Beyond 30: The Next Chapters

Life has been good lately.  Over the past few weeks, I've come quite naturally into a routine of getting up early, hitting the gym with Casey Sue, coming home to work, and spending the rest of my free time in the space of self-care and personal development. It has been revitalizing.  There are days that I feel lost in the "what ifs" of my future, of how this project could ultimately fall apart and I'll dive headfirst back into a pit of self-loathing after long and seemingly futile attempts at fixing myself but, over the past few weeks, those moments have been fewer and further between. Though I don't wish to lay claim that working out has made an immediate and noticeable improvement in my life, the benefits seem to be overshadowing any doubts I have. Lately, I wake up and I want to be doing things. I look forward to feeling good in my body by exercising and I look forward to coming home to tell a story, even if the process is at times arduous and emotionally drain

The funny thing about writing is that sometimes you'll write out pages and pages of work in an attempt at crafting something beautiful or you know... well written... and end up scrapping the entire thing.  Last week, on my birthday I wrote out a blog that talked about Tom and I catching covid over the holidays, my guilt at not having done any work for three weeks while we were both sick, the feeling of imposter syndrome as I've been working on getting back into the "swing of things", and all manner of updating you about the book in addition to my weight loss progress.  And I scrapped all of it.  Over the last few months, I've taken half a dozen workshops, participated in writers groups and critique groups, and I've learned a lot. Though it is certainly the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I believe I will learn over the next year about the craft of writing a novel, there are things I've gleaned so far.  One is that sometimes you just have to know when t