Thor’s hammer

Seriously, that’s what I feel like I’ve been hit with. It’s been a long week (I don’t know when I’ve blogged so little in a week).
First, of course, I had five more eHows to do to complete my quota of extra articles (I finished the last one about five minutes ago).
Second, I was assisting TYG with a study project that required more of my focus than I would have thought.
Third, the more stressed I get, the less I sleep, which often makes me more stressed. Even though the added eHows still put me at less hours than when I had the Destin Log as a day job and wrote on the side, either it’s much more intensive when I’m self-employed full-time or I’ve less tolerance for stress than I used to have. I suspect the latter: I’d been doing 40 hours a week plus freelancing for so long, I don’t think I realized how demanding it was until I stopped.
Fourth, today was a mess. Apart from some disasters in the morning (I won’t detail), I got up early to do an eHow (a good insomnia alternative—then I just nap during the day) only to find the site wasn’t responding (me or them? I’ve no idea). So I more or less wasted an hour and didn’t get the free hour of nap-time during the day (I compensated with caffeine, something I try to avoid doing).
I think I’m also frustrated because most of my fiction time was spent on thinking rather than writing. I was going over several unfinished stories and trying to figure out where to go on the second draft; unfortunately, for most of them, I have no idea. I like the concept of the reincarnation story Of All the Words of Tongue and Pen, for instance, but translating it into a story is proving difficult.
I also spent some time thinking about the next draft of Brain From Outer Space without figuring out exactly how to improve it.
On the plus side, my efforts to tinker with my schedule have really born fruit. Starting at 7 a.m. instead of 6:30 is much more doable—I haven’t had a late start in over a month. And taking a break at 5 p.m., regardless of what remains to do, is a great destresser.
But I’m happy to set aside the writing for the weekend and find other ways to destress. Very, very, very happy.