Aspiring Author with a side of Pregnancy Brain

I literally keep sticky notes and a pen on my desk that my students know they should use if they tell or ask me something.

Just because I was looking at you and responded to whatever you said or asked absolutely does not mean that I will remember having that conversation in about five minutes. I can be talking out loud and forget what I was trying to say in the middle of my sentence. Aside from the back pain, this is probably one of the worst side effects of pregnancy.

This cognitive challenge makes writing anything new almost impossible. I can't maintain a train of thought long enough to get the story rolling down the tracks despite the fact that I have the entire plot charted in a spreadsheet.

Worse than writing, though, is editing.

All I have the brain power to read right now is easy flowing romance novels where paying attention to the details is not really necessary to enjoying the story. So, imagine my struggle to read my own manuscript with a critical eye. I'm trying to track the sub plots and character details throughout the whole story; I'm attempting to remember what parts and details I've already changed from previous versions; and I'm working to get this project out on submission before I go into labor (I know that I will be absolutely useless for anything other than survival in the two months after my baby is born).

As a person who prides myself on the ability to multitask and efficiently organize large projects, I am deeply frustrated by my lack of progress toward my writing and social media goals. (Aside from pregnancy, my husband just had his appendix removed, I was in charge of organizing prom for my students, we are approaching dance recital at the studio I work at, I'm prepping the school literary arts journal for publication, one of my students was in a bad ATV accident, and it's track season in a public school which should be read as "motivation and attendance for students and teachers alike has hit an all time low.")

So, this post is me reminding myself that I will get back to my regular functioning brain and life eventually. Even if I don't hit my goals in the timeframe I had planned to, I am still making progress toward greatness.

Be kind to yourself.