Writing Group of a Sunday

Yesterday started off with Writing Group. We're having it on Sundays for a while as Mimi has a temporary day-job. I brought the re-write of "Love for Real" and two new fragments about a character called Audra Phipps. They argued over which one they liked better, between the two fragments, and weren't sure if I could incorporate the two together or not. The two pieces are in very different styles. So I don't know. Maybe I could find a way to work them both into the same manuscript. That wasn't my intention, I just wanted to see which beginning they liked better. There was also a dispute about "Love for Real," Nancy arguing the characters don't change and Mimi and Mary Beth saying it captured a moment in these characters lives and stood on it's own, basically. Mary Beth said it was good it provoked such controversy. I wish more often everyone would agree, though. It makes it easier on the writer. Of course it would, but what does one go to a writing group for? Mary Beth is working on the Mad Scientist Hall of Fame, Mimi the historical fiction piece about cowgirl Lucille Mulhall, and Nancy HELD BACK, a middle grade novel. I think that's how it's described. They're all fun to read, so that makes the group interesting to attend. We have a good dynamic going.

I felt exhausted after Writing Group and took a long nap. While I had been away and during my nap William was a whirling dervish and vacuumed the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, mowed the yard, raked the leaves, and blew the leaves off the back patio. He was exhausted himself after all that. Today I need to mop the kitchen floor and clean out the kitty litter for sure, and then whatever other chores present themselves getting ready for Mom and Dad to return home. They get here Tuesday, April 15th, tomorrow.

I see Dr. Alam today after two-and-a-half months. She may reduce my medication, I'm not sure. William and I aren't going to try and do anything on the baby front until after I get back from the Vermont writers' retreat at the end of September. So she may decide to keep me on longer since it's a ways off. I had been looking forward to getting off some of it, just to see what would happen. That may be stupid, I don't know. It's curiosity and to see if I can stand on my own without it for a while, which may also be stupid. Maybe it's what is keeping me stable and feeling so good right now, and it will crash me down to come off. I'll do everything I can to prevent that. A book suggested putting a box of mementos together, positive associations, that you can look at when you're down. Things like letters from loved ones, awards you may have won, pictures of yourself when you've been happy, a list of all your proudest accomplishments. I think it's a very good idea.