I appreciate that post! I've never really been able to stick to a consistent "gratitude" practice, although I do have a regular meditation practice. Self-compassion works better for me, and the word appreciation does capture something that gratitude, for me, doesn't. There's something about the word gratitude that implies a kind of reciprocity I don't like - there's a "should" implied there that I don't hear in "appreciate", if that makes any sense. And, maybe this gets to it more, the idea that I should be grateful for the thing that is causing suffering...nah. Not while i'm still in the middle of the suffering, as you point. I can be grateful and/or appreciative of other things, things that are not tied in any way to the suffering, but it's "at least you still have x while you're dealing with y" that bugs me - that "at least" implies "and that's all that you deserve and quit whining".

I am a Scrivener user but agreed the learning curve is steep. I wrote a novel some years back and found it incredibly helpful at the revising stage in particular, because my first draft was ROUGH ROUGH ROUGH and I needed to keep track of lots of different things to clean it up. My other favourite writing tool that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is the Pomodoro method. I like setting a timer to write -10 minutes for a morning journal session, 20 to get into the mood or just feel like I'm writing again, and 30-40 if I'm really going for a session. I'll use the 10 minute breaks to stretch, have a dance break, and sometimes play a iphone game or even peek at Instagram (although that's a dangerous one to do too often). Also a fan of internet blocking/app blocking on the timer - I use the Freedom app for that.

I don't usually share until I have a complete draft that I've done at last one revision of, and I am VERY careful (from hard experience) about who I share it with - I no longer share with friends who are not also writers - they'll only see the thing once I consider it "done", and I'll tell them "I'm happy to hear what you thought, but I'm not really looking for comments, and you're not obliged to tell me anything!" For folks I actually want comments from - either other writers or folks I know will provide thoughtful feedback - I'll still only share something once it's at least a complete-ish draft that I've tidied up a little. There's one exception, although I haven't done this in a long time - if I have an actual writing partner and we're both working on separate projects, and we decide to share the work in progress for accountability. This worked so well for me - we weren't actually commenting in any detail, just had an agreement to send x words to each other on Sunday night and read those words and cheer each other on. that really helped me stay on track!

Hello everyone! I'm Loretta, pronouns are she/her. I live in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. I found this lovely place after hearing Esme on one of my favourite podcasts, You are Good, and wanting to know more about her stuff! I have written both fiction and creative non-fiction, and am struggling to do either these days beyond journaling/10 min writing sessions every once in a while. I'm hoping to connect with other writers and reconnect with my own writing practice. I think I want to write about: being fat and queer and default single/maybe ace? /maybe aro?, and fitting that together with family history and life history and other murky shapes I haven't yet pinned down.