Friday Updates: Switching Gears and Checking-In

This week has been all about wrapping up the month of February and any outstanding goals. I got lucky and Goldbug took solid naps everyday this week, and the new workout regimen hasn’t quite kicked into full-gear yet, which gives me more time to write afterwards. I’m hoping it doesn’t interfere too much, or else I’ll have to reorder my time…

Accomplished This Week:

Managed to finish reading Gardening Without Work which makes four finished books for the month! Woohoo! Which is good, because I’ve got a growing TBR pile, and I’m itching to grab something off the top. You can check out my February Wrap-Up post to see the other books I finished in February.

I was a little worried over the last couple of weeks that I wasn’t going to hit the 20k word count expectation for the Novel Writing Essentials course I’m taking, but as of Tuesday, I surpassed it! So I’m not having to worry about being behind when Write Your Novel begins mid-way through March.

I’m really enjoying working from an outline for this second draft. It’s similar in some ways to summary drafting (which I loooooove, and intend to do at least once this year for some new book), but it’s nice in the second draft to have a very clear picture of what needs to happen. It also lets me pick and choose what scene to write based on my mood for the day, which has already proven extremely helpful (both in motivation and productivity).

Inspiring Me This Week:

This week, I finally started listening to Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold, and man. I missed the Vorkosagan universe. It’s just so…FUN. Unrepentantly FUN. I needed that so much this week, as a lot of my other reads are drifting towards the heavier side. (For those interested in how I balance my “currently-reading” pile, check out this poly-reading post here!)

I also started SAGA Book 3, which is a graphic madhouse of awesomeness. I forgot how delightful it is to have a perfect alignment of theme/concept/characters/plot. It’s just, wow. I love it. IT IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY. Big trigger warning flag on that one, because it is GRAPHIC. Graphic violence, graphic sex. It’s all in keeping with its thematic question (is sex the opposite of war), but if you’re squeamish AT ALL, this one probably isn’t for you. But if you can tolerate it, OMG royal robots! How fantastic is it to have aristocratic robot family? I LOVE IT SO MUCH. The characters are so dynamic, so complicated, so flawed, so shockingly relatable. I love characters on all sides of this intergalactic war, even when they really hate each other. It’s a wonderful reminder of how for each person, we’re the hero of our own story.

Also started rewatching the series Everest with my folks, since my mom had developed a taste for mountaineering non-fiction/documentaries. We watched Free Solo last weekend, which is always a great watch. I don’t have a fear of heights, but some of the shots in that film give me squirmy vertigo.

And for those of you interested in pen and ink and watercolor sketches, definitely check out the stunning sketch blogs of artist Suhita Shirodkar and artist Jean Mackay. Their beautiful work just feeds the soul, doesn’t it? Man, I love ink and watercolor.

What I’m Working on Next Week:

I’m going to take a wee step back from writing the book so that I can finish plotting out the last half. I’m very nearly through all of Act 1, but only have midpoint solidly worked out. Now I need to know where the rest fits in so that come Write Your Novel, I’m squared up and ready to write fast.

So instead of applying word count to the book, I’m going to try to blaze through the short story rewrite I’m working on. In fact, I’m going to put it down here: