Uncategorized

Writing Prompts

Janis I. Soucie

It’s been almost a month since I posted anything. The Coronavirus has me monitoring things like how many have it in Maine, and how many have died from it. The numbers for who has it keeps rising. We’re still under a stay at home order except to get medicines and groceries. Toilet paper is still hard to find. It’s just crazy. So I thought I would start writing prompts and post one a day.. That way there is something positive to read and something to read more often on my blog. I don’t now that I’ll post every day as that will be as that will be overwhelming, but maybe a couple times a week. At least I will start out with that.

After the writing prompt, feel free to let me know what you liked or didn’t like about what I wrote, or if you find a particular prompt that you would like to see me write more on.

I’ll post the writing prompt that I am writing to so you will be able to write from it too. When you finish with your writing prompt feel free to leave them in the comments section or email them to me at jisoucie@hotmail.com. I would love to read what you have written.

Take care, stay healthy!

Janis

Uncategorized

COVID 19 & PTSD

Janis I. Soucie

I haven’t been writing on any stories much. I have mostly been monitoring the COVID 19 crisis and writing in my journal about it. That and taking care of my family. My daughter doesn’t have school for at least two weeks, at the same time I’m potty training my son, and my hubby is home today to help with things. But he goes back to work tomorrow. So far his work hasn’t done anything about working remotely. I hope that comes soon.

And lately I have been struggling with PTSD not related to COVID 19. I am struggling with hypervigilience mostly but anxiety as well. I didn’t sleep much last night.

This is all hard to deal with because I want to keep my mind on something other than this coronavirus crisis and something other than worrying about the my PTSD symptoms. But it’s hard. My brain is in mommy mode and I feel like cleaning, like that is somehow going to help us. I’m sure it will just work to make me feel better.

It’s all so crazy with all that is happening that my brain is just caught up in all. I know it’s temporary it’s just waiting it out like everyone else is doing.

I wish you all the best. And if you’re a writer finding it hard to focus amid this crisis, how do you deal with it? Any tips for other writers?

Veiled Affliction

Forward

Janis I. Soucie

So yesterday I sent tidying up my folders files on my computer and I got red of several duplicate files and folders and everything is looking neater. I’m so happy I decided to go through and do a clean up.

So now the story I have chosen to do research for is called Veiled Affliction that follows my story of having multiple allergies including food allergies, asthma, which led to seeing a nutritionist, which led to the discovery of gluten intolerance. I was off gluten 9 months before I got pregnant with my first child and I had a hard labor with her. To get help with the baby, I moved up to Maine temporarily to get help from my husband’s parents and I saw an allergist who said I wasn’t allergic to anything and all the foods I was tested positive too was probably wrong. He also said I didn’t have asthma. That I was just breathing wrong. So I went back to eating gluten, not taking any allergy or asthma medication because I was told I no longer needed them.

But my health started to get worse. I started having body wide pain and went through several tests to figure out what might be causing it. I was diagnosed in 2010 as having fibromyalgia. I read the book Fatigue to Fantastic and ordered many supplements that were said to help me feel better. Nothing worked.

In 2011 My husband, my daughter, and I all moved to Maine as my husband got a new job there and we moved in with his parents. I started seeing a doctor who prescribed cymbalta for the pain. It helped some. For the next several years I was on Cymbalta and then lyrica, but I still struggled with a lot of pain, fatigue, headaches, low mood, trouble sleeping.

In 2019, something happened that I never would have imagined that would erase my fibromyalgia pain. I can’t tell you here, but I will reveal what happened in my upcoming book Veiled Affliction: My Journey to Better Health. The book is currently in it’s research phases. I’ll keep you posted.

Story Ideas

Tidying Up

Janis I. Soucie

Yup! You read that correctly. I have been taking some time to organize and weed out my story ideas, but I have more ideas than I realized and it’s taking me longer to complete the task.

On top of that I have a story to edit, one nonfiction story to write, and a fictional story to write oh, and a short story I was in the middle of working on when I just dropped it out of frustration. So Facade, My Gluten Intolerance Story (working title), and Sleepless Waters are all In progress. But that’s not counting the 10 – 15 other story ideas I have either started or just wrote down the idea for. So I’m going to try and work those out and put them in a project document. Then I will be all set for when Camp NaNos come along.

I didn’t say National Novel Writing Month because I typically don’t do those. They are too much stress for me though this year my son starts pre k so maybe I’ll actually have time to to do NaNoWriMo with less stress. I guess we’ll see what happens.

So what do you do when you have a lot of story ideas kicking around your computer, or around your room in piles? Mine are mostly on my computer. Just curious to see what others do for a solution.

Well I’m off to tidy up!

Uncategorized

The Holiday Season

Janis I. Soucie

The Holiday Season is upon us. We are all busy making sure we have presents for everyone, ingredients for baking and the big Christmas dinner and desserts. And there just isn’t time for much else. But I have most everything I need so I thought I take a timeout and give everyone an update.

On my last update I told you I was working on my story of weight loss. I set that aside for the time being because I wanted to finish working on this story “Where Can My Baby Be?” That I started shortly after my nephew’s death. I made him a character in the story because I know writing helps me through my grief. There were times I had to set the story aside because it hurt too much to keep going, but then there are times when I am doing okay and I can write more on the story. So that is my main goal now. I would like to publish the story but someone said that if I did I would be making money off someone’s death.

I don’t believe that and that is not what I am trying to do. So I don’t know if I’ll publish this story or not.

Thankfully I’m not just relying on this story to get published. I have a much larger novel I have to go through and edit and that will be in my goal for next year.

Enough of this update from my side. What are you working on? Are you ready for Christmas? Or do you celebrate a different holiday? Whatever holiday you celebrate I hope it’s a good one filled with wonderful memories.

Ill see you in the New Year!!

weight loss

My Weight Loss Journey

Janis I. Soucie

The project I have chose to work on is the one about my weight loss journey, This will will be lengthy as I have a long way to go in to reaching my goal weight. I am at 285 pounds now and am looking to get to my goal weight of 130.

I am going to a weight loss clinic to help me manage my weight but when I am home it is about eating the right portions (I also eat gluten free and dairy free. This wasn’t always the case when I first started the program. You can see my videos at Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/jansweightloss/

There is eating the right portions and then there is excercise. For exercise I am doing resistance training. I’m working on 10 minutes a day for 7 days to start but will be increasing the time when I feel reading. I am also taking notes as I see fit. If you have any questions or suggestions please don’t hesitate to contact me at jisoucie@hotmail.com.

november nano

Back After a Long Hiatus

Janis I. Soucie

I back after some time apart from my blog. I didn’t plan it. It just kind of happened with caring for a 3 year old and managing my own health. My doctor’s appointments are slowly dwindling which is helping to give me more time to blog and to write.

Writing, yes, I am back to it. I have a few projects up my sleeve like to edit (PROJECT 1) Facade which is a book I finished during this year’s Camp NaNo and is over 70,000 words.

PROJECT 2 – Then I am working on a story called Where or Where is my Baby Gone? Which is about my nephew who longs for a family and finally meets the right woman whom he marries and has children with, but shortly after on his biking to work he is hit by a car and killed.

PROJECT 3 – Research historical fiction book on Sackets Harbor, NY and finish writing the story.

PROJECT 4 – Read through print out of journal entries from 2007 to find information on environmental and food allergies and gluten intolerance to write a story on gluten intolerance and how it changed my life.

PROJECT 5 – Write my story of living with fibromyalgia.

Well, there I think that is about I have for projects but the ones I am currently working on right now is PROJECT 2 and PROJECT 4.

I was doing NaNo this November (2019) but I haven’t been able to. I’ve written some days and plugged in my word count but I was just too exhausted to do it. That’s one thing with having fibromyalgia I always feel tired but some days are worse than others so it makes it hard to do the things I really want to do. But I at least try and make an effort.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back later with some updates.

Uncategorized

Camp NaNo Day 10

Janis I. Soucie

Camp NaNa day 10 is here and I have been working away at my story. But I’m realize my story is winding down and I haven’t hit my word count goal yet. I guess that does’t matter so long as the story is finished.

But I think of you out there wherever you may be in your story, or what your word count might be. How is everything going for you? I wonder what kind of story you might be working on. What are you imagining?

Then I have to do my own work and snap out of it and work on my own story. I guess it’s a good idea I’m not reading someone else’s WIP because their work may may be captivating and steal me away from my own story. Best to wait until you are both done I think.

Thought I am reading Dean Koontz’ Husband. Do you read published books while you’re working on your own? I do but because it gives me inspiration. I allow for both reading and writing time.

Okay, so I’m not going to stay long and I don’t have a lot to say in my posts as of late. But here is the list of what I have yet to do for this story and this includes editing, finding beta readers and such like that.

Edit Book

Find beta readers

Make corrections

Possibly rewriting story if need to

Look for a literary agent

There may be more steps in there like more editing, but we’ll see about that as I go. Well that’s all from me for now. Take care and happy writing!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNo Day 3

Janis I. Soucie

Okay so I missed day 2. But that was due to some depression that keeps to want to keep me down. It won’t yesterday. But today I seem to be able to function on some level in order to be able to work on my story and to type a short blog post.

Are any of you suffering from mental illness that makes it hard for you to focus or to even care about your writing, yet in your heart you know you want to keep writing? That is what keeps me going. Knowing that in my heart I love to write and that I feel better doing it.

Do you feel better after you’ve written a poem, short story, or novel? Or haven just written anything? I often wonder why this is but I figure it’s because it’s a passion and gift that God has given us so to use it, of course it would feel good. But that’s just my opinion. I’m sure you have your own.

So how far are you on day 3. I’m almost to 2000 words and I would have beat that if I had written yesterday. But I’m going to write as much as I can today. I’m cleaning 3 rooms and washing the bedding and in some cases toys for those rooms and then putting them back together. So I have been up and down and not getting the time I wished for. However, I have been ale to make some decent progress today regardless of the chores I’ve had to do.

But I must go for now to finish up the laundry and feed my son who just informed me he was hungry.

So all my fellow Campers I wish you the best of luck meeting your word count at the end of the month.

Camp NaNoWriMo

Camp NaNo Is Here!

Janis I. Soucie

Good morning, Troopers! How are we all doing this morning? I pray you are well and ready for a day of intense writing. Well, okay it doesn’t have to be as tense as November’s NaNo but we still have some healthy competition with Camp NaNo.

I just started writing and I only have 300 words down when I realized I had forgotten some important information in my outline which I really need and would sound right if I didn’t add them in. So I figured I’d add the information in now less I forget about it later.

Do you do that if you forgot to add something in your outline, are you prone to fixing it right away or do you wait until after Camp is over?

So I have chosen a word count of 20,000 though I’m not sure I’ll reach that many words since I am only doing Camp to finish up a previous book of 50,000 words. So we’ll see how many words I’ll get. What word count have you chosen this time around? Feel free to leave your answers in the comments.

Well, I can’t be staying on the blog long if I’m going to be getting anything done. Best of luck to all you Lords and Ladies. Wish me luck!