Been wrestling with THE NOVEL forever. I let it go a year ago, began a new one, but feedback on both novels suggest my original is working better, which I agree with but am thinking AAAAAAGH as it needs a lot of work, but also still love a lot about it too. A mixture of dread and excitement to revisit. Working up to the energy of all of this. Now is not the right time. Bit of burn out and a bit wearied. In need of hibernation, methinks.
Been having fun with Flash recently and enjoying writing for writing's sake. Realise that I beat myself up always having to produce stuff. Been very freeing recently reading flash, short stories, taking time to enjoy reading. So all this really resonates with me, to daydream, to walk and think, to listen to music and let my mind wander. Thank-you Jo. Feel freed up and also pressure has been removed from achieving some great piece of writing and if not why not!! Looking forward to a sleepy, daydreamy week. Yay!
Oh I deeply feel the AAAAAAGH mood. (Group primal scream, perhaps?) Also the mix of dread and excitement. I like that you're acknowledging that now is not the right time, though. Hopefully hibernation will let that energy recover and start to bubble up again until you're ready to re-engage with whichever novel feels *right* to continue with.
Loving the flashy joy also! Really enjoyed reading the pieces you sent me. :D More of that exploration and experimentation is always good. Happy daydreaming!
Thank you Jo. This is exactly what I need. I’m 15k words into my second novel. The first is on submission and the waiting to hear is endless, so writing the second should be a welcome distraction. Except the day job is causing a lot of stress at the moment and some health concerns so I definitely need to press PAUSE ⏸️ this week and focus on looking after me. I’m currently reading ‘Wintering’ by Katherine May so this complements that nicely. Looking forward to the coming weeks ☺️
Hi Lesley! Another writer in the query trenches (see Kate's comment above!). Good luck with it all. Jumping into the next novel is a super exciting place to be, also! Especially after all the editing and querying.
Sorry to hear life/health/work is causing stress. Sounds like some downtime is definitely needed. I hope a little hibernation helps you get some rest and recuperation so your creative brain can start gently musing on the new story...
Happy to have you on board and look forward to hearing more about your writing!
Hi Kate! Love all of this, especially the freeing feeling of letting go for a moment, and the excitement of settling into a wintry story... Would love to hear more about that. I think there's a lot to be said for following where your creative instincts lead you — just because you think you *should* be working on one thing, your inner muse might be hankering for something completely different!
Sounds like a good time to have a break from querying and switch to something different, even if it's just to catch your breath before another round. :)
My ‘wintery’ story is a YA story (was my biography; but it begged to be fictionalized to protect my heart) about a 16 yr old girl who grows up in a dysfunctional/broken home, is sent to work at a sled dog kennel by her addict/suicide prone/manic depressive mother where she finds the guy she works for is a sociopath…BUT this girl is saved by an unseen force who guides and protects her so she can save the dogs she loves, and herself. I say my ‘winter story’ because the winter makes me go inside myself, it’s a reflective time, and a time I hopefully can gently and lovingly get this story out of me, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time.
Winter definitely feels reflective for me too. And your story feels like a real journey of identity and connection and emerging from the darkness... Go gently with yourself when you're 'writing what you know'. x
Week 3? Really? Time is a-flying! And I'm still loving the prompts!
I think I'm looking for my WIP boundaries - the start, the stop, the left, the right, the up, the down. I can too easily go too far, which is fine if done strategically. I prefer to dump the contents of everything so I can see it all, then categorize and prune. I've got just about everything dumped and have begun to categorize and prune. It's how I clean house. It's how I do most everything. It's not a pretty sight and can be downright frightening, as if you've gotten so lost there's no finding home. Perseverance, though, is where the magic happens, and also where I usually ask people to leave the room. Point is: I do this a LOT in life, so I need to convince myself that I can do it with this book, too.
Extra kudos, Jo, for putting boundaries around both positivity and negativity! For balance to occur, both must be present in near and flexible equal measure. Always reminds me of how atoms work compared to free radicals. That balancing energy and adaptive ratio between protons and electrons ... it's a real life practical how-to.
I think I work in a similar way — sometimes it can seem like an absolutely indecipherable mess but there's still method in it. Just a case of chipping away in all those different ways and following where your creativity is nudging you instead of trying to impose order on it all.
Great stuff here, Jo!! My brain is churning with positive possibilities for my WIP. But I’m getting itchy to get back into it…
In the meantime, to answer your questions, what’s working well with my story I believe is the voice.
I have a new perspective now for my story, and what I’ve learned so far is to not push too hard with where I want the story to go. I’m giving my WIP a chance to tell me.
Love this! Both the itchiness and letting your story lead the way... And voice is such a strong driver for any story, isn't it? The magical puzzle piece that holds it all together — so pretty fantastic that you've already got it nailed. :)
Hi Jo (and all!) - belated posting my response to week 1...
I'm here to hibernate because I really want to be working on my novel AND on flash fiction, but I feel like I’ve been stuck for ages - maybe burnout, maybe other life stuff getting in the way… It feels good to be trying to do something about it in a way that feels gentle and might actually work for my brain. I'm hoping to get back to a place of feeling creative and actually moving forward with my writing/projects.
It feels odd to be making a deliberate choice not to try and write, but I think that is partly because I haven’t been writing much anyway, so it sort of felt like I was cheating! But it was nice to just let my mind wander and realise I had a new short story collection idea (because I needed another new project...!), and to start posting a little day-by-day advent story on Bluesky that I had inspiration for.
Hi Sarah! Lovely to see you over here. And really glad the pause has cleared some space for some new ideas to creep through... They both sound exciting - off to check your Bluesky now :D
I am going to be doing this course several weeks behind everyone else because … well, life the universe and everything. But having read this, I can’t wait to get started!
This is in the full spirit of hibernation and totally reasonable! Life, the universe and everything is a lot to be contending with and hibernation will patiently wait for you :)
Hope the next few weeks go easy. Look forward to hearing how you get on when you can make it back to cave...
Hi Jo and fellow snuggled writer folk under your scrunchy pile of leaves. Yes, you can gaze at your WIP for only so long, wondering why it hasn’t magically transformed itself into a fully fledged story yet and then you need to shut the laptop, put the pen down and walk away. I may take a peek at it tomorrow but my main aim is to declutter and fine tune it because I have added so many links to websites I need to look at for reference and so many ideas that it is now all just too - much - and needs to get more focus and honing. Will look at it tomorrow - maybe - but a belated birthday meal in Brighton Town calls first :) Happy overwintering - all. May December be a fruitful one
Happy belated birthday!! Hope you had a lovely chilled out time and stepping away from the WIP clears some space in your head.
I like the decluttering plan. Also, hibernation is the perfect time to do some browsing of all those "I'll read them later... sometime... maybe never..." links and resources.
Excited to see what new ideas and connections all this creates for you. Thanks for joining in!
I am always going to show up for bears!! 🐻 seriously I needed this and now I’m being rushed out the door to another obligation so I can’t say why I needed it yet
Glad you're here amongst the bears. On tenterhooks to find out what you're working on and why you need some hibernation time... Looking forward to hearing about your writing when you can make it back.
It made me think about the benefits of slowing down. I've placed my novel aside this year a bit to write flash and I've re-written it's outline but I've been scared to dive back into it deeply. Because the idea of re-writing the chapters in act three is intimidating.
After a few days of taking a writing break I've finally taken out a printed chapter of my novel and using my highlighters to edit.
I'm actually inspired to make the changes it needs.
Thanks for the gentle reminder to step back. I really love the idea of hibernation 😍
Hey Zeina! I know how hard you've been working on your flash also... Sounds like it was good to have a break from the novel and get some distance before tackling the big (scary) changes. And a great sign that you can identify exactly where you need to focus.
Happy hibernating. And enjoy the re-read of your draft — no rush to *do* anything yet, remember. We're in liminal space here.... ;)
I'm please to report that I've rather always considered work a joy, allowing myself to be intuitively inspired, or even letting my mind solve problems while asleep that I couldn't solve during the day. Having said that, when it comes to this new field I'm entering, that of a wannabe book author of nonfiction, I've been loaded with guilt, amongst other recriminations, whenever I find myself stuck and need to walk away. Yet ... Some things shouldn't be pushed through. I learned that to save my hide during Mercury retrogrades. And now I hope it saves my hide as a future writer. Very much looking forward to the rest of this hibernation ... course? It's my first attempt at taking myself as a writer, seriously.
Really pleased you're here, taking yourself as a writer seriously, and taking some time to pause — maybe the downtime might help you find what's going on behind all those negative feelings about your non-fic. Is it because it's for YOU and not for work? Sometimes there's a bizarre guilty 'selfishness' connected to making art. It seems inconceivable that we should be allowed to do this for no other reason than to CREATE, as if it's not just another natural human urge like anything else...
Last year, I thought I'd done it: I signed with my dream agent who told me my memoir, ten years in the making, was brilliant--and she was going to sell it!
Turns out, at least in my case, it wasn't that simple. 52 editor rejections/ghostings and 17 months later, I think it's safe to say: My book didn't sell. At the risk of sounding cliche, it broke my heart.
I've tried to stand back up and keep going--as that's what we're all expected to do, aren't we? Over and over and over again it seems. I wrote half a novel; my agent hated it (I wish I was exaggerating). I wrote the opening three chapters of a different novel; my agent's voice was on loudspeaker in my head (not in a good way) and I abandoned it. Next, I tried a short story; friends, we are on page ten with no discernable deeper meaning or end in sight. Perhaps the most painful and frustrating part of this story is that no one in my life knows quite what to say to me now. Mostly I get some variation of: "Did you know so-and-so incredibly-famous novelist had 150 rejections on their first book?" Or: "You'll feel better when you're writing again." Then of course there's the dreaded: "You just need to write another book!" Okay, I'll get right on that!
I immediately signed up for this hibernation experiment because I wanted some outside party (hey, Jo!) to give me permission to do what I've already been doing--a whole lot of nothing. Or rather, I've been doing a whole lot of angry stewing--why did this happen to me, maybe I'll never write again, I have nothing left to say, there's no point, ect., ect. I hope this class takes me out of that creative quicksand I've been sinking in for the past 17 months and puts me back on my feet. I don't need to start another book, I still don't know if or when I'll ever have that in me again. I just need help getting back in touch with whatever part of me wanted to write the damn thing in the first place--because I haven't heard from her much lately.
Oh wow, Haley, what a journey. I hope you can also see the massively positive stuff that's happened to you in amongst the (totally valid!) frustration. A lot of people don't even get near the point you're at right now, so you're clearly doing something very right with your writing. :D
And massive kudos for keeping on and writing on and fighting that quicksand. (Ohhhh, but isn't the trick to quicksand staying still and calm and pausing to let the pressure release a bit so you can slowly wiggle your way out? Hmm, there's probably a metaphor in there somewhere...)
And if this hibernation requires a bit of righteous anger and 'why me' then so be it. Take some unadulterated stewing time and get it all out. Then hopefully the clouds will clear for something new. Looking forward to hearing more about whatever comes next.
Eight years into a dystopian novel (so many rewrites), re-releasing a poetry collection (needs new material), creating a memoir for a 99 year old former Royal Navy Wren, experimenting with a nif about truth and lies from two povs, working on three non-fiction leadership books... yes, feeling a tad overwhelmed!
Also trying to build a social media following so devising lots of content and learning about the vagaries of Instagram and Bluesky.
And I don't have an off switch, so that's why I'm waving a paw in the air for a little help to hibernate.
Great to meet other folk in need of a cave and some cookies.
Wow, so just juggling a *few* projects, then?! Can identify with the 'not having an off switch' too, which is exactly why we're here. :)
I actually like having multiple WIPs to choose from, so I can match whatever mood I'm in on any given writing day, but let's definitely figure out how to reduce the overwhelm...
Glad you're here and hibernating with us and looking forward to hearing more about all of it.
Hello Jo & hibernators,
Been wrestling with THE NOVEL forever. I let it go a year ago, began a new one, but feedback on both novels suggest my original is working better, which I agree with but am thinking AAAAAAGH as it needs a lot of work, but also still love a lot about it too. A mixture of dread and excitement to revisit. Working up to the energy of all of this. Now is not the right time. Bit of burn out and a bit wearied. In need of hibernation, methinks.
Been having fun with Flash recently and enjoying writing for writing's sake. Realise that I beat myself up always having to produce stuff. Been very freeing recently reading flash, short stories, taking time to enjoy reading. So all this really resonates with me, to daydream, to walk and think, to listen to music and let my mind wander. Thank-you Jo. Feel freed up and also pressure has been removed from achieving some great piece of writing and if not why not!! Looking forward to a sleepy, daydreamy week. Yay!
Oh I deeply feel the AAAAAAGH mood. (Group primal scream, perhaps?) Also the mix of dread and excitement. I like that you're acknowledging that now is not the right time, though. Hopefully hibernation will let that energy recover and start to bubble up again until you're ready to re-engage with whichever novel feels *right* to continue with.
Loving the flashy joy also! Really enjoyed reading the pieces you sent me. :D More of that exploration and experimentation is always good. Happy daydreaming!
Thank you Jo. This is exactly what I need. I’m 15k words into my second novel. The first is on submission and the waiting to hear is endless, so writing the second should be a welcome distraction. Except the day job is causing a lot of stress at the moment and some health concerns so I definitely need to press PAUSE ⏸️ this week and focus on looking after me. I’m currently reading ‘Wintering’ by Katherine May so this complements that nicely. Looking forward to the coming weeks ☺️
Hi Lesley! Another writer in the query trenches (see Kate's comment above!). Good luck with it all. Jumping into the next novel is a super exciting place to be, also! Especially after all the editing and querying.
Sorry to hear life/health/work is causing stress. Sounds like some downtime is definitely needed. I hope a little hibernation helps you get some rest and recuperation so your creative brain can start gently musing on the new story...
Happy to have you on board and look forward to hearing more about your writing!
Hi Lesley,
'Wintering' is delightful. Have you seen the Beth Kempton seasonal retreats? The winter one refers to Katherine May's work frequently.
Hope time to pause helps with your health issues (if I could find emojis I'd add a sunflower to raise a smile).
Good Morning fellow Hibernators!!
Love this so far. I’m a natural hibernating being this time of year, so I welcome this.
*Im presently wrestling with a mg novel that I’m totally in rewriting\editing knots with!
*Love the idea of resting the creative brain right now. I spent the last 9 months querying my PB’s, so I’m feeling a bit burned out…
*Giving myself permission to let go of the constant push and pressure to create feels VERY freeing.
*What I’m feeling already is the excitement that’s building in getting back to another manuscript that’s always been my ‘winter’ story.
Thanks, Jo!!
Hi Kate! Love all of this, especially the freeing feeling of letting go for a moment, and the excitement of settling into a wintry story... Would love to hear more about that. I think there's a lot to be said for following where your creative instincts lead you — just because you think you *should* be working on one thing, your inner muse might be hankering for something completely different!
Sounds like a good time to have a break from querying and switch to something different, even if it's just to catch your breath before another round. :)
My ‘wintery’ story is a YA story (was my biography; but it begged to be fictionalized to protect my heart) about a 16 yr old girl who grows up in a dysfunctional/broken home, is sent to work at a sled dog kennel by her addict/suicide prone/manic depressive mother where she finds the guy she works for is a sociopath…BUT this girl is saved by an unseen force who guides and protects her so she can save the dogs she loves, and herself. I say my ‘winter story’ because the winter makes me go inside myself, it’s a reflective time, and a time I hopefully can gently and lovingly get this story out of me, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time.
Winter definitely feels reflective for me too. And your story feels like a real journey of identity and connection and emerging from the darkness... Go gently with yourself when you're 'writing what you know'. x
Thanks, Jo. I’m relishing this hibernation time to see the bigger picture, go slow, and be gentle.
Week 3? Really? Time is a-flying! And I'm still loving the prompts!
I think I'm looking for my WIP boundaries - the start, the stop, the left, the right, the up, the down. I can too easily go too far, which is fine if done strategically. I prefer to dump the contents of everything so I can see it all, then categorize and prune. I've got just about everything dumped and have begun to categorize and prune. It's how I clean house. It's how I do most everything. It's not a pretty sight and can be downright frightening, as if you've gotten so lost there's no finding home. Perseverance, though, is where the magic happens, and also where I usually ask people to leave the room. Point is: I do this a LOT in life, so I need to convince myself that I can do it with this book, too.
Extra kudos, Jo, for putting boundaries around both positivity and negativity! For balance to occur, both must be present in near and flexible equal measure. Always reminds me of how atoms work compared to free radicals. That balancing energy and adaptive ratio between protons and electrons ... it's a real life practical how-to.
So much good stuff in your approach here:
- setting boundaries
- categorising
- pruning
- persevering
Slowly (and gently) corralling the chaos... ;)
I think I work in a similar way — sometimes it can seem like an absolutely indecipherable mess but there's still method in it. Just a case of chipping away in all those different ways and following where your creativity is nudging you instead of trying to impose order on it all.
Good luck!
Hello Hibernators,
Great stuff here, Jo!! My brain is churning with positive possibilities for my WIP. But I’m getting itchy to get back into it…
In the meantime, to answer your questions, what’s working well with my story I believe is the voice.
I have a new perspective now for my story, and what I’ve learned so far is to not push too hard with where I want the story to go. I’m giving my WIP a chance to tell me.
Love this! Both the itchiness and letting your story lead the way... And voice is such a strong driver for any story, isn't it? The magical puzzle piece that holds it all together — so pretty fantastic that you've already got it nailed. :)
Thanks, Jo!! It’s a journey, things can always shift and change…
Hi Jo (and all!) - belated posting my response to week 1...
I'm here to hibernate because I really want to be working on my novel AND on flash fiction, but I feel like I’ve been stuck for ages - maybe burnout, maybe other life stuff getting in the way… It feels good to be trying to do something about it in a way that feels gentle and might actually work for my brain. I'm hoping to get back to a place of feeling creative and actually moving forward with my writing/projects.
It feels odd to be making a deliberate choice not to try and write, but I think that is partly because I haven’t been writing much anyway, so it sort of felt like I was cheating! But it was nice to just let my mind wander and realise I had a new short story collection idea (because I needed another new project...!), and to start posting a little day-by-day advent story on Bluesky that I had inspiration for.
Hi Sarah! Lovely to see you over here. And really glad the pause has cleared some space for some new ideas to creep through... They both sound exciting - off to check your Bluesky now :D
I am going to be doing this course several weeks behind everyone else because … well, life the universe and everything. But having read this, I can’t wait to get started!
This is in the full spirit of hibernation and totally reasonable! Life, the universe and everything is a lot to be contending with and hibernation will patiently wait for you :)
Hope the next few weeks go easy. Look forward to hearing how you get on when you can make it back to cave...
Hi Jo and fellow snuggled writer folk under your scrunchy pile of leaves. Yes, you can gaze at your WIP for only so long, wondering why it hasn’t magically transformed itself into a fully fledged story yet and then you need to shut the laptop, put the pen down and walk away. I may take a peek at it tomorrow but my main aim is to declutter and fine tune it because I have added so many links to websites I need to look at for reference and so many ideas that it is now all just too - much - and needs to get more focus and honing. Will look at it tomorrow - maybe - but a belated birthday meal in Brighton Town calls first :) Happy overwintering - all. May December be a fruitful one
Happy belated birthday!! Hope you had a lovely chilled out time and stepping away from the WIP clears some space in your head.
I like the decluttering plan. Also, hibernation is the perfect time to do some browsing of all those "I'll read them later... sometime... maybe never..." links and resources.
Excited to see what new ideas and connections all this creates for you. Thanks for joining in!
I am always going to show up for bears!! 🐻 seriously I needed this and now I’m being rushed out the door to another obligation so I can’t say why I needed it yet
Glad you're here amongst the bears. On tenterhooks to find out what you're working on and why you need some hibernation time... Looking forward to hearing about your writing when you can make it back.
This is such a joy to read.
It made me think about the benefits of slowing down. I've placed my novel aside this year a bit to write flash and I've re-written it's outline but I've been scared to dive back into it deeply. Because the idea of re-writing the chapters in act three is intimidating.
After a few days of taking a writing break I've finally taken out a printed chapter of my novel and using my highlighters to edit.
I'm actually inspired to make the changes it needs.
Thanks for the gentle reminder to step back. I really love the idea of hibernation 😍
Tiny steps 🙌🏻
Hey Zeina! I know how hard you've been working on your flash also... Sounds like it was good to have a break from the novel and get some distance before tackling the big (scary) changes. And a great sign that you can identify exactly where you need to focus.
Happy hibernating. And enjoy the re-read of your draft — no rush to *do* anything yet, remember. We're in liminal space here.... ;)
True! No rush, just re-arranging things and jotting down ideas about what needs to change.
It's making me enjoy the process more.
I'm please to report that I've rather always considered work a joy, allowing myself to be intuitively inspired, or even letting my mind solve problems while asleep that I couldn't solve during the day. Having said that, when it comes to this new field I'm entering, that of a wannabe book author of nonfiction, I've been loaded with guilt, amongst other recriminations, whenever I find myself stuck and need to walk away. Yet ... Some things shouldn't be pushed through. I learned that to save my hide during Mercury retrogrades. And now I hope it saves my hide as a future writer. Very much looking forward to the rest of this hibernation ... course? It's my first attempt at taking myself as a writer, seriously.
"Some things shouldn't be pushed through" — AMEN!
Really pleased you're here, taking yourself as a writer seriously, and taking some time to pause — maybe the downtime might help you find what's going on behind all those negative feelings about your non-fic. Is it because it's for YOU and not for work? Sometimes there's a bizarre guilty 'selfishness' connected to making art. It seems inconceivable that we should be allowed to do this for no other reason than to CREATE, as if it's not just another natural human urge like anything else...
Dear fellow burnt out writers,
Last year, I thought I'd done it: I signed with my dream agent who told me my memoir, ten years in the making, was brilliant--and she was going to sell it!
Turns out, at least in my case, it wasn't that simple. 52 editor rejections/ghostings and 17 months later, I think it's safe to say: My book didn't sell. At the risk of sounding cliche, it broke my heart.
I've tried to stand back up and keep going--as that's what we're all expected to do, aren't we? Over and over and over again it seems. I wrote half a novel; my agent hated it (I wish I was exaggerating). I wrote the opening three chapters of a different novel; my agent's voice was on loudspeaker in my head (not in a good way) and I abandoned it. Next, I tried a short story; friends, we are on page ten with no discernable deeper meaning or end in sight. Perhaps the most painful and frustrating part of this story is that no one in my life knows quite what to say to me now. Mostly I get some variation of: "Did you know so-and-so incredibly-famous novelist had 150 rejections on their first book?" Or: "You'll feel better when you're writing again." Then of course there's the dreaded: "You just need to write another book!" Okay, I'll get right on that!
I immediately signed up for this hibernation experiment because I wanted some outside party (hey, Jo!) to give me permission to do what I've already been doing--a whole lot of nothing. Or rather, I've been doing a whole lot of angry stewing--why did this happen to me, maybe I'll never write again, I have nothing left to say, there's no point, ect., ect. I hope this class takes me out of that creative quicksand I've been sinking in for the past 17 months and puts me back on my feet. I don't need to start another book, I still don't know if or when I'll ever have that in me again. I just need help getting back in touch with whatever part of me wanted to write the damn thing in the first place--because I haven't heard from her much lately.
Here's to fighting the quicksand, at least,
H
Oh wow, Haley, what a journey. I hope you can also see the massively positive stuff that's happened to you in amongst the (totally valid!) frustration. A lot of people don't even get near the point you're at right now, so you're clearly doing something very right with your writing. :D
And massive kudos for keeping on and writing on and fighting that quicksand. (Ohhhh, but isn't the trick to quicksand staying still and calm and pausing to let the pressure release a bit so you can slowly wiggle your way out? Hmm, there's probably a metaphor in there somewhere...)
And if this hibernation requires a bit of righteous anger and 'why me' then so be it. Take some unadulterated stewing time and get it all out. Then hopefully the clouds will clear for something new. Looking forward to hearing more about whatever comes next.
Thanks, Jo! Loveeeee how you ran with the quicksand--because you're so right :)
Hello to the Hibernation Nation :-)
Eight years into a dystopian novel (so many rewrites), re-releasing a poetry collection (needs new material), creating a memoir for a 99 year old former Royal Navy Wren, experimenting with a nif about truth and lies from two povs, working on three non-fiction leadership books... yes, feeling a tad overwhelmed!
Also trying to build a social media following so devising lots of content and learning about the vagaries of Instagram and Bluesky.
And I don't have an off switch, so that's why I'm waving a paw in the air for a little help to hibernate.
Great to meet other folk in need of a cave and some cookies.
Hibernation Nation! Love it!
Wow, so just juggling a *few* projects, then?! Can identify with the 'not having an off switch' too, which is exactly why we're here. :)
I actually like having multiple WIPs to choose from, so I can match whatever mood I'm in on any given writing day, but let's definitely figure out how to reduce the overwhelm...
Glad you're here and hibernating with us and looking forward to hearing more about all of it.
You would be my new favourite human if you could sort out the overwhelm...
Looking forward to some creative juggling with you :-)