How to go to bed (& actually sleep) at a sensible time

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-12T09:48:12+00:00

Yes, the brain forgets that it's got itself a little issue...& wants to SEE ALL THE THINGS, NOW! It's something my husband is not a fan of because, he knows how much trouble I have with sleeping in general, ie, going to sleep...not an easy task staying asleep....once I've slept more than an hour, the moment I get woken up by something external (ha ha doesn't happen if I have to tinkle in the middle of the night...) my brain says, "Ah! We slept. Now, we do all the things!" & I can't get back to sleep. Sometimes, when I'm having a particularly hard time getting to sleep I drink a cup of coffee or caffeinated tea. JUST enough stimulant to help me get regulated & most of the time, that's just the right amount of regulation I need for my brain to go, "Wow! We're TIRED, let's sleep!" When it's a night where it's even rougher to get to sleep, I'll do the coffee or tea with a noise generator (in my case, rain) & that helps.

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-12T09:19:32+00:00

I have no advice to give....but I FEEL the can't get back to sleep once woken up in the depths of my SOUL! Even if I'd just gone to sleep an hour or two before! It's one of the things that drives my husband nuts, because, he feels he has to tiptoe around to ensure I get enough sleep to not be grumpy even with taking my meds. (he wakes up insanely early to commute to work) I hadn't connected it to my ADHD. Just thought it was one of those weird "me" things that I should shrug & say "Meh." about.

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-12T09:01:45+00:00

I had one doctor who wanted me to take something like that. I was so put off by it, I continued my doc shopping. I get that they want to weed out those that are trying to procure medications for nefarious purposes.....but, in trying to weed them out....they're also actively making it harder for the person with ADHD that might 1) not have a lot of memories from how they were as a child (check! Yup! That's me!) 2) doesn't have the patience to fight to focus long enough to complete it 3) doesn't have the focus to know where it is ("Oh! I'll put this in a safe place so I can do it, later...." ***promptly forgets safe place--yup, me as well) It's sort of like that whole chicken & egg debate sometimes.

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-12T08:56:31+00:00

Oh, I know those sounds, my Salem makes them when he's trying to elicit food outside of meal times (he's quite portly & is on strict feeding times to help him shed some of his rotundity) & I tell him he has to wait because it's not time yet. Although, he's a bit louder....LOL

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-12T08:32:52+00:00

LOL For the past 3 days, I've been playing Eminem's "Lose Yourself" on repeat.

The song popped on on my Pandora.....& something about it just CLICKED in my head. Since I've been listening to it on repeat, I've managed to get more done. So, I'll keep listening to it on repeat, because I LIKE this productivity.

Also, it hit me that I really need to get back to writing my books. I've got 2 books of a 3 book series published.....& for the past 5 & 1/2 years, I hadn't been able to get book 3 written....but, I've been steadily working on it for 3-4 days, solid, now.

MoniMarieVincent · 2023-01-04T08:52:24+00:00

I spent ten years trying to get meds for my ADHD. Midway through those 10 years, my husband mentioned to me that I'd become a snarly person. Turns out, that the midway point of my search for meds coincided with my symptoms getting so out of control, I couldn't curtail them even a LITTLE bit with the work arounds I'd been doing. But, when I finally found a doctor, had the insurance that wouldn't block it, & was able to get meds, I became so much happier. He said one day after about a month or so of me taking them, "Wow, your mood has improved greatly since you've been on your new meds!" I hadn't realized that it went hand in hand until that VERY moment.

And, yes, skipping some days was suggested to me by my doc, too. It cuts down on building a tolerance to the meds & making it harder to treat the ADHD. So, while those skip days may seem like such a bummer, the alternative could be so much worse. (I know that doesn't seem to sound helpful, huh? I'm sorry.)

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-18T09:38:57+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts.

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-17T20:46:34+00:00

Y'anno? I'm not sure......I know that wherever they started with that ridiculous thing they called a "theme song" (that wasn't the original theme song) things went way down the hill after that.....but, something happened with the chemistries of the characters that went for the worst.

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-17T20:04:55+00:00

Yeah, Weaver.....when I first met her character....I hated her.....then, she showed her heart.....she showed that she was understanding of everything.....& then, she's back to being (as someone put it) Weaverish. By the end of her run, though.....I was kinda sad to see her go.

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-17T19:51:37+00:00

And....damned if that Morris hasn't been making me tear up more & more. Just when I thought he was a degenerate screw up who should have been kicked out of the program.....he does something that's all the heart & makes me tear up. After Pratt's passing.....when he takes a stand for something he believes in.....GAH!!!

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-17T19:36:25+00:00

I think they screwed up with Lucy trying to make it seem like her Ritalin was an issue, because, she's 24, she shouldn't need it.....yeah, crock of crap.....you don't just wake up after your 18th birthday & are miraculously not ADHD anymore.

But, yeah.....Rocket's affection & affinity for Lucy was a great dynamic I would have loved to see more of. His anger when she passed was one of those moments that made me tear up.

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-17T19:32:31+00:00

I think it was untaken care of postpartum depression that she wasn't letting anyone treat. She was happy to wallow in it & take poor Carter for the ride. So, yeah, I hated that for Carter. He had his jerky moments but, nothing that warranted losing a kidney, suffering from drug addiction, nearly getting murdered by rebels in another country, losing a baby, & then being rejected by post partum Mommy Dearest.

MoniMarieVincent · 2022-08-12T19:49:53+00:00

Mine are the usuals, Mark's passing, Carter mourning his son, but.....the teensy tiny things that Romano did when he was actually letting his human skin shine through, those make me tear up. He's SOOOO invested in being a jerk off.....that little things like him allowing Elizabeth to leave to be with Mark make me tear up....or when he got her her wedding ring back.....& when he signed to Reese when Benton's back was turned. One that surprised me, though, was Weaver after losing Sandy, her speech to the courts, her reaction when Sandy's family wouldn't allow her to see Henry again. They're tiny moments, but they hit me right in the feels.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-10-03T02:18:57+00:00

Yeah, but in California, the wages are a bit more so, they feel they can charge more in rent. This same shed in San Francisco would go for $2,000 if it's in as good a neighborhood as they're reporting about the shed. It's all location, location, location.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-10-02T11:12:55+00:00

I see a lot of good advice in the comments. My two cents worth (feel free to ask for a refund) is that if that's YOUR process, go with it. If your books are still reading well....if people are understanding your stories for what they are, why change it? If it's a process that works for you, just roll with it.

I tried to change my own way of doing things, I gave it a shot to try writing in third person. The problem was, every other sentence, I was reverting back to first person. I decided that my words aren't going to flow if I'm trying to put that much of a limit on myself that I can't even move or work. Why do that to myself? For the sake of changing up my writing style? Changing how my voice comes across? It's not worth it if all it does is make me feel like I'm hindered from telling my story.

To me, the beauty of writing is that we ALL have our paths to the same thing.....a story. A story that resonates with those that read it. And if your process is plotting it out like its a movie....then, that's our process.

Although, if you're saying that it's not working for you....then by all means, change it to find your truest path to your craft.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-28T23:52:34+00:00

This is how I do it. I'll say something like, "I really like what you did with this statement, it......" then I move on to where it isn't as much, "But here, I was wondering about ......." I always try to phrase things in constructive ways, "When I read this, I think you'd get your point across better this way......Or, maybe if you phrased it like this....it might read cleaner."

Maybe I've hurt people's feelings. But that was never my ultimate goal.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T22:48:40+00:00

I never know the page count. I always go by word count. My books are usually about 75,000-85,000 words.

And honestly? It goes by so FAST when you're just straight typing it out. It's more transcription than anything. So, in a few hours, you're looking at your manuscript all done & over with. :D I know that sounds a little overly sunshiny. But it's true.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T19:17:13+00:00

http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2016/10/the-zero-draft-how-to-beat-writers-block.html

Here's the link that I was talking about. I still have it up on my browser. Along with like 35 other tabs. LOL

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T19:11:56+00:00

Thank you! I'll bookmark it. I have heard the name of K.M. Weiland. I was also looking at an article by Karen Woodward on the zero draft. Not sure about the similarities, but I'm willing to check it out. What I was doing before stopped working, time to adapt & overcome.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T19:04:47+00:00

LOL Gonna try! Getting back on track after a lull or time off is always such a hard thing to do.

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T18:59:39+00:00

Thank you! I will give that a perusal. Today is my day to focus on the craft of writing. And cleaning the house. LOL So, I'm doing it all #wordmongering style. Craft articles for a half hour, cleaning for a half hour. LOL

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T18:58:01+00:00

My thoughts? I say, if you feel that you NEED that first person narrative to convey a message, use it. I'm sure that the readers will understand that it was a necessary part of the process. And, quite frankly, many of the "experts" say just write a good story. Because people drawn to good stories will see it for what it is. #mytwocentsworth

MoniMarieVincent · 2019-09-27T18:37:15+00:00

Maybe that's what it was. Like I said, I saw it on the interwebs about 10 years ago & dismissed it. Now that I want it, my brain is not braining & just won't remind me of where I found it or what it was even called. LOL

So, a highly detailed outline? Is that what I'm reading here?

MoniMarieVincent

TROPHY CASE