Just thought I’d pop in for a little mid-week checkup. I read a blog post a little while ago about being more productive with writing, and while I didn’t connect with all the advice, the first tip about visualizing how you want to feel at the end of a work day caught my eye. So I tried it. And I like it! I don’t always remember to do it every day, but it helps me to quantify exactly what I hope to accomplish, and in some way, allows me to feel the way I wanted when I do achieve that goal (instead of immediately switching into the “Yeah, but I didn’t get to X, X, or X…”), which is nice!
Have a story on hold at a magazine I would love, love, love to appear in, so I’m super excited about that, while simultaneously reminding myself that I’ve had stories held there before, and nothing has come of it. But I’m trying to remember that if it gets passed on, they’ll still probably provide a little feedback as to why they didn’t pick it, and that will be great and useful, too. #positivethinking #noexpectations #dontjinxit
My super fantastic beta reader K. got the edits for “Any Day But Today…” back super fast, and yesterday I implemented almost every comment. I was anticipating a bit more foot-dragging, but once I got going, it was impossible to stop. (Man, have I mentioned how much I love that Bug goes to bed so well? Or that most evenings I’ve got the dishes taken care of so I can jump straight to writing? It’s great!) So sometime this week, I need to do a read-aloud pass on a hard copy to smooth the prose and catch inconsistencies. I’ll probably let it rest tonight, maybe start the “Mirror, Mirror” rewrite, and then pick it up tomorrow for the maybe-almost-final pass. I think it’s a fun story–a somewhat coarse, ridiculous, silly story with hair-plucking bots, telekinesis, lady business, and parking tickets. But I really do enjoy writing snarky, and this one’s snarky as hell.
We’ll see how it goes! Best of luck to everybody and your to-do lists! Here’s hoping September is a productive month. ^_^
Maggie Slater 