Hopeful Solutions

Still searching for solutions to my overloaded plate, I got some unexpected news.

I'm taking part in a group on Scribophile that allows me to work with a small subgroup of people where we read all of each other's chapters. People come and go so not everyone has read all of my chapters so far, but it's been immensely helpful.

This group has been an enormous source of stress for me. It's taken away from other commitments and kept me very busy editing, getting chapters ready, and critiquing. I'm having a hard time keeping up but didn't want to leave because it's been so helpful.

Late last week, the group leader announced that she's shrinking the size of the group. It's split into fiction groups and memoir groups and she's eliminating the fiction groups, including mine. The groups don't officially disband until May, but with them ending soon and being such a huge source of stress, the question became whether to hang on until May or drop out early.

After discussing it with my husband, I decided to leave early and made my announcement on Sunday. I expected to feel regret and anxiety, but I feel relieved. It shows me I've made the right choice. I still have two weeks left before the end of the session we're in, then I will be finished with the group.

I'm hoping this will ease the beginning feelings of being burned out on Scribophile. I'm having a renewed enthusiasm for the site, so hopefully it will continue. They have what's called the Main Spotlight where most people's work gets posted to be seen by the whole website, and I will post there now instead of in the private group. I need to start again from chapter one, but with how much editing I've done, that's a good thing.

I have several critique partnerships that have fallen by the wayside and can now focus on those again. My beta reading was also suffering, and I'm hoping to read more for those two projects.

I have hope that this will ease my stress levels enough to make me a little more functional in my life. I've made more time for writing new material in addition, so I'm hoping that between the two, I'll be happier.

We'll see how it goes starting in two weeks.

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