Morgan Shaw

In an episode of the classic children’s tv cartoon Kim Possible the cast is transported into the world of various tv shows. Shego, a villain, lands in a high school sitcom where a character is complaining about the day being “moopy.”

“Moopy? Did you just make that up?” Another character asks.

The high schooler says, “No, I made it up when I was seven. Seven was a moopy year.”

Well, boy can I tell you, 2025 was a moopy year, and January of 2026 continued the trend. Personal and professional wins and losses, political upheaval, moments of depression/anxiety, and a general malaise followed me into the new year as much as I tried to leave them in 2025, and it has been a real struggle to find my groove again in a world where everything feels so fragile and uncertain.

I’d be really surprised if I was alone in that. I think everyone I know is stressed, anxious, depressed, the list could go on and on. It isn’t news to anyone that we live in troubled times, to say the least, but hey . . . at least we’re all differently miserable together!

I joke, but I really am finding a lot of comfort in listening to others right now–how they are doing, what worries them and how they choose to comfort themselves, and strategies they recommend for overcoming our demons. My goal is to not only be a good creative but also healthy and happy person.

To that end, I thought I would share some strategies that have worked for me as I combat my own professional and personal malaise as a writer, as well as resources that have helped me feel more in control of myself and my productivity than I have in a while.

Lesson One: It is okay to prioritize things ahead of productivity

I am a worker bee that likes to work hard and play hard. At my happiest, I get a lot done in a day and then relax completely in the evening. That usually looks like writing somewhere between 1-2.5k words in my WIP, occupying myself with other tasks in the afternoon, then letting my brain unwind with an easy video game afterward.

But sometimes, my brain just doesn’t want to play ball. If I’m stressed, I struggle to focus on a task. If I’m worried, I don’t have the bandwidth to find creative solutions to my problems. If I’m burnt out, it feels like I’m lifting my body weight to force myself to simply stay upright at the computer. I tried so hard to be productive, yet I found that most of the time I was spinning my wheels in the mud, feeling useless and exhausted.

I’ve been forced to acknowledge a difficult truth: I work better when I listen to the needs of my body and my mind. If that means I have to allow myself a brain break in the middle of the day by taking a walk or by stopping to sip a steaming peppermint tea or even just by chatting with my friends, then I will, even if I don’t hit the word count I aimed for when I sat down.

Balance in all things, of course. It takes experience for me to know when I can push through my reluctance to work and when I can ease off the pressure, but admitting to myself that I need those breaks–not just from the work itself, but from the pressure I put on myself to hit deadlines and goals I created–is a first step that has made me feel better about my work moving forward.

(Just as I wrote this post, I had a completely unexpected interruption to my workflow–a flat tire while running an errand. It completely derailed the rest of my day, and I didn’t end up completing this post when I thought I would. Maybe in times past I would’ve felt down about this for the entire week, but I’m trying hard to push back that self-critical voice. Life happens sometimes. There’s no need to punish myself for that.)

Lesson Two: I flourish when I adhere to a schedule

I know, I know, “local woman discovers stove is hot.” Truly, I feel like I have to relearn this every year or so. It’s so easy to get into a habit, live by a new lifestyle for a month or two, and then slowly, day by day, slip back into old patterns.

And so what if that’s the case? There isn’t anything wrong with struggling to adhere to a long-term goal in the long-term. If it were easy with us, with me, then I wouldn’t have to have it as a goal. It would just be the way I naturally live.

Allowing myself the freedom to relax every now and again and tighten my schedule back up as needed has let my mind and body rest when I need to rest and lock in when I have the energy and need to do so.

All that to say, I feel best about myself and my work when I keep myself to a hard schedule. Consistency is key–waking up, sitting down to work, and turning off my monitor at the same times every day let me relax creatively into the structure. The more I don’t have to think about, the more I can focus on my true goal: writing.

Lesson Three: I need to be my first cheerleader

Working for myself (being the boss of my own author/editor/marketer/etc. business) is hard. I don’t have a supervisor telling me to write or berating me for not staying on task or giving me deadlines for WIPs.

In some ways, that is a true luxury that I feel really, really lucky to experience. Being in charge of my own writing cadence means that I can take a break when I need to and I can have a flexible schedule. That’s a huge privilege, and I never forget that.

But, at times, I do find myself missing the immediate feedback that comes from working in a more traditional structure and reporting to someone. When I finished a task at work, big or small, I had a supervisor or boss who could complement me or ask for revisions, coworkers to shoot the breeze or complain with, and clear cut expectations and deliverables.

Writing for myself has none of those things. If I’ve learned anything over the last month, its that hitting self-imposed deadlines might not be incredibly difficult for me, but writing is only one piece of the pie of a successful writer. And producing good art is contingent on believing in yourself and your vision.

It’s easy to be self-critical. I’ve had to work to be self-nurturing.

Recently, I created a small jar of affirmations. Every morning I take an affirmation of out the jar and read it to myself, which might feel silly sometimes, but something about that feels like a radical act of self-love.

Another thing I’ve done is reward myself for my little steps forward. No, that doesn’t mean I only reward myself when I hear good news about my work, but, instead, when I put myself out there at all. That means receiving answers back from queries, submitting short stories, and finishing edits on my manuscripts. Any thing that feels like I challenged myself, did something hard, and progressed my career as an author counts. Sometimes it even makes the times I hear back “no” sting a little less.

Lesson Four: Complete tasks that match my energy

I heard once that humans are built to be productive at all different times of the day. Some feel more energetic in the early or late morning, others the afternoon, and still others in the early to late evening. (I applaud you late night owls because that could never be me!)

I have scheduled myself to write in the morning for a while, but that has mostly been an outgrowth of when I had more of a strict 7-4 working schedule. I just continued doing what I was doing before.

Recently, though, I’ve been thinking about my best creative working period more thoughtfully. As I mentioned above, it has been really easy for me to force myself to sit at my desk at all hours of the day while feeling sometimes useful and other times like a lump on a log. Now, I’ve begun to change that.

I’m most inspired to write in the mornings, I’m sleepy in the afternoons, and sometimes the evening is my best time to write, but that’s hit-and-miss. Knowing this about myself, I’ve changed the way I allocate tasks.

Instead of forcing myself to write 4k words every day (which almost never actually happened), I instead do my creative writing in the morning, when it feels natural, then set aside my less demanding tasks for the afternoon. Querying, researching, reading, working on administrative work, practically everything else can be accomplished in the afternoon, when I have less energy. Leaving me to focus most of my creative energy on just a short window of a few hours.

The feeling of relief I felt when I accepted this about myself was surprising. There are few working tasks that feel as uncomfortable as forcing yourself to be creative when the juices just aren’t flowing.

Lesson Five: Commiserating with others helps

I saved this point for last because this is the lesson I am forever wrestling with. Humans are social creatures, and I’d say, for all our idiosyncrasies, writers are no different. Yet I, like many who spend time imagining people who aren’t real doing things that may or may not be impossible, am incredibly introverted.

I am lucky enough to have a very supportive system around me of friends and family who I’ve known for years, but I think it takes more than our dearly beloved to sustain the stress that can come from pursuing risky, creative work like writing and selling books.

It’s good to find your community! That can look like joining writing groups, listening to podcasts, connecting with writers online, attending conferences, anything that immerses you with like-minded people who face the same problems you do. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

For this last month, I’ve listened to tens of hours of podcasts, and it helps me feel a little less alone on my journey to publishing. Here are some of my recent favorites (and I’m always looking for more!):

• You, Me, and the Writing Journey (a mental health-focused pod that suggested some of my coping strategies I’ve talked about above!)
• The First Draft Club
• The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
• Print Run Podcast
• Way-Word Writers Podcast
• Flublishing
• Writing Excuses
• The Manuscript Academy

Hopefully Not Every Month Is a Moopy Month

I’m looking forward to not being as stressed as I am right now, and I have to have that to look forward to, otherwise things will start to look a little bleak. But while I’m muddling through a moopy day, or week, or month, falling back on some of these lessons that I’ve learned can help me still progress toward my goals and dreams while keeping me sane. Hopefully, they can help you if you are in a moopy time of life too.