I’ve always loved writing resolutions. However, the word “resolution” has such a negative connotation these days that I’ve joined the Word of the Year and Yearly Challenge clubs.
First, my word for the year: Reset
I’ve been struggling with adrenal fatigue for at least six years now and probably longer. I’m a morning person and working as a night shift nurse in consistently high-stress jobs for years helped my bank account but hurt my health. I powered through my master’s degree with ADHD meds and caffeine, but after all was said and done, no amount of stimulants can relieve the brain fog and fatigue. I’ve taken some steps to improve my health and it’s gotten better, but there are still many days when I just don’t have the energy, motivation, or brainpower to do much more than take care of my horse, myself, and the laundry. This is the big reason that I haven’t been able to finish my fourth book in a timely fashion, but in 2022 I aim to lick this thing once and for all and GET SHIT DONE. 😀
The basic steps to “curing” adrenal fatigue are sleep, diet, no caffeine, and stress reduction. I am not working a paying job (my husband has encouraged me to stay home!) and my granddaughter is going back to public school next week (woohoo!), so those sources of stress have been eliminated. I’ve cut down to 1/3 caf coffee and should be caffeine-free by the end of next week. I’m pretty good with sleep, i.e., I’m in the bed for at least 8 hours on most nights. I do tend to stay up late on the nights we play Dungeons & Dragons, so I’ll have to make sure we start and end on time, no matter how much fun I’m having. #adulting. I have IBS, which may have led to leaky gut, which can lead to adrenal fatigue because it causes physical stress on the body, so I’m cleaning up my diet for the next 12 weeks. It won’t be fixed in 12 weeks, but it’ll be better.
The hard part about choosing 22 goals for the year is being realistic about how much I can actually accomplish while also resting and not stressing out over any of it. So I’ve made “fix adrenal fatigue” one item and created a separate project list, most of which is hobby and art stuff. So here it is:
- Read Traveler, Warrior, and Druid and make notes. Need to make sure I wrap up all the plot threads. I will probably do this before continuing to edit Chosen, but I feel it is necessary.
- Finish editing Chosen and publish (this encompasses several steps but it’s still just one). BTW, I’ve scheduled time for this: 1230-1530 Monday through Friday. Fifteen hours a week doesn’t sound like much, but I wrote my first book (not about druids) in 7 months by writing for only four hours, three days a week. It was over 300 pages.
- Proofread, re-edit, & republish Traveler
- Proofread, re-edit, & republish Warrior
- Proofread, re-edit, & republish Druid
- Start writing the adventures of our D&D characters and publish as a serial (I honestly didn’t expect it to be such a good story, but it is. Hopefully my daughter -who is also an author- will write her own character’s parts). I’ll post chapters here and in places like Scriggler and Wattpad. I’ve been doing some art related to the campaign, so will be posting that on IG with publication notifications. I might get the first chapter out as early as tomorrow.
- Have all the book covers redesigned. Angie and Davis are both persons of color and the cover doesn’t reflect that. This was a bad choice on my part and needs to be rectified. Finances are limited, though (because I don’t have a paying job), so I’m researching options.
- Update all social media sites to reflect my chosen author name. I’ve always hated both my first and middle names, am seriously thinking of having them legally changed, and I love my nursing nickname “JDunn.” So that’s what I’m going with.
- Write on this blog weekly (at least). Blogging is hard because I’ll think of things to say and then not write them because I think nobody cares. However, I care, so I’m going to get over it and just do it.
- Update the Druid Chronicles website. I’ll have to hire someone because my coding skills are archaic and it’s time-consuming. I do have someone in mind who is very good and can help with social media. I write because I love it but it would be really nice to have some income from it.
- Read 30-60 minutes every night. As Stephen King has said, one cannot be a great writer without being a great reader. This is the other big reason I haven’t been doing well at writing. I haven’t allowed myself to read. I love reading. It has been a lifelong passion, so I don’t know why I quit, but I will allow myself that intense source of pleasure once more.
- Buy an Apple Pencil and start using the how-to drawing bundle I bought from StackSocial months ago. I loved comic books when I was a kid and used to draw my own characters and imaginings. I also drew lots of horses. So many horses. SO. MANY. I also think that the D&D campaign would also make a great web comic. I’m subscribed to a few comics on WebToons and love them so much. However, my drawing skills aren’t up to that level and I need to learn to use digital art programs. I’d also like to make drawings of my beloved druid characters and scenes from the books. They might also make a good web comic (see what I mean about being realistic with this list?
- Fix the adrenal fatigue.
- Work out with the MindPump MAPS Anywhere and MAPS Prime programs to get stronger and more flexible. Y’all, I’m tired of feeling old and weak. My husband is an athlete who is in great shape, and I want to be able to keep up with him. I don’t want our future fun to be limited by an old, broken-down body.
- Pick up longsword training and archery again. I dabbled in both several years ago and both my training sword and my son’s little recurve bow are is sitting around collecting dust. Okay, so the bow and quiver are actually hanging as decorations in the D&D dining room, but I want to do mounted archery at some point.
- Take weekly riding lessons. I haven’t been riding enough and I need to ride a solidly trained horse to help me regain my confidence (and build my muscles) so I can ride my own horse.
- Move my horse to a new barn. I’ve been thinking of doing this anyway because Peregrine seems so fearful of the arena at our current barn. I love our barn owner and didn’t want to hurt his feelings by leaving (sue me, I’m a loyal person). Just before Christmas, however, he told me he’s selling his farm, so now I’m free to go and can probably even ask him to transport Peregrine for me.
- Use the Organize 365 program to declutter the house and get organized. I bought it last year and still haven’t made good use of it. My house is a fucking disaster (except for the living and dining rooms, which we renovated and I have somehow managed to maintain). We decluttered a bunch of junk from the basement in 2020 but there’s still a lot more. Our house doesn’t have much storage and I have pack rat tendencies, so I will be cleaning house big time. Having less stuff to take care of will help me greatly in focusing on the important things.
- Hire an electrician to re-wire the house. Seriously, this house was wired by either the cheapest or most insane electrician the builder could find. The breaker box is in the master bedroom. Who does that??? We cannot change out light switches because then they don’t work anymore, and changing out light switches isn’t rocket science. Half the electrical sockets in the house don’t work, and none of the outside sockets work. The garage doors are stuck open. It’s fucking ridiculous.
- Finish reorganizing and redecorating the basement. Frame the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings posters and hang. Donate the extra books. Get a non-slip pad for the rug. Murder whoever keeps leaving empty soda boxes on the floor instead of throwing them away.
- Get wall mounts for our new lightsabers (omg they’re so amazing, Savi’s Workshop was the best experience ever). Edit: found out what kind to get on Reddit and ordered some. Can’t wait to hang them!
- Scan all printed photographs and 35mm negatives (yes, I still have those and most are 30 years old). Send my old external hard drive to recover the digital pictures on it (finances permitting).
I’m going to go read Traveler now. Happy New Year!
the scriptorium of author J. Dunn 