Well. This is awkward. If you hadn’t guessed from the absolute silence on the website, June’s been… a month. No point tip-toeing around it. I haven’t been very productive or writerly-minded for weeks now.
Let’s talk about why.
Last Month
- Finish
- the
- fucking
- Book
How'd I Do?
- Finish
- Nope.
- the
- Nope.
- fucking
- Nope.
- Book
- annnnnnnnnnnd nope.
Total Word Count: 2,930
Shocking, right? Who could have guessed that a month with almost no website activity was also a month with almost no writing? Wild.
So, what the hell happened? Well… June is an intense month under normal circumstances, what with the end of the school year. Add to it that we’re still basically camping in our own house (no kitchen, no floors, no hot water) and it’s basically impossible to do anything other than survive.
But, wait, there’s more!
I couldn’t talk about this online until everything was official and all the appropriate people were notified, but… I got a new job! My time at the high school has been absolutely wonderful, and taught me so much, but I’m very excited to get back to Public Libraries. I get a short summer break (~3 weeks) and then I’m off on a new adventure!
Which is more (albeit good) stress. You know, because this year hasn’t been stressful enough.
But, the month wasn’t an entire loss. I did write almost 3k words, which is better than I did in April (the lowest month of the year so far). I worked on my short story “In Debt to the King Tide” and it’s *almost* done. Almost ready for revision. Almost ready to submit.
And that’s great. But it isn’t a completed rough draft of the damn book. And I am running out of time.
Speaking of time…
Hours Check
- Novel: 0 Hours
- Reading: 13 Hours
- Willamette Writers Meetings: 4.5 Hours
- Website Management: 5 Hours
- Short Story Submissions: .5 Hours
- Queries: 0 Hours
- Outdoor Time: 6.5 Hours
- “King Tide”: 4 Hours
- Podcast: 3.5 Hours
Total Hours: 37 Hours
And there it is, folks. The truth is in the pudding, or whatever. hard to get shit done when you don’t spend time on the things that need doing. But, just as true is that you can’t get blood from a turnip. I had very little to give, creatively-speaking, this month. Work was exhausting, and the house was not restorative in any way. So I played a lot of Stardew Valley and tended my garden.
And for once in my life, I don’t feel bad about that.
July Goals
- Finish the book
- Finish “King Tide”
- Start book revisions
I have two more weeks off. This first week of my summer vacation was actually pretty busy. We had workers here all week, installing cabinets and floors, which – while exciting – is still not a functional fucking kitchen. So, yeah. There’s that. I also spent a good chunk of this week catching up with friends I’d neglected since the house blew up. Dinners and lunches galore, and I am grateful for the time out of the house and out of my brain.
I also treated myself to some new makeup and clothes for the new job. So, I had a lot of fun and spent a lot of money and am now ready to hunker down and get some work done before my time’s up.
I’ve been re-reading the book, trying to gauge where I’m at what needs to happen. I know I’ve been saying it for months, but I know this draft is close to done. Like… 6k words away? It really is close, and I think if I can just lock myself away somewhere and ignore the world for a day or two, I might actually get it done. Because despite all my negativity and anxiety and concerns about the book, it really is good.
Like. Good, good. I like it, even though it’s an incredible mess right now and only half of what it will be. There’s a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s work I still want to do.
… so what am I waiting for?
Peace Out, Cub Scouts!
BZ
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