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Amanda B. Hinton's avatar

I think you’re connecting two important things: the desire to move slowly and the instinct to punch back at anything that tries to hurry you up. Those feel like they have the shades of grief to me.

I realized for me that deep grief and loss makes me dizzy inside. I need slowness to not feel toppled over. When I reflect back on the four years it’s taken to “re-stabilize,” I realize that grief needed slowness to “digest.”

You can go slowly and still matter. You can write less and still matter. I think the folks at Substack have a directive to grow this thing, to keep bringing in more readers, more resources, more writers and to tirelessly proclaim the value that you and I already know Substack has. The concerted effort of teams can feel pushy at times. But just know: they aren’t changing my mind about you being someone I want to hear from. 🫶

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Patricia L. Atchison's avatar

Even though I am not grieving, I feel exactly where you are on your journey. I am plodding along, but at the same time, I am living life. Now that summer, and a nice one at that, has arrived, I find it harder to stay focused on my sequel YA fantasy novel. I am querying the first manuscript and some days feeling guilty because I don't move as fast as other authors to accomplish goals. Yet I write and edit daily for a few hours. I write my Substack articles, there's this appointment and that one, lunch out with hubby, tea with friends, walks with my pooch. Oh and camping. I think at certain times, during certain seasons, its the Universe's way to show at this point in one's life, maybe other things rank just as important as the writing and accomplishing. As long as you (and I) continue to find joy in the process and time spent, it doesn't matter how many hours are invested, are we happy 'just doing.' Thank you for your post! Know you are not alone.

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