Where the Heck Did You Go?

Writing serves a selfish purpose in my life. It is the one place that I come to that is my own. When I write, my audience is me and I try not to worry of the effects it will have on others (at least in the beginning stages. Editing is when I think of the consequences, and make the decision of whether to self-censor or not).

I heart my chaotic life. (No, really!) I work full time as an assistant. My day is to serve clients and bosses and to keep them happy. After that comes school, where my job is to keep the professors happy and earn my big fat “A”. Motherhood is a very rewording role (my favorite and the most important), but it does require keeping irrational short people safe, fed, and if at all possible, happy.

This semester added a new layer in the form of two group presentations. This caused me to team up with two groups in order to create projects that will be a large chunk of our final grade. And although, I love my group, it does add an extra few straws on the stress donkey’s back.

When life gets too full, the first thing that disappears is reading for fun. It’s replaced with textbooks and studying. Once the reading for fun stops, the writing well is the next to dry up. I try to keep writing. It is my release; my escape from the world, but I’ve noticed the relationship between the amount of words that go in and the amount of words that come out. And when one stops, the next slowly disappears. It becomes physically painful when the words stop. And it has been nearly two weeks since I wrote anything new. (Ouch!!)

I finally broke down and force fed myself a few books to get back into the swing of things. Over the holiday break, I inhaled Joshilyn Jackson’s The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. It is a much different type of book from what I normally read, but I really enjoyed it. It gave me some perspective on some possible future books for me – opening some closed (locked and hidden) doors.

The reason that I picked up this book was also a bit unusual. I signed up for a Pitch Critique Workshop. Joshilyn Jackson has been in the possession of my first 20 pages since mid October, and I thought it only fair that I read her novel. This weekend she will be giving me my critique. Then in a separate time slot, I will be giving her my pitch, and she will critique that as well. Since I turn into a bumbling idiot when someone asks me about my book, this should be quite entertaining. (Toss some more hay on there, Sweetheart. He can take it. LOL)

Currently, I am reading King’s The Shining. It’s just what I need to get in the right frame of mind for my current WIP. Another issue in itself. We’ll come back to that one later. I may need real therapy by the time this book’s done. Haha.

There are two more weeks left in this taxing semester, and then I’m back. I will try to do a better job of posting in the meantime – and adding a few more words daily to that WIP over there on that side bar. Maybe not the thousand or so words a day that I was doing, but each word makes a dent.