<Shakes head… throws hands up in the air> Okay. Here’s the deal. I have not put up a new Check in since July. It is now November. This was not intentional. I wrote first drafts of several check ins, so it wasn’t like I somehow forgot about it. I just never followed through with the posting. There is no reason for this, no excuses, nothing other than I just didn’t make it happen. So, here is a quick rundown of what’s been going on the last four months.
New Steps
Forge and Vine is now sitting around 114,000 words (up 7,000 as of my last post). I have done a lot of work on it, and I am very proud of myself with how it is coming along. I have kind of changed my attitude toward it in the last couple months. I was feeling pressure (all internal) to get it finished and published as fast as possible because I did not publish a book last year. But I’ve since shifted my perspective. I am consistently working on it, but I am not forcing it. That won’t do me any good and it certainly will not benefit the story. It will take as long as it takes.
At the same time, I am also working on my new adult urban fantasy. I had a much better handle on this story when I began drafting it, so it is much easier to edit. I’m currently sharing it with my critique partners a chapter at a time to get an outside perspective on it. In all honestly, this will probably be the next book to get published. I’m okay with that.
I am also in the very early stages of a possible collaboration with my critique partners. We are in the brainstorming stages right now. She is an outliner; I am a pantser, so this could get interesting… more on that project as it progresses.
Since the last time I posted, I attended SAGA in Winston-Salem NC. It was wonderful. I went with my critique partner. We had an amazing brainstorming session one night that was a blast. The talks were very interesting, and we ended up making friends with two other writers who live in the DC area. We have since had a few virtual meetings with them and are currently swapping pages for critique. Networking is one of the best parts about attending conferences.
The Breakdown
There is no way I can run through all the stuff I have consumed and loved over the last four months. Right now, I am focused on reading some foundational writing craft books, just to bolster my understanding of structure, because I have mostly been running on instinct that I have developed through reading. I am also slowly working my way through Brandon Sanderson’s BYU lecture series on YouTube. It is a pretty awesome resource for anyone looking to learn more about writing speculative fiction.
Living Life
A couple weeks ago, I went on my first solo writing retreat. I stayed in an Air BnB about two hours from home for five days. The Air BnB was beautiful. It was a one room apartment built above a detached garage. The weather was great, so I was able to open the many windows. The trip was incredibly restful even though I managed to get more work done than I had in weeks. I logged 18.25 hours of focused writing time and wrote nearly 10,000 new words in the projects mentioned above. I wrote in the morning until I felt myself losing focus. Then, I would go out for lunch and take my notebook with me. Every time, I ended up writing while out. Then I would return and have another writing session, then make dinner, and if I was feeling it, another writing session in the evening. If not, I would read or watch a movie. It was glorious.
Update in my back saga. I had an injection in the bursa between two vertebrae. It was not pleasant, but it seems to have healed the pressure I was feeling. So far, I still have back pain everyday by the time I get home from work. The theory is that my muscles have been so irritated for so long that it is just going to take a bit of time for them to calm down. Fingers crossed.
That’s it for today. Hopefully, it will not be so long before I post again.
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