We All Have Days Like That

I had one of "those days" on Thursday. You know, where you're tired, you don't get a minute's peace, you have a bazillion and five things you want to do and no way of achieving them at that precise moment. And to top it all, a sore spot in your guts where you've been kicked by a rejection.

Yes, it was one of those days. I was well and truly fed up. Downward spiralling and not sure how I would ever feel any better. And then I realised the story I had drafted for a magazine that I was really pleased with would never be submitted to that magazine as the publication I intended it for didn't accept work from new writers, I developed a migraine, and all three of my children had a complete meltdown in the middle of my favourite shop. I have never seen them all like that at the same time, it was horrible; shouting, shoving, yelling all at each other but ugh!

So I vented on my social networks. They say a platform is vital to a writer, but in this case it suddenly became my safety net. On Facebook and Twitter I got instant replies from people who either felt the same or offered words of encouragement. I instantly knew, that despite those niggling suspicions, I was not alone.

One of my Facebook friends, who is a fellow Ether Writer and also coincidentally I worked with back in the 1990s said on Facebook: "Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue. This is a statue day." I have never heard this one before and it made me laugh so much. Just the thing.

Since Thursday I decided to cut down my to do list in any way I could. I have removed myself from several online sites which I never used properly but had emails from all the time (LinkedIn, to name but one). I have done a lot of thinking about the next step for my second book and then in a completely coincidental fashion a good friend and fabulous writer sent me a very encouraging email. I was almost there by myself but her words tipped me into the "I will not give up" zone.

I dragged my husband out of the house on Friday and we had lunch outside a restaurant; good food, gorgeous weather and a fantastic bit of city people-watching where I gained a few character ideas.

Then I sorted something out that I hadn't even realised was bugging me. I polished some first drafts that I had sitting around on my desktop for weeks and sent them off to their various places. And I allowed myself a bit more chat time on Twitter. 

It's funny as I feel like a different person today but I wanted to write all this down so next time I have the black clouds hanging over my head I can maybe come back and read this and get back to how I feel today more quickly.


I went out for a lovely family meal last night and during the conversation I discovered my Dad has read my book. I actually didn't think he would ever read it, so I am floating on clouds today.


So the worst kind of day to the best in only three days. That can't be bad.