Look, I'm as big a fan as anyone of sleeping in. I love to get up at 9am on certain days. But that, friends, is the key word: ON CERTAIN DAYS. 

I got so frustrated with being unable to rip myself out of bed in the morning. I'm the most productive in the morning, so I need to be able to get up, but it can be hard for me to wake up. So I started doing one simple thing to change my whole morning routine <----CLICKBAIT TITLES

I sleep in the top bunk bed in the room I share with my sister, so every evening, I put an old flip phone with alarm capacity on the desk across the room. Then, in the morning, I have to get out of bed and cross the room to turn off the alarm--and once I'm down, I don't want to go back up the ladder to my bed. So giving yourself something specific to do as soon as your feet hit the ground in the morning is extremely helpful.

I also bribe myself to get out of bed: a mug of herbal tea, a guaranteed hour of uninterrupted prayer time, the knowledge that I'll be able to get an early start now. That may not be what everyone needs, but an early morning prayer time and then an early morning workout is just the ticket for me.

I know we're all forgetting what day it is. But if you have a planner, that stress is alleviated. You make a list of everything you want to do in the day, check them off, rinse, repeat.

Planners stress a lot of people. But the thing about them is that it's so easy to personalize them that they shouldn't scare you. You don't have to have a homemade bullet journal--I don't (although I will forever admire people like Emily Grant and Nicole Dust who have gorgeous bullet journals and can actually keep up with them). You don't even have to use a Passion planner--I love those, but they can be a lot to keep up with. It's all about what makes you more organized.

Abbie Emmons, on her YouTube channel, highly recommends using Google Calendar to create blocks of time to do certain things. I know some people just make daily to-do lists and check things off. It doesn't have to be complicated, but having a plan for your day is NEVER a bad idea. Just don't make it so solid that if something comes up and a wrench gets thrown in the time table, you can no longer function.

I'm not using this as a plug for "learn something new during quarantine!" I know this is a tough time for everyone. If, however, you have the ability to spend some of your time at home doing something you love, take the opportunity.

We are bloggers. We are writers. We are artists.

For me, working on my official WIP has been very stressful lately. I've been writing all over the place-some flash fictions, a new novella, some edits. But even on days when I'm working (aye, I am an Essential Employee(TM)), I'm making time to put down some words, draw some pictures, play some music. I'm not trying to do everything in one day, but whichever things I can do that make me feel refreshed and feel hopeful...I do them. Your art is an opportunity to find an escape and some peace.

4. SPEND TIME IN PRAYER

Of course, no schedule should over become so valuable that you lose your sense of sanity. In the end, Jesus is the only thing we can truly depend on in this life. In the midst of a worldwide darkness, only he stays the same. So it's an important truth that right now, we must choose to depend upon him even when the darkness is so tight it feels suffocating.

Use your art as an escape. Keep supporting small businesses. Don't lose track of the time--make it count, even at home.

But let's remember: Jesus is the only one who can truly save us from all of this. He stays the same. He is dependable, and he is closer than he seems.

Run to him.

What's something you're learning during quarantine? And more importantly...how are you doing right now? I know this is an incredibly stressful, dark time for so many of us, and you're all in my prayers <3 Talk to me in the comments--I'd love to hear from you.

How many times have we all heard that? Obviously we all know it's a lie. Words have so much power and affect us so much. Today, we're going to look at the third love language in this series: words themselves, and how they can build up or tear down and anything in between.

Words of affirmation, clearly, are an important part of all of our lives. When you're on the job, you don't want your boss to hug you and kiss your cheek when you do a good job. No, you want to hear "Good job--keep it up!" When you write a really good short story and post it to your blog, you're not looking for your followers to say "just so you know, this post made me want to do this dishes for you!" Much though we might like our followers to do the dishes for us, the thing you're looking for in response to that is a comment saying "Wow--amazing! I loved this!"

Compliments are the barest-boned face of word of affirmation. Pure, simple compliments. It's easy enough to implement that into a novel. Simple compliments:

"You look lovely today."

"Amazing job on your driving test, baby. I knew you could do it!"

"You cooked this? For me? Oh my goodness, you're the best!"

If you have a couple who's known each other for more than two seconds--or even if they've known each other for two seconds, because come on, even a few compliments makes things more realistic than just the staring and lusting--they should be thinking about how much they love traits of the other person. Some examples of things to compliment:

Appearances. Actions. Possessions. Heroism. Collections. Gifts. He can tell her she smells good. She can tell him his shoes are adorable. And on and on it goes.

A longer example from one of my novels:

"You’re worth everything. There’s a whole world inside you, and you’re human, and you’re precious. Your face isn’t the only thing that defines your worth, and neither is your power. You’re beautiful on the inside too—you know that?"

INSTANT payoff from this. Dialogue is the best way to build up a relationship. Better than kissing. Better than physical attraction. Better than anything. WORDS.

Words are also great because they can help you build up relationships and flesh them out. In my most recent novel, Holding Up the Sky, two characters end up attracted to each other. He's outgoing, but hates to open up to people. She's very shy and socially awkward. But as the two of them learn to talk to each other, they learn to open up in a new way. Their relationship isn't about physical attraction; it's a soul to soul attraction, personalities pulling each other together. And that's ONLY possible because they talk.

The words your characters choose to use also reveal things about their personalities. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo has two examples of very different character revelations, brought about through dialogue:

Person 1:

“I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.”

Person 2:

"I like your stupid face." 

These sentences are a big deal for each of these characters.  Are they equal in execution? Maybe not. But they reveal something about the personalities of each of them that you wouldn't get otherwise.

One more thing to remember about words of affirmation: many, many people respond better to it than they do anything else. Perhaps a scene where your main girl comes down the stairs in a nice dress and your guys tells her softly that she looks nice isn't as steamy as a big kissing scene. But it's REAL.

There is nothing in the world that is as fulfilling in romance as genuinely allowing your characters to connect, and employing words in all the little places, soft words and passionate words and desperate words and sobbing words and all the words you can possibly think up, changes everything. You cannot make friends in the real world without talking. You absolutely cannot fall in love--real, strong, lasting love--and make it last without words.

Books shouldn't be any different.

A world where the sky could crumble at any moment and only the power of music checks it. A world where magic runs rampant, controlled by white robes and powerful glances. A world where blood is your currency.

Dulci lives alone in a tower. Her very existence is illegal, for she is a Player, tasked with holding up the sky—but no one knows she is alive. In an arsenal of musicians, she may well be the most valuable member. If only she were free…

Daverby, a young gang lord, roams the poor quarters of the city with his found family, always on the lookout for more money. When he and his gang are hired to find a threat to their world’s very existence, they brace for the worst of fights. None of them could have expected to find the threat in the form of a young, terrified girl who has no idea why they’re looking for her.

A world at stake… a lonely girl… and a desperate gang of assassins who just need to eat for another day.

The song must continue.

For more about Holding Up the Sky, you can check my last post about it, here.

As is my custom with my WIP update posts, here are some stats: (mostly ridiculous):

Word count: COMPLETE at 78, 364 words

Pages: 288
Day complete: March 28, 2020

Chapter count: 46

Bloodbath endings: 1

Cliffhanger: the worst

Strong bois out to save their girls: 2

Damsels in distress: 2 (and a half)

Girls who will punch you in the teeth and probably rip your teeth out too: 2

POVs: too many

Innocent children: all of them (except Talia, she's a monster)

(All images in this post are from pinterest; all lyrics copyright to the bands quoted. The snippets are mine. I don't own any of this. Except my own words. So yeahhhhhhhh)

And that's all I've got for this post! I have TONS of revisions to do and it'll be a while before I open this up to betas, but I'm actually super excited about the editing process and eventually sharing this book with the world :D 

How's your writing been going? Are you doing Camp NaNo? Chat with me in the comments!