Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Insecure Writer's Support Group

WORD FOR THIS POST:

Lethargic (adj): 1. of, pertaining to, or affected with lethargy;  drowsy; sluggish.

Before moving to an insecurity I discovered a few minutes ago, just a quick note to say that the Giveaway or 5 signed copies of "Two Halves" begins today and runs until Feb 10th. Fill in the form on the sidebar to enter and/or see full details above (or click here). 

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Purpose of Insecure Writer's Support Group: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

We post on the first Wednesday each month and if you'd like to join, you can do so here.
 
Yes, you heard me correctly at the beginning of the post. I discovered a new insecurity a few minutes ago. I know this post will not be published until Wednesday morning, but I'm sitting here, on Tuesday night when I should be sleeping. 

Why? 

Because my memory is failing and I think it may be first of the many signs of Alzheimer's (yes, there is family history of the disease which makes it even scarier). It was only Monday that I posted the activities for February and one of them included the first Wednesday of the month. Well, here I am on Tuesday evening, finishing a nice shower, getting ready to put on my PJs and hop into my overcrowded bed (kids like to fall asleep there). 

Then, it hits me: the first Wednesday of the month is tomorrow! Now, don't get me wrong, I like blogging. I love writing and hearing the clicking of the keyboard under my fingers. There's nothing better than connecting with others in the blogosphere to hear their stories, share accomplishments and sometimes failures. But when I realized I could have done this earlier in the day because I had time (which does not happen often), it bothers me that I didn't. 

I feel better now, the clicking has soothed my own annoyance. But the insecurity of forgetting something within a few hours of planning it, is awful.

In fact, sometimes that's my greatest fear - forgetting to pick up the kids from school, or failing to put on shirt after changing in a fitting room of a boutique (wait, that actually happened, but I'm not sharing more than this-for now).

A failing memory is not pleasant, and speaking from a writer's perspective without undermining the disease, it's an insecurity I'm dealing with this month. There are so many plots, characters, descriptions, settings, etc we need to remember while writing, that...

... wait, what was I saying? 

12 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's a huge fear to live with, on top of the fact that yeah, we sometimes flake and forget things. My list for the next month is so huge I'm really paranoid I'll forget something.

Michelle Wallace said...

I think that we're all headed down that path of forgetfulness at some stage or the other...
I read somewhere that you should de-clutter/do a mental spring cleaning from time to time because we are bombarded with information from the internet/social networking etc. and suffer from info overload.

Arlee Bird said...

I think about this same thing. I am often very forgetful. Then again, I am inattentive and don't register sometimes. Someone will introduce themselves and I will quickly forget what their name was. I often start to do something and then forget what I was going to do. Thinking of too much I guess. Why did you have to remind me about this--I had forgotten all about it.

Lee
Wrote By Rote

Tasha Seegmiller said...

This is the reason that I sat down and wrote a detailed outline of what I wanted to have happen in the story with changes I needed to add because there was just too much for me to remember on my own.

Annalisa Crawford said...

If it makes you feel better, the following happened to me earlier:

I told hubby we needed to shop for new shoes for my son after school. He said okay. An hour later, I mentioned it again, saying we could also fit in another errand, and he had no idea what I was talking about. When I picked up my son, we kept our coats on, and he'd forgotten again.

Sometimes things just don't stick!

M Pax said...

When I first started getting forgetful, I feared that, too. I was relieved to find out I'm normal.

If you ever want to do a guest post to help promote your new book, let me know :)

Ciara said...

I failed a blogger this week. Yep, I missed something and really let her down. I felt terrible. I'm hoping to make it up to her on Friday. If anyone reads this comment, stop by my blog Friday to say hi to my guest. Let's show her all the love we can. *bows head in shame*

PT Dilloway said...

What I always find funny is I can forget where I put my keys or what month it is but I can remember an episode of "Superfriends" I haven't watched in 25 years. Memory seems to have no priority.

Callie Leuck said...

I find myself forgetting things all the time. I'm terrible at multitasking. If I don't do something IMMEDIATELY, I've completely forgotten about it 5 minutes later. I've discovered I have to just write things down and track them and get in the habit of checking my lists. It's actually much less pressure on me because I don't worry so much about if I've forgotten -- I just check the list.

Nancy said...

The more you have to do, the more you will forget. That is a trueism from my life. As for the Alzheimer's thing. In National Geographic last month (I think)there was an article abut identical twins. In one of the sets of twins, one had Alzheimers and the other didn't which calls into question the whole genetic thing (it's in my family too). So maybe you can remember that (HA!) as a small comfort. If not you can always come back here and read it again.

Marta Szemik said...

Thank you for all the support and thoughtful words:)

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

I get like that some times. When I get tired my brain stops functioning and I can barely string two sentences together. That's when I have a nanna nap...or the opposite--I'll go for a brisk walk. It's a worry though. I wonder what I'll be like when I get older...