The original post for this week’s productivity check-in can be found here!
What am I working on this week?: Had a smashingly productive week this past week (thanks in large part to getting together with a writer friend Friday night and writing for a couple hours). That, and small goals of a retyped page at a time and a deadline to get the short story to a beta reader helped me to rally the troops and get the second draft of “Any Day But Today…” finished. This coming week, I’m going to start the rewrite (basically from scratch) of another story which I’l either try to get out this month, or–depending on how fast I can get it in working shape–possibly have it count for next month’s submission, if it needs extended work. Asking for the completed rough draft by the end of the week is probably a stretch, since if the beta read comes back I’ll be switching gears to wrap that up for submission by the 15th. But I’ll start the rewrite on “Mirror, Mirror” (working title) and see what I can do with it.
What’s inspiring me this week?: Still really enjoying The Art and Craft of Novel Writing by Oakley Hall, recommended by a classmate from the course I took back in February. I’ve picked up a few gems of advice that I’ve really loved, and am enjoying trying to implement them.
I’m also entering a new music-acquiring phase. I’ve worn out my old playlists and I’m hankering for something more substantial than Pandora, so I’ve become completely obsessed with the recent-ish (2013) and upcoming Empire of the Sun albums. I got into them a number of years ago with Walking on a Dream, and it really struck a cord with me, but I hadn’t been following their career too closely. But I heard a few songs from their 2013 album (namely, “I’ll Be Around”), and really liked it. And the samples from their upcoming album sound fun, too. And I love their sci-fi/fantasy-ish aesthetic cover art so freaking much. They may not be for everybody, but that song just gets under my skin and resonates for some reason. It’s a nice contrast to break up my recent fixation on Dead Letter Circus’ Aesthesis album (and particularly “Show Me”).
What am I avoiding this week?: Not avoiding so much as just uncertain how to proceed. I did a little review of my work process and the goal-mountain I’m working towards, and realized (or at least, recognized with a nod of agreement) that I really need to follow my longer novel(ish) length works to their full completion, rather than bounce around on rough drafts like I do with short fiction (which just leads to a lot of cruddy, unedited manuscripts I hesitate to pick up again). So I’m going to try picking a longer project I’ve already gotten to rough draft and try following through on it. I’m doing some contextual research for a far-flung future cryogenics/hoarders episode novel(la) already, so I’ll probably pick that one, but we’ll see. :)
Maggie Slater 