It’s the first Wednesday of the first month in 2026, so it must be time for some IWSG! Sign up for the group yourself if you are so inclined by clicking over to their form. The group can also be found somewhere in that deadly maelstrom known as Social Media by searching #IWSG or @TheIWSG
We owe our co-hosting thanks this month to Shannon Lawrence, Olga Godim, Jean Davis, and Jacqui Murray! Give them a clicky-click and a comment to express your gratitude.
And the totally optional question to answer for the group this month: Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn’t get done in 2025?
It’s too early in the year to be getting called out like this, IWSG.
OF COURSE there are plenty of things in my writing plans for 2026. Were they also in my writing plans for 2025? (And 2024? AND 2023?) Yes. Yes, and yes. Could all of them have gotten done in 2025? (And 2024? And 2023?) YES. Did they get done? Nope. Sure didn’t. Did I make even a token attempt at accomplishing any of them? NO
The brutal fact of the last few years is that I went back to work full time in 2021 and chose a high-stress, highly involved career in special education. I wrote ahead of time and tried to save up a bulwark of projects knowing that I would probably be too overwhelmed the first year to write much. What I didn’t anticipate was how overwhelmed, or how wrung-out I would actually be. For the IWSG and ONLY the IWSG I managed to write a monthly post. Everything else got left far, far in the rear view mirror and I ignored every desperate thumbs-up for a ride from my muse. That bitch is barely cooperative on the best day, anyway. She can wait a while.
Yes, I know the advice out there says to make time, find a few minutes wherever you can even if that means getting up early. I’ve read the advice. I’ve also ignored the crap out of it.
Writing hasn’t been my priority for several years now. A bit like writer’s block, but also a bit like being an exhausted, over-used dishtowel at the end of the day. It felt like all of my wits, creativity, inspiration, ideas, and imagination were going towards surviving each day in a classroom with 20 four-year-olds, half of which have high impact special needs. A lot of those needs include being anywhere other than the classroom, at high speeds. Believe me, it takes everything you have just to get most of them engaged for the day and not wandering around making up their own entertainment. Anyone who has any experience with autism knows that if you don’t have plans A-F lined up and ready, they will find their own way to keep busy and you will wish you’d had more activities to pull out of your deck of plans for the day. Get through that, and you have four more days left in the week which will be similarly interesting.
My goal for 2026 is to carve back a little of that writing time. After 5 years in the classroom I’m finally finding my sea legs a bit, and I’m not too exhausted to function at the end of the day. I miss using my imagination for something other than survival. I miss bringing my stories to life. I’m ready to start doing that again. I’m not sure what that will look like, but I’d like to get back into the habit of putting some words down on a page. We will start gently with a monthly intention to write. Not even a word count goal, just a habit forming goal. 2026 is going to be the year SE gets her writing groove back.
8 comments
Don’t burn yourself out. If you don’t take care of yourself, no one will. So seek things that make you happy, and / or recharge you and let the rest go until you’re sorted.
It will always be there when you’re ready. 🙂
That’s a very healthy attitude to have about it! Thank you so much.
I also used to work in a high-stress job as a lawyer and had little time to write. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s smart not to quit your day job, and you’re doing such good work. Some authors I’ve interviewed have full-time jobs too and have to carve out 30 minutes at a time, yet still manage to write books. Just set short goals that you can meet for now.
Definitely a stressful job. Short, manageable chunks of time are the goal for 2026. We’ll see how it goes!
I imagine that job would be beyond exhausting! I be it’s like herding cats all day.
Very much like, yes. LOL!
Goals change, in unexpected ways…
Youngest member of our family – aged four, is now under assessment for autism, and
we all have so much to learn.
Anywhere other than the classroom ? Thanks for such athoughtful post,.
Best wishes on your assessment. May it bring peace, answers, and knowledge to the family as a whole. The students I work with have some of the most amazing, unique ways of looking at everything around us. They see the world so differently, it’s a joy to be included in even a part of what they see. It sounds cliche, but they really do teach me something new every day.