Amy Laurens's Blog, page 2

What To Do When You Can’t Get Out Of Bed #2 – Fatigue

Intro post #1 here.

Okay, so you’re keeping dedicated notes and you’ve kind of figured out that there are three basic flavours of Being Stuck In Bed that have nothing to do with lazy or sick: fatigue, mental health, or neurodivergent symptoms (including for people who aren’t typically neurodivergent).

Today we’re going to tackle the fatigue one, and hooboy am I annoyed at this, because it’s eating my life right now. I have a pretty clear history of responding to all and any medication lo...

I Think I Need A Rule Transformation

I’ve been part of a workshop on writer’s block for, wow, like 6 months now. Next week is the final week and I am going to miss my Thursday morning zoom call! Today, though, we were talking about habits, habit formation, and how not writing can just be a habit rather than necessarily anything huge and disastrous. One of my colleagues in the call linked to their post about Rule Transformations: it’s a straightforward and logical concept, but sometimes you (I) need to hear the same thing repeated o...

Having Faith In The Baby Steps (Dammit)

I’m in limbo. If you’ve been here the last few months and/or on my Instagram, you’ll know that. Terminal cancer (that I fully intend to recover from), not working, yada yada yada.* So it’s a particular kind of limbo, but also it’s not, because I know other people who are in different specific circumstances but a similar kind of “I have no idea what my future will look like” kind of limbo, you know?

I know what I want; it’s what I’ve always wanted. A creative life. Autonomy. Creative impact. ...

What To Do When You Can’t Get Out Of Bed #1

A friend of mine asked this question this week. I’ve asked this question this week. Probably, some of you have too, so I decided I wanted to answer it here, where it might be useful to anyone who stumbles across it. 

I’m also in weird-vibes land because I just watched a return-to-work video by a minor internet celebrity I follow who was off for a year or so with cancer. They made it, they’re in recovery, I’m so glad for them – and I know on a bone-deep level how sick radiation makes you and h...

Literally This Is How To Map

Apparently it’s the week for sharing random YouTube videos, and we’re just leaning into that. (As much as I logically love the idea of a weekly structure around here, a la Made-It Mondays, let’s be honest: the rest of my brain vastly prefers random spontaneity [why did I have to spell that three times] and the freedom to do literally everything based on mood.)

Anyway, not only is this one a fun little thought exercise in what would happen if the world’s landmasses were suddenly rotated by 90 ...

Truly, You Underestimate The Impact Simply Making Something Beautiful Has

I woke up with The Sads this morning. This is probably to have been expected: I was migrainey last week (though at least only the silent variety), and had more migraine taste in my mouth overnight; I’m overtired/overstimulated to the point where I developed an eye twitch on Sunday night, something I don’t remember having in AT LEAST a year now (though in peak burnout it was almost daily, from like mid 2021 to the end of 2022, ew); and I slept moderately well last night and quite well the night b...

May Is The Month Of…

Doing my weekly journalling and I’m starting May this week. Loving this quote from Hilary Collier Rushford:

As a stylist, I teach about the chicness of breathing room. A collar left open, a cuff rolled up. We see it in a home that isn’t overly crowded with stuff, has room to easily relax on the couch. A website crammed with copy feels overwhelming, whereas one with white space lets your eye relax and take in more. Make space in your life: your calendar, your relationships, your dreams. It r...

Writing Is Such A Slow Artform *cranky face*

Like, yes, this is relative, and some writers I know can write an excellent short story in a day – in fact, my collection April Showers, which contains some of my favourite ever short stories, was drafted in ten days IIRC, so I can definitely write a short story in two days.

But.

I’ve decided recently that I want to improve my art skills enough to be able to draw my characters for book art and for RGPing purposes and suchlike, so I’ve committed to doing one figure drawing a day for a yea...

Why I Decided To Republish An Old Book

I’ve managed to snatch enough energy today to do a smidgen of publishing work (after spending all morning in bed, ha), and I am very excited to have gotten Life Had Other Plans fully uploaded to the printer, which means I can order a physical proof copy in about a week, yay!

For expediency’s sake, I’m trying to get the next collection ready to go at the same time, so I can have both proofs shipped at once and save a little on shipping. This next collection is a rereleased of my old work, Che...

Making Peace With A Speed Of Zero

So I made a commitment to keep blogging the other month, and then my website promptly died on me >.

This time, it was neither. Boo. 

So it took a few weeks for me to a) realise I was going to need help, b) schedule said help, and then c) coordinate with said help to get the site fixed – and by then I was drowning in Having Done Too Much In Life, oops. 

This is a continual lesson I’m learning: if you don’t want to burn out, slow down. No, I mean slower. Good job, but now go slower. Uh hu...