I got up at 4:45 this morning because I couldn’t get words out of my head. I had what might be a potential intro draft in mind for this body image memoir I want to write and I could not sleep. I kept rephrasing the opening sentences over and over again until I had to get up and start writing.

Just as I got into flow, a very confused Joe poked his head in. He had reached over for weekend morning cuddles but my side of the bed was empty. I usually sleep in on weekends, especially if I don’t have to start work til 2. (Yeah, this is going to be a looong ass day with much coffee needed)

After I finished the intro draft, I pulled out my copy of “Fast Draft Your Memoir” and the accompanying workbook, and started filling out the intro chapter questions. These went pretty quickly. Questions like “What are some things you want to share in this book?” “What are you afraid of when you think of writing this book?” My answer? Internet trolls. Silly, I know. But, the idea of some ignorant fatphobic trash goblin tanking my book with 1 star reviews scares me and angers me that I have this concern.

“Why do I need to write this book?” I’m literally losing sleep over it!!

My original plan was to work on a chapter or two per week. Then I have something to work on on the plane when we go to Disney at the end of July. But, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I may get further along than that.

I also took some time to soak my fountain pen converters. I tried cleaning them a while ago and it’s soo dang tedious! I read that soaking them in a little dish soap and water can help. Since I’m going to be using my fountain pens a lot to work on this project. I don’t know why other than it makes me feel fancy. And, I’m ordering more pens and ink from Atlas Stationers as a birthday gift to myself so now I really need to use them.

When I went to the kitchen to get some dish soap, I said to Joe, “I love my fountain pens. I love how they write and my slowly growing ink collection. But cleaning them is a BITCH!” He just chuckled and said, “I can imagine.” “But I’m gonna get more because apparently I have a problem.” “You said it. Not me!” he said, laughing.

I worked on a few other things before I had to go to work in an attempt to not do the whole workbook in a day but it was a struggle.

Sunday, May 17, 2026:

So, I got through chapter 2 in the workbook yesterday before I went to work. And finished reading chapter 4 also before work. I worked on other journaling and attempted some revisions on New Witch while actually at work because I could easily set those things aside when needed for a phone call or to help a visitor. But, holy crap, my brain is so fried. I somehow managed to get through Coffee Bunny last night, answering some of the questions in chapter 3, and then crashed hard and fast.

Chapter 2 and 3 were very interesting, though. Chapter two talked about the difference between a memoir and an autobiography. And the two types of memoir- slice of life or stories centered around a theme, which is what I’m going for.

Chapter 3 was called “Reasons Not to Write a Memoir,” and Rachael goes into a discussion about writing a memoir as revenge or just going on about how fabulous you are. Or “boo hoo, my life is the worst.” Anger and sadness are valid. But, it can’t be the solo focus of the book. That’s boring. And, the “I’m so awesome” memoir? Yeah, people will think you’re full of shit. Although, she explains it much more eloquently. Planning on working on those questions today.

I went on a slight side tangent during the chapter 2 questions, talking about how it’d be so cool to send my book to Rachael and say, “Hey! I did a thing and ‘Fast Draft’ helped!” I imagined her loving it and inviting me to be interviewed on her podcast, “Ink in Your Veins,” and becoming a best seller and my fiction taking off as an extension of that. I also catastrophized and imagined getting a threatened lawsuit if I didn’t remove her name from all credit of this absolute trash. I don’t think she’s the sue-happy type but, again, I catastrophize so that’s what my brain came up with.

Today, before work, I finished chapter 3 workbook questions but then was too tired to continue.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

I didn’t touch the workbook at all yesterday. I tried to read a little at work but it was hard to concentrate since I was at work and dreaming of my one, possibly two, getaways in the second half of this year. My whole motivation to come to work the extra hours I’ve been doing. Literally having dreams about one of them. I also had a bunch of phone calls and tasks I needed to take care of before work. And, I’m a Millennial! We hate phone calls! Funny that I have a job where a majority of what I do is answer the phones.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Happy birthday to meeee!

I started on chapter 4 questions and this chapter talks about writing about family and friends and the line between telling your truth and pissing people off to the point of irreparable damage of your relationships. So, these questions are going to take a little time to answer.

Some people I have to mention in this project have passed on so their opinions aren’t going to impact me all that much. But, my poor body image is a generational issue and that might lead to a problem depending on how I phrase things. I have to make it clear that it’s not these people’s fault. Well, not fully. And, that may soften things? We’ll see.

Friday, May 29, 2026

Tried to read a little more in bed buuuut my energy almost immediately disappeared. So, I’ll keep going next week. Been a little crazy being Peanut’s last week of school.

Gonna close out this post here so I can guarantee it gets up on Monday for the writing challenge.

Have a good day, everyone!

Thank you for reading. If you want to see more of me online, check out my LinkTree (http://linktr.ee/careyhauthor), where you can find all my socials and links to my books.