In the early hours of the detox, you can write a letter from your drinking self to your sober self reflecting why you want to quit drinking, and your hopes for the future. When the physical withdrawal symptoms make the process tough, you can read this letter for motivation. Who do you hope to be? What are you ashamed of? Don't push away negative emotions. Write out who you are quitting drinking for, who you have hurt, how you have hurt yourself and those you love. Write out the values you'd like to live by and why. "Grounding," which is similar to mindfulness, is a series of research-backed techniques that can help you get through extreme cravings by focusing on the present moment. When a craving hits, use your senses to ground yourself by noticing what's right in front of you. Keep going for as long as it takes for the craving to pass. You can rotate among several techniques if one isn't working. Practice the following techniques:  Describe the details of your environment without judging them. For example, you could notice that the carpet is thick and soft, the walls are blue, there's a crack in the ceiling, and the air smells fresh. Distract yourself by naming items in a category, such as types of fruit or countries in alphabetical order. Ground yourself physically by doing a simple exercise or running your hands over a textured surface. Think pleasant thoughts: name your favorite foods or your favorite TV characters. Think or say aloud a statement that helps you cope, like "I've got this." Withdrawal often causes vomiting and diarrhea, which can easily dehydrate you. Be sure to drink enough water to replace lost fluids. You could also drink sports drinks to replace lost electrolytes, but you or your partner should limit these to one or two a day at most. The high sugar content in these drinks can make symptoms worse in large doses. Although you will probably not have much of an appetite, you still need nutrients to get you through this. Don't force yourself to eat large meals- this could make you sick. Continue regular nutrient intake and eat the small frozen dishes if you are too weak to leave the house. Rather than snacks, focus on foods that will replace the nutrients you've lost while going through withdrawal. Staying locked inside for days will probably make you feel sicker. Sitting outside for just a few minutes and getting fresh air and sunlight can help you feel much better. You won't be in any shape to run a marathon or lift weights, but you should move around as much as you can. Staying sedentary is bad for your mental and physical health. Physical activity releases endorphins that help fight the depression and anxiety detoxing causes. Take short walks and get up to stretch once in a while to keep your body moving. Keep talking with your partner and let him know how you're feeling. This will not only pass the time, but it will let him know if he should consider getting medical help for you. Due to the physical and mental symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, people often cave during the detox process. This does not mean you're a weak person. It just means that you need to try again. If this is the case, you may require specialized supervision. Consider attending a rehab or detox facility to help you get through the process.

Summary: Write a letter to yourself. Practice "grounding" techniques. Drink plenty of water. Eat as much as you can. Get fresh air. Exercise. Assess your condition. Consider professional help if you need to do another detox.


Revision literally means to re-view something, to look at it again. Look at your fiction from the point of view of your readers, not you as a writer. If you had paid money to read this book, would you be satisfied? Do you feel a connection to your characters? Revision can be incredibly hard; there’s a reason why in the writing business it’s often talked about as “killing your darlings.” Don't be afraid to cut out words, paragraphs, and even entire sections. Most people pad their stories with extraneous words or passages. Cut, cut, cut. That is the key to success. If something in your story isn’t working, change it up! If it's written in first person, put it in third person. See which you like better. Try new things, add new plot points, add different characters or put a different personality on a current character, etc. Particularly when you’re just starting out, you may try to use shortcuts to express something, such as overusing adverbs and adjectives to describe how an event or experience feels. Mark Twain offers some good advice on dealing with fluff words: “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very.’ Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” For example, consider this sentence from Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon: “‘Hurry, Bella,’ Alice interrupted urgently.” Interrupting is itself an urgent action: it puts a stop to another action. The adverb doesn’t actually add anything to the action. In fact, this sentence doesn’t even need a dialogue tag; you can show one character interrupting another by using an em-dash, like this:“Sure,” I said, “I was just ab--”“Come on already!” Writers often lean heavily on clichés, especially in early drafts, because they’re very familiar ways of expressing an idea or image. However, that’s also their weakness: everyone has read that a character “lives life to the fullest,” so it lacks genuine impact. Consider this advice from playwright Anton Chekhov: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” This advice also points out the usefulness of showing rather than telling. These are the little things that can get lost while you’re drafting but that readers notice immediately. Your character might have been wearing a blue dress at the beginning of the chapter but is now wearing a red dress in the same scene. Or one character leaves the room during a conversation but is back in the room a few lines later without having been shown re-entering it. These little errors can quickly irritate readers, so read carefully and correct them. Sometimes, dialogue can look perfectly fine on the page but sound cringe-worthy when actually spoken by people. Or you may discover you’ve written a sentence that extends for an entire paragraph and even you get lost by the end. Reading your work aloud helps you catch awkward passages and places that have information gaps.

Summary: Revise, revise, revise. Experiment with different techniques. Eliminate fluff. Slice out clichés. Check for continuity errors. Read your fiction out loud.


Move the oven rack to the bottom of the oven. Have a window open or turn a fan on to ensure adequate ventilation. This is very important, as the melting vinyl will give off fumes that are not safe to breathe in. Choose a bowl that is a little smaller than the record, and set it right-side-up onto a baking sheet. To further protect your baking sheet, line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Make sure that you are happy with the size of the bowl. The record bowl will end up roughly the same size. Make sure that the record is centered and that the label is facing upward. If your record has a label on each side, make sure that the side you like the best is facing up. If the record is dirty, clean it first. Again, make sure that the can is centered. The can will weigh the record down as it heats up, and help it conform to the shape of the bowl. If you don't have a can, fill a cloth bag with dried beans or rice, and use that instead. Place the baking sheet into the oven and let it bake. After about 3 to 5 minutes, the vinyl will start to soften and warp. Do not bake it longer than 10 minutes. Adjust the shape while the record is in the oven. Use a metal spatula to poke and prod it. Use a pair of oven mits to take the entire baking sheet out of the oven. Set it down onto a heat-safe surface, and let the record cool down. This should only take about 10 to 15 minutes. The record will now have a bowl-like shaped with ruffled sides. You can use it to store non-food items, like as jewelry, ornaments, or even remote controls.
Summary: Preheat your oven to 200 to 250°F (100 to 120°C) and open a window. Set a metal or glass heat-safe bowl onto a baking sheet. Place the record on top of the bowl. Place a heavy can on top of the record. Bake the vinyl until it starts to warp. Take the record out of the oven and let it cool. Remove the record from the bowl.