Home again

I'm back from my desperately needed vacation. My goals were to relax, read & write a little.

I read a book that somehow had been on my shelf for nearly a year. I relaxed which had an unexpected result - I've long felt the building where I work is not the healthiest place. After being away for 12 days, having had one headache (weather related) and no real issues, I was back for less than 2 hours before my head was pounding and my allergies had kicked in hard. (Hard enough to set off the vertigo/dizziness.) I must take a look at what I can do to counter them.

I did do some writing. I spent time in the garden at the B&B and at The Sleepless Goat - very different atmospheres but both allowed me to get words down. I also came to some realizations about my main character. Now to keep the momentum and get more words down.

Trying something different

In an effort to reconnect with my WIP, I'm taking a break from my novels' world. Just for a time. No notes. No research. No deliberately thinking about plot, etc. Will it work? Time will tell.

Between now & then, there's an old piece that has been asking for attention - a different genre and something I've been thinking of expanding for some time. I have a new notebook, a list of existing characters & the beginnings of a list of research I'll need to do. Looking forward to my vacation & having time to write whenever I want.

Small update

Well, the short story has officially been shelved. As much as I wanted to submit to that anthology, the story just wasn't coming together. Perhaps without the deadline, I'll be able to wrangle it into something cohesive (and hopefully interesting) and send it elsewhere.

I decided to make a list of things I'd like to do/accomplish before my next birthday. One is to update this blog more often. The other is to complete the first draft of Chaos Unleashed.

I've been doing a lot of inner work over the past year. I think it's time to apply some of the things I've discovered about myself and my processes to my writing.

Wish me luck.

Weekend thinks

This is Ad Astra weekend. For a number of reasons, I decided not to attend this year. In some ways, I regret the decision but seeing people is a struggle when everyone is on panels. There wasn't the balance between the cost of attending and what I perceived I'd achieve by going.

Yesterday, I took the GO bus to Mississauga for shopping/visiting with V. I tried writing on the way there - very hard because the girls* behind me spent the whole trip pushing on my seat, loudly cattily gossiping which would lapse into bad singing. The trip home went better from a writing point of view ... although the warmth of the sun did have me napping for part of the trip.

Today, I scribbled a bit at breakfast. Now, I need to add yesterday & today's scribbles to the file. Hope I can read my handwriting. :-)

* In this case, girls = university students

April?

If I judge my writing progress by how often I update this journal ... well, it's probably fairly accurate. The day job and some other issues have done a number on my creative output.

I have been poking at a short story for a few months. I still don't know exactly where it's going but it appears to be picking up a bit of steam. Since I have a deadline of the end of the month for the first draft, that's a good thing. If things don't start to gel, I'll either need to get out and push or give up on the story.

February

I don't even want to think about how quickly January passed. Did I accomplish my writing related goals of 'claiming my writing space' or 'developing an idea for an anthology short'? Sort of.

One thing I did do was send my regrets to the concom running Ad Astra. There are too many things happening and something had to give. In this case, it was the convention. Hopefully next year.

Will February see the completion of the first draft of the short? Will I find the creative thingies for my writing space? Time will tell.