Another bum week. I tell you, toothing is the worst thing to happen to the primary-caregiver/writer. Naps once dependable are shot through with wriggles and evaporate at the slightest noise. Nighttime sleeping is a tumultuous affair, more characterized by shots of adrenaline whenever the wee one stirs than by restful slumber. And don’t even get me started on the magnitude of drool! Most of my clothes have been soaked through multiple times at this point, and it’s still early.
But-! We’ve seen Tooth 4.0 poke through, so perhaps we’re nearing the end of this madness for at least a brief period of reprieve? *fingers crossed* Still, the last two weeks have been an absolute nightmare, coupled by the changing weather which makes me feel cozy but not very driven, and a couple of projects that slammed into pretty firm brick walls conceptually: it has not been a productive week (*cough*month*cough*). Even reading has been a challenge at night, because the little guy doesn’t sleep deep enough for me to shift to get my book and/or adjust my booklight. Any tiny little thing wakes him.
On the plus side, we have recently crossed into what I call the “poltergeist” phase of babyhood, which involved lots of opening cabinets and dumping things on the floor for ENDLESS fun, so perhaps I’ll get a few more minutes to work now that he’s so happily occupied…
That’s not to say I didn’t get anything done this week. (I mean, keep your expectations low, but…) I did dive back in yesterday and chainsaw out the way, way, way overwritten chunk of the short story I’m “retyping” (HAHAHAHA-! Yeah, no, that’s a total rewrite…), which at least unstuck me on that project a little bit. Thinking–like, the verb–has been the most difficult part of the process these past weeks, because there’s so little quiet downtime. I need that quiet downtime to think! *sigh* Ah, well. Maybe this next week will be more manageable. I really need to finish up the novel rewrite thinking, or at least get a little further on that, and I really need to finish this short story so I can set it aside. I’m starting the world-building class on LitReactor on (Tuesday?), which may give me something to focus my energies on for a little bit, and perhaps help me with the novel rewrite thinking more generally (as world-building is a major issue in that particular tale, as in all my novel-length projects, for some dumb reason…). So we’ll see! Fingers crossed…
Maggie Slater 