Monday, July 26, 2010

Celebrate Monday

Happy Monday everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend. It’s time once again as we start a new week to celebrate ourselves. Tell us about something good that happened to you. Something that made you happy. Something that you did that made you feel good.

It doesn’t have to be big news or anything earth shattering. Small is good, too.

So in that vein, what I want to celebrate this Monday is some great advice I read over the weekend. Given the roller coaster ride not only of real life, but of the writing process and the journey to publication, it should come as no surprise to anyone that some pretty negative emotions can surface along the way. James Scott Bell over at The Kill Zone has a great post here about envy and what writers can do to mitigate its devastating effects. Check it out and tell me: Does envy make you miserable? How do you cope with it?

And on a happier note, what is going on with you? What’s making you happy and/or going well in your life? Share it with us and celebrate yourselves.

14 comments:

  1. Envy does kill me but I try and maintain the attitude that I am good enough too.

    Happy for me was putting a whole chunk of nice change on my WIP. I'm at 50K now and ready to plow ahead to the end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Envy gets me writing. I try to use it in a constructive way.

    Happy Monday! I'm celebrating that there's only one more week of my teaching at the summer camp.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I try not to let envy get to me. Like Aubie, I try to use it constructively in my writing. Is there sometime specific that I'm envious about (I'm refer to the actual writing and not that the writer landed an agent and book contract in one week), and how can I do the same to my writing? If I'm lucky, I can answer that question.

    I'm happy that I'm going to the SCBWI LA conference this week. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't have much envy. I do love me some awesome writers, but it only pushes me to be that much more inspired to write. (Most of the time).

    I celebrate that after this weekend, Kristen and I have finally posted our first vlog. Scary, I know. And it only took 29 hours to put together, but hey, who's counting?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Envy is a hard one. I'll definitely check out that post!

    I ordered a huge box of Cinders to be shipped to me for my release party later in August. I'm pretty excited. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Surprisingly, I'm not envious of bloggie/Twitter friends when they get agents, publishing deals, etc. We are in this together. I love the idea of knowing people who are/will be published. It's the bookworm in me. :) If I did this as a sole source of income then it would be a whole different story though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Envy KILLS me. I agonise over it. I don't want to be envious... but I am. Argh!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I recently learned someone very close to me believes I'm envious of her. It's the most hurtful thing, to know she sees me through such distorted perception. Envy is an energy drainer.

    On a happy note...*sigh* ...oh, I know! School starts back up next week, which means although my awesome kids won't be around during the day -- and I'll miss them! -- I will have my writing time back. That will definitely make me a happier person!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't envy...pretty much anything. As for this weekend, we finally got out house together except for major renovations. We also received an antique hutch from my husband's grandmother, which will help a great deal with storage. Tired, but happy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I do struggle with envy a bit, but I realized a while back pretty much what James Scott Bell said in his post, that other people's success has nothing to do with me, it's not like their success is going to sabotage mine. And I pray, also like he suggested.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, since some of my writer friends (ok, all of them) are VERY GOOD WRITERS, yes, I do suffer from writer's envy.

    So I overcome it by being proud of and happy for my buddies, and being thankful that they're still my buddies.

    On a different note, I'm celebrating the beginning of a two week vacation that I hope will prove to be productive on a few fronts, not the least of which is writing something.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I try not get envious but I'm not friends with anyone who is super successful... yet. If I think someone is a good writer, then I can't help but be happy for them. But at the same time, I'd like it to be me too.

    Talli's attitude made me laugh. I can learn a lesson from Aubrie's comment.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I don't know if envy kills more than comparing myself to others. I hate it when I do that to myself because I am not that person and it's not fair to think I'm better or worse off than another. Bad vibes! And I need to get over that trait of mine.

    Good things going on? Our neighborhood is experiencing flooding and it's amazing to see the community band together to help those in need. There truly are some good people out there!

    ReplyDelete