I started an at-home writing retreat this week, a little modified from the ones I took back in 2018.
That time, I wrote and only wrote, forsaking both social media and exercise.
This year, I'm still exercising. It's foolish to stop, and I do quite a bit of mental writing this way, which makes me more efficient at the computer.
Also, the subject matter is dark, so keeping some positive connections is a healthy thing to do.
So instead of fourteen to sixteen hours of writing a day, it's looking more like ten to twelve.
Here are the goals. Below that, what I've accomplished.
All the even chapters of The Phoenix or fifteen chapters. This is first and foremost. And I started on it yesterday afternoon and wrote until my brain shut off at 9:30 p.m. (but I did have an extremely short night of sleep Thursday into Friday).
Finish formatting Lycanthropic Summer. Since I want to release it by October 1, this is important
Finish the last two chapters of Cornell Dyer and the Old Folks Home and copy edit it. My goal is three books a year. I'm just on the first one. So I'm way behind.
Finish formatting WriteOn Joliet's fourth anthology. This is even more first and foremost than The Phoenix.
Get the content Rebekah needs for a new website. Can't move forward without this. Better make it a priority.
Get Rebekah the photos she needs for the new Bertrand book. The goal is three a year. We released one last year. Again, way behind.
So far:
Nearly two chapter drafts of The Phoenix each day, and that's it.
Under the circumstances, not bad.
"Circumstances" being I didn't start until mid-afternoon on Friday, my second son Joshua (child number three) turned thirty-five yesterday, so I spend some time on the phone with him, and we had a family issue come up yesterday, too.
Oh, and I took a two-hour nap on Saturday and a two-hour nap on Sunday. So that really cut into my writing time, too. (I really, really needed those naps).
What about the boxes?
Well, I still have boxes to unpack from when we lost our home in 2013. Since we discarded mostly everything, I don't have many. But they're still there.
I promised Rebekah we would unpack a box a day during the retreat, to be continued on each vacation day to the end of the year, until all the boxes are unpacked.
I think that's do-able, don't you?
Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."
That time, I wrote and only wrote, forsaking both social media and exercise.
This year, I'm still exercising. It's foolish to stop, and I do quite a bit of mental writing this way, which makes me more efficient at the computer.
Also, the subject matter is dark, so keeping some positive connections is a healthy thing to do.
So instead of fourteen to sixteen hours of writing a day, it's looking more like ten to twelve.
Here are the goals. Below that, what I've accomplished.
All the even chapters of The Phoenix or fifteen chapters. This is first and foremost. And I started on it yesterday afternoon and wrote until my brain shut off at 9:30 p.m. (but I did have an extremely short night of sleep Thursday into Friday).
Finish formatting Lycanthropic Summer. Since I want to release it by October 1, this is important
Finish the last two chapters of Cornell Dyer and the Old Folks Home and copy edit it. My goal is three books a year. I'm just on the first one. So I'm way behind.
Finish formatting WriteOn Joliet's fourth anthology. This is even more first and foremost than The Phoenix.
Get the content Rebekah needs for a new website. Can't move forward without this. Better make it a priority.
Get Rebekah the photos she needs for the new Bertrand book. The goal is three a year. We released one last year. Again, way behind.
So far:
Nearly two chapter drafts of The Phoenix each day, and that's it.
Under the circumstances, not bad.
"Circumstances" being I didn't start until mid-afternoon on Friday, my second son Joshua (child number three) turned thirty-five yesterday, so I spend some time on the phone with him, and we had a family issue come up yesterday, too.
Oh, and I took a two-hour nap on Saturday and a two-hour nap on Sunday. So that really cut into my writing time, too. (I really, really needed those naps).
What about the boxes?
Well, I still have boxes to unpack from when we lost our home in 2013. Since we discarded mostly everything, I don't have many. But they're still there.
I promised Rebekah we would unpack a box a day during the retreat, to be continued on each vacation day to the end of the year, until all the boxes are unpacked.
I think that's do-able, don't you?
Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."
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