A.R. Mitchell's Blog, page 16
October 27, 2022
Monomyth Through Trauma Update
Hello all!
The Monomyth Through Trauma series will be taking a brief hiatus through the month of November. Apologies. I’m attempting to avoid my ninth encounter with burnout, so I need some recharge time.
Yes. My ninth encounter. I’m in my thirties. I’ve learned to recognize the symptoms by now and realized I needed to back off and regain my energy. I’m not in the burnout zone yet, but I’ve learned when to recognize borderline overwhelm before it moves into burnout. So this is more premptive and protective than an actual encounter with burnout.
The Monomyth through trauma will return in December.
I’ll still have my Tuesday writing tips. (I got those done in advance, before my case of the overwhelm hit.)
Here’s an excellent book on burnout and stress for reading in the meantime. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
For a quick read on the symptoms of burnout, check out this article. psychologytoday.com/us/basics/burnout
For a deeper dive: What Is Burnout? 16 Signs and Symptoms of Excessive Stress
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October 25, 2022
Zoho Notebook Review
Zoho Notebook
As writers sometimes our brains don’t work in a nice logical order. Sometimes we get a really cool scene and we have no idea where it goes, or who it belongs to, but we know we need to write it.
That’s where an amazing freebie app comes in: Zoho Notebook
Note Taking App - Add Text, Images, Audio, Checklist | Zoho Notebook
Its avaible on most platforms and devices. I have no affilation with the company, and they’re not paying me for this review - I just like the app and have found it extremely helpful for novel writing.
It works in similar ways to Microsoft Notebook - but its much better. I consider it a poor author’s Scrivener.
You can create a notebook dedicated to a novel or a character. Within each of the notebooks are notecards. There are several types.
Dictation (free but limited to a total of less than 30 minutes)
Drawing
Photograph
List
Files - (such as pdf based research)
Text
I wrote Tinfoil Fedora: Roswell Revisted in this file format, using text cards. I kept my research on some of the file cards, as well as the photos.
When I found out it was a series, I added a list card, writing out future plans.
Text files can be exported to RTF or PDF formats. For Microsoft Word or other word processing apps you’ll have to copy and paste, but that means you have more flexibility in moving events around, before you place them in a linear document.
I have found Zoho to be extremely helpful for epic series with multiple characters. Its as easy as having a notebook for each character and writing the scenes for that character in their notebook, so you can find them later when you figure out the chronology.
For those of you who like color coordination - that can happen in Zoho Notebook too!
Cards can be moved, copied, and placed in any order, so that you can rearrange chapters.
There is no word count within the text cards, but as I mentioned last week, I’m indifferent to using word counts.
Sometimes it helps our brains to have a new uncluttered space to do writing. With NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) nearly upon us, I thought I’d share Zoho Notebook. It’s simple, free and flexible for our next novels, short stories or ongoing writing projects.
Good luck!
Your stories are amazing!
Chronic Writer
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October 20, 2022
The Parts of Seperation in the Monomyth
The Parts of Seperation in the MonomythThe Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Supernatural Aid
Crossing the First Threshold
In the context of trauma and healing these things look like:
The Call to AdventureWe are not going to call trauma ‘adventure’. Trauma is highly painful, frightening, life altering and it is never a GOOD thing.
What is the ‘adventure’ is the quest to heal. And adventures don’t have to be ‘fun’ like we see on tv. (If we’re entirely honest with ourselves, most events in action adventure movies are not fun in real life.)
Healing is a rocky messed up road that is not easy, and its a lifelong journey for some of us. Its unrealistic to say, “I dealt with the scary thing once. We’re done and I’m not going to see it ever again.” That’s not true.
In the quest to protect us, our bodies and minds will often hide the trauma. Its not that we’re warring against ourselves - its that there’s some inner wisdom that says, “Nope. Not today.”
Refusal of the CallThe moment our mind/body combination (which makes us human) says to healing or confronting the traumatic events, “Nope. Not today,” this is the refusal of the call to healing.
It simply means that we’re not ready for the journey which somehow our instincts know we need to take.
It could also be that someone or something is blocking us. Intimidation of the process of being vulnerable is a common problem here. Or the idea of, “I don’t need counseling, I’m fine.”
Yet, there is always some part of us which recognizes that whatever made us different (the trauma) is seperating us and keeping us under its control. We are an accidental hostage to the trauma. And that’s why we feel seperate.
Supernatural AidYou don’t have to believe in the supernatural to understand this. It simply means that something will always commit us to the quest of healing. We may not realize it when it happens, but this is a push that we recieve which forces us to answer quest instead of turning away.
Crossing the First ThresholdThis is when you take the first step to healing. You’ve decided to attempt to put yourself back together, or you’ve turned your back on the trauma which wants to hold you under its unhealthy control.
I’ll break each of these down in the coming weeks.
And my…
Perpetual Disclaimer for this series:
I am not a counselor or a mental health professional. I am going to attempt to avoid things which will cause alarm or harm, but I can't know what will trigger each individual. If you need to speak to a mental health professional please know that there are resources available.
Your stories are amazing!
Chronic Writer
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