If establishing a writing career involves hills and valleys, this week was a valley.

A really long valley. With snakes. And poison ivy.

Among the events worth mentioning…

Being let go from a side gig I’d enjoyed doing and a few more “Not Selected” notifications for my short film on the festival front – including Austin, which I knew was a longshot going in.

Sometimes things just don’t go the way you’d like them to, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Weeks like this can be really tough on one’s motivation. Nothing seems to go right. You feel totally helpless, and maybe a little hopeless.

There are lots of ways to get through this. You just need to figure out which one works best for you.

Some might decide this is the last straw and stop completely. Or opt to hit pause and take a little break.

Or, like yours truly, think that things will (have to?) improve and start working on helping that come to fruition. It ain’t easy, but it’s better than the alternative.

As is my standard M.O., some time was spent wallowing, and then it was back on the proverbial horse to take care of stuff that needed doing, including…

-Got some solid notes on the fantasy-comedy, with more on the way (plus a Zoom call for more in-depth notes).

-Came up with a twist on an older script that would really change things up.

-Passed the halfway point on the action-comedy spec. This “write now, edit later” approach is great.

-A few more festivals to try with the short film. Hoping in the end it gets into at least one or two. Fingers crossed.

I sincerely hope I don’t have another week like this, but there most likely will be. Probably more than once.

When that happens, I’ll muddle through to the best of my ability, then get right back into the thick of it.

Here’s hoping the number of hills in my future outweigh the number of valleys.