Ups & Downs

Yesterday I got some reading work done and received a positive outcome on a returned assignment.

Today, my daughter is coming down with tonsillitis requiring me to stay home and look after her. I imagined spending a good few hours writing, but after getting the doctor's appointment out of the way and waiting an hour for the prescription to get filled, I turned on the laptop and the same display issues sprang up immediately.

Rather than waste another day trying to resolve the problems, I scrounged around the parts I have at home and put another computer together. After reinstalling all the apps, I'm still yet to transfer all my writing work and finish the Microsoft updates - but at this point, it seems stable and working effectively. Hence my ability to blog.

If the little one is still under the weather tomorrow, maybe I'll be able to do the assignment that was returned today with a request to resubmit. Joy.

I was once told, if I allowed negative thoughts to linger then negative things will happen in my life. Case in point: If I had said the assignments were completed and sent off and I knew they were good and likely to gain high marks, then the power of positive thinking would make it so. If I planned for possible failure then I was allowing the window of opportunity to remain open and therefore I would fail.

I cant help it, I plan for contingencies so it isn't possible for me to get caught out. In allowing extra time to complete resubmitted assignments if they were required, I allowed the forces at work to sway me into submitting a below par assignment (apparently it completely missed the target as far as requirements), which I now have to work on in the additional time I allocated. I planned for failure - so I failed.

Bullshit.

I misread the requirements; interpreted them incorrectly; went off half cocked.

Confidence and regarding the glass as half full is good. Not having a backup plan is bad.

Writers tend to be great at self-doubt. We need the reassurance of others to let us know we're not completely useless or wasting our time. We all have down times where we think negatively about our craft and our ability to use it.

If thinking negatively was a guarantee of failure, there would never have been a book written.

Writing takes work, lots of practise, and a degree of tenacity. But it also takes planning, and in that plan, you need to have contingencies. At every step: in the outline; in the writing; in the submission process; for your career.

Yet again I've rambled off on a tangent. I was intending just to let you know about my laptop and my assignment woes.

Just as well I planned to be ahead of schedule at this point of the year.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Good luck with all your writing endeavours.

BT