Not a bad week, all told! Better than last week, despite Goldbug deciding that the earlier bedtime might mean he doesn’t really need a nap until 11am or later, which then means he’s still awake at the end of his morning walk. Which is only slightly horrifying.
Today, after two loops around the neighborhood, he was still awake, and I think I broke out in a cold sweat thinking, “Oh, boy. Here it is. Just when you get used to a routine, the baby shakes it up on you!” But thankfully, I got him down for an afternoon nap around 2pm and had time to pound through some writing.
Missed my exercises, though. Ah well. If something’s got to give, I’d rather it be the exercising than the writing, though maintaining both are important. One thing at a time, right?
Accomplished This Week
First off, a confession: I did NOT do any planning on the novel this week. I KNOW. I’m ashamed, okay? (I’m not, really: the short fiction was flowing this week, and I let it, and it was glorious.) But I did finish a rewrite draft that’s been languishing for months (OKAY YEARS), and I started redrafting another story that needs some love before it gets submitted.
AND. I’m participating in AWC’s Furious Fiction challenge this weekend, which means writing a flash story utilizing the three random rules and coming in under 500 words. AND I DID IT. I drafted it just this afternoon, and while I need to do a bit of tweaking yet, it’s actually not horrific.
I’m quite pleased with myself! It’s the first time I’ve really plotted something, knowing what I was going for. I mean, I’ve got a lot to learn via practice still (oh so much…), but it’s a decent attempt at applying what I’ve learned about short fiction. So, pleased overall!
Inspiring Me This Week
Saga. Saga Saga SagaSagaSagasagasagaaaaaaaaaaa~! Oh man. I finished Book 3 last night, and I AM DESTROYED. *sobs* How I’m going to make it through this, I don’t know, but I will, and I look forward to seeing where the series goes after this, provided it goes at all, someday… It just blows my mind on character, character-design, theme, concept, and how much I love the characters–even some of the more despicable ones! And how much it hurts when one of them dies. OH. MAN. *sniffles*
Anyway.
I’m also getting ready to swap my thirty-three item capsule for my spring version (again, with 33, as inspired by Project333). It’s exciting to move clothes that have become stale to me (but that I still generally like) into storage for the season and break out some new things that are more warming-weather appropriate. I’m feeling an upsurge in energy because of it, and that’s always nice during these cold end-of-winter weeks. (Even if winter up here in New England seems to last until at LEAST end of April…)
I’ve also been playing around in my notebook to find a few spreads that will work better for tracking submissions, various stages of stories, and what I’m waiting on so I don’t always feel like I have to keep everything in my head. I use Duotrope to track submissions, but sometimes it’d be nice to not have to log-in to see what’s out and what markets are available for something. It’d also be nice to have a very easy overview of where something has already gone and an easy-access list of my “retired” stories with some of their “to fix” notes at hand. Plus, I get to use post-it notes, which I love. And stickers.
What I’m Working on Next Week
Whoo-boy. Okay. Next week. *1000 mile stare* I’m making progress on a new short story rewrite, but I should be getting the rewritten one out ASAP before my next course starts and saps me of time and focus. So I may try to focus on polishing that one up and getting it out by Friday.
I also really, really need to finish plotting the novel. So I’m going to have to fit that in. It didn’t happen during my writing time this past week, in part because I’m a touch addicted to word count as a measure of progress, which I KNOW is not a perfect measure. Thinking requires so much time, but it does need to be done.
So maybe I’ll isolate Monday/Tuesday for novel planning, and focus on editing Wednesday-Friday. I’m not sure three days will really be enough to get the story ready for submission (but then, five days might not be enough either), so I may have to push that deadline back a week and see if I can wrap it up as submitted for the FOLLOWING Friday. I don’t like to do that, but it may be necessary. Especially if Goldbug’s naps continue to flake out.
How’s your week going? How do you juggle different creative projects? Read anything that’s blown your mind recently? I’d love to hear about it!
Maggie Slater 