Exactly how I clawed my way out of a publishing spiral

i.e., 5 lil' things that can help end a funk

Feeling helpless and hopeless? You’re not alone.

Last week I scrapped a much-more-polished craft post and instead unloaded on y’all. That morning, I’d gotten up at 6 am to drive 40 minutes through a “wintry mix” to pick up our foster pup from an animal hospital (he’s fine!), and I was at my wit’s end, too addled to really question if spewing all my publishing anguish was a good idea.

Well! It turned out it was, because posting it knocked me off my downward spiral and shunted me in a new, less-awful direction. Things are still far from fine because, well, [gestures around at the world], but they are not as personally bleak!

Me emerging from last week’s deep, deep hole (Photo by 奇 徐)

Why? Because of these five little miracle workers, which I shall heretofore reference every time I want to give the F up on publishing and go live in the woods and carve figurines and eat beans out of a pot. Maybe they’ll help you too!