move. And for the most part, it’s working.
Okay, so I have a ton of lists of to dos, what to bring, what to chuck, who to call (so many lists), but I still feel relatively calm and in control. Something I could never say about the Canada move.
With that also comes the knowledge I can’t make things happen that aren’t. If someone doesn’t take our battered green sofa, that’s alright. I’ll donate it. If we end up bed hopping once we get there, that’s okay, we’ll deal with it. All that matters is we have somewhere to stay, which we finalized today.
On top of all that stuff, I’m also setting myself up for Nanowrimo and working more than I expected to. It’s a balance of getting things done while also giving myself time to relax.
Because there’ll be none of that next week.
Speaking of Nanowrimo, I’m doing something different this time around. I’m writing the second book of my cozy paranormal mystery series and I’ve… created an outline. I’ve written the last four books without one, but found that mysteries are much harder to pants than my urban fantasy series.
So, I borrowed another author’s outline and used it to create my own. And it really works. I still get to do a lot of pantsing – just thought of a new animal character to introduce in this series – but I also have a handle on the murders, the suspects, the clues, and how we get from A to B to C.
It’s the perfect balance and all thanks to a very generous cozy mystery author who shared her template and a filled in outline for me to follow. For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward to writing. And the move. And the chaos.
Now if I could get give away my old battered green leather sofa, I’d be golden.