Being Sidetracked Isn't ALWAYS Bad: IWSG & ROW80

It's the first Wednesday of the month and time for my Insecure Writer's Support Group post. A huge thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for putting together this group. I appreciate the opportunity to share my insecurities on the #IWSG therapy couch and to read how others are doing.

Last month, I discussed my need to take life One Page at a Time. An excerpt:

Looking back on 2012, I can best describe it as wildly fluctuating. I'd have stellar months of focus and achievement followed by days (okay, weeks) of complete withdrawal. I was like a small puppy, either full steam ahead or collapsed in a corner.

Well, January was all about being collapsed in a corner. 

Thanks to the flu, which led to pneumonia, I was out for the count. The bright side: it forced me, and my body, to rest.

I turned 40 last August. Ever since, I've been a bit obsessed with discovery--I'd say finding myself, but that sounds like something you do after high school, while you are trying to decide what you want to be. I know the kind of person I want to be, but I'm finding out new things about myself every day.

I started February wanting nothing more than to get back on my feet and start moving forward. Okay, I wanted to go from zero to hero overnight and start accomplishing goals left and right... back to puppy mode.

Then, Sunday, my mom called and told me about a short story competition in her area. The deadline: Tuesday. All my goals went out the window, as I frantically edited some pieces I had been working on. Finally, at noon yesterday, I submitted two short stories in the young adult category. It felt good, even though I was staring at a pile of neglected work.

The moral of the story: sometime being sidetracked is good. Pneumonia = forced rest. Unexpected short story competition = forced writing / editing. Come close for a secret... I had never submitted to a young adult competition, and this is my new writing genre of choice. 

Has being sidetracked ever worked to your favor?

2013 is shaping up to be quite a year. Hope I'm up for the ride.

Wednesdays are also A Round of Words in 80 Days check-ins. Mine:

WRITING
Spend an hour a day writing/planning the Depression Cookies follow-up. ST
For this week: Back to goal!

Deep edits and "filling holes" work on Chasing Memories (my NaNo project). I promised to get the Prologue and first chapter to my hopeful-editor. (She rocks! Once she's my official editor, I will share. Heck, I'll shout it from the rooftops.) ST For this week: Back to goal!

EDITING
Finish the second edit and send it off to my client. ✓

BLOGGING
Sign up for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. ✓ If you want to join me, check out the rules and sign-up here. The idea: Post an alphabet-themed post according to the schedule.

For February and March, my goal is to get back to a Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri blogging schedule. -- D = For some reason I'm finding the Sunday/Monday turnaround is not working for me. So I've decided to do my ROW80 updates on Monday and Wednesday, and then blog M/W/F. (well, until April!) 

ST = Sidetracked
D = Discovery

I hope everyone is discovering positive ways to get sidetracked this month. Please visit some of my great writing friends at ROW80 and IWSG!

"Seeing" Things Differently

Funny how 40 makes you "see" things differently. Some of these clearer visions are welcomed. Some, however, are not.

I am fighting the inevitable need for reading glasses. All my girlfriends told me it would happen, and I chose not to believe. Then, I turned 40. Suddenly, I'm making the views bigger on Word and Blogger.

So imagine my glee when I started using Safari and I noticed the eyeglass symbol in the upper lefthand corner of my menu bar. Finally, an easier way to make my screen bigger so I could see it easier. 

Right?

Wrong!

It's the symbol for Reading List... a place where you can collect webpages and links to read later. Sounds wonderful. When I was in my 20s, even in my 30s, I never would have looked at that symbol and thought, "Yeah! Reading glasses."

And thus is part of my adventure into discovery.

Every day I realize how much my view of things changes, but I think in some ways I am seeing things clearer.

Oh, and for those of you that don't use Safari and can't see the small symbol above...

There it is --------------------->

I'm sure it's a pretty cool tool, and I intend to check it out, but I wanted to save all my 40-something friends from getting excited that it was a simple way to make your computer words clearer.

Now, you may go about your regular days.

Happy Thursday!