It’s been a while since I did a writing update. So here goes.
In June, I joined the 100-for-100 challenge despite being in the midst of my busiest editing month of the year with a book that was over 550 pages in the editing document. I won’t be finishing the challenge this year, as I had to choose between helping my team in a reading game and making sure to write at least 100 words every day. When I weighed all the options, the two things that stuck out to me were that team activities take sacrifice in order to be successful and that I needed a mental break to recover from five months straight of edit jobs.
Don’t get me wrong; I love my editing work and all my clients. This year’s jobs and a few health issues that cropped up in the midst of them sucked my energy dry, so recovery was deemed necessary.
So I chose to give up my writing goal for that particular challenge to give my mind and body a chance to recover well and participate to my utmost ability in the team reading game. I am, however, getting back to writing this week, now that the game is over and I feel much more mentally alert. I’m still dealing with a couple of physical health bugaboos, but those are seeing great progress at the moment, so I don’t see that they’ll be hampering my writing progress moving forward.
Back in July, I scraped by and made my small (for me) goal of 18,000 words for Write In Faith Camp. I’m hoping for a more productive camp in November. (Registration will be mid-October.)
Exploring an idea for a novelist story was super slow and drove me nuts. It was for a novella I was going to submit to a collection, but when the submission guidelines came out, the word count was significantly less than expected.
Thankfully, I got an idea for a short story that should work. Not only that, but an outline came to mind within just a few hours. That was way better and a lot smoother than the previous one. I’m not totally nixing the other idea, but I am tabling it for the moment.
My new goal for September is to hone the outline, work up a synopsis and logline, figure out a proposal, and continue the first draft I began a week or so ago.
I’m pretty excited about this story. It features a diverse cast of characters that I already love, though I don’t know them super well yet. It also features a novelist, of course. And I’m really happy to report that family is front and center.
When the family aspect sifted into my mind, I knew this story was going to be the one for me to focus on next, because family is one of my favorite things. This particular family has its flaws, but it also has ways in which it functions well and supports one another.
Culture comes into play, and I’ve been exploring some recipes I can try to see how they taste, if they’re ones I’d like to include in a pivotal scene I know is coming.
All the characters I know about have been named. I haven’t yet figured out the images for inspiration for these characters. This, for me, is key, because it helps to have visuals to refer to for hair and eye color, face shape, and other features that are easy for me to forget when I’m neck deep in a first draft.
I’m ready to dig in and see what all God has for me to discover within this story.
I’ll likely dabble with another couple of stories as well, if time allows, as my ADD hardly ever lets me focus on only one story. But I’m also expecting an edit job to work on in September, so the novelist shorty is definitely my first priority in my writing sessions.
What are you looking forward to in September?
Any writing plans that you’re excited about?
Are there any books you’re looking forward to reading next month?
Springtime in Surrey and Charm Bracelet Giveaway
There’s a huge giveaway going on here on Writing to Inspire this month. Be sure you enter to win the grand prize that includes a paperback copy of Springtime in Surrey and a handcrafted charm bracelet inspired by the book.
Springtime in Surrey BINGO
During the full month of August, I’m hosting a Springtime in Surrey BINGO Reading Challenge Game. There are prizes! Come join the fun on this article.
Books to Read
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Short Stories
Want to read free short stories? Explore my short stories page.