Revision 6 28 Dec-3 Jan
Rest and Reset
Last week I mentioned the holidays and possibly taking a break from everything. And yes, I finally did take a break.
I am usually pretty hard on myself, especially since coming back to school. If I lay down to read a nice book, after about 30 minutes I start to feel guilty if I’m not writing, researching a paper, doing some kind of ‘work’… or I have to put the fiction book aside and grab something non-fiction.
As much as the last 3.5 years in school have been a salvation for me… I have lost my ability to read 50-100 fiction books a year. I’m hoping that when I finish my final class, I’ll be able to sit back and read again without guilt.
Why Guilt?
I don’t know why I feel guilty? Well, that’s not true. I spend a lot of time watching movies and siting back, and I have tons of things I COULD be doing instead. I could be writing an essay, I could be writing a short, I could be painting, I could be learning to solder, etc etc.
It got to the point where I would actually yell at myself saying I was lazy, and attacking my own self esteem. I couldn’t keep going like this though. So, what I started to do was make a list of things that I needed to accomplish. Usually, my work hours and a list of things I needed to do for school. Then I would check things off on my list and when I decided to step away from my desk… as soon as the guilt hit, I would pull out the list and look at everything that was accomplished, everything that was left on the list, and how much time was left in the week.
This list helped me to allow myself to relax and enjoy a movie or a book. Not always, but enough that I started to loosen up.
Unhealthy Writing:
I mentioned in other posts that when I was a teenager, and even just a few years back, I would set out to write and I would sit at my desk for 8-10 hours and just keep typing all day. Without stretching, getting up, and even skipping meals or bathroom breaks.
I have a wrecked back and damaged kidneys to show for it. In the last 4 months I have managed to write 100K words and then revise 194k in just five weeks. I did all of that with only writing in smaller blocks. Yes, on some days I would spend 4-5 hours in the chair and on others I would only spend 2. But every day I managed to cut away at my goal and everyday I allowed myself to relax. Much healthier.
I’m only talking about all of this because I like to open up and let you all inside to look around. That was the point of this blog. I mean, I’ve always been intrigued by the behind the scenes talk. The business, the rejections, the “how to” of everything. The psychology of the writer is also important.
Holidays
So, we just went through xmas and new year’s, that was pleasant. I mean, I didn’t really go anywhere and I didn’t see many people. Matter of fact, I still have some gifts sitting beside my desk that I have to get to friends. Either I need to drop them off on porches or I need to pack them up and ship via the post office.
January 1st is also inventory day at my Comic Shop. So, that was interesting. I’m still exhausted from counting EVERY single comic and item in the store. My shoulders feel like rubber and I want to take two days to rest.
No Writing
So, other than this blog, I took the whole last week off from writing. Nothing.
The manuscript is compiled and in good shape, though I still have misgivings about the last half (the work that was not work-shopped). I did think about jumping onto the outlining for the next series, but that was something that I planned on working on come February. I will not wait that long and I imagine that I will start building my series bible in the next week or two.
I know that this is going off format, but I wanted to still make an update this week.
What’s to Come:
My teacher has the first half of my book and I expect I’ll get some feedback on that sooner or later.
The next two weeks have very little actual schoolwork for me. I need to upload my resume… which is already finished and then write a journal about the business side of writing.
I’m trying to read a fiction book; I want to get back to reading at least a handful of books a month. Not counting comics which I read every week. I want to get back to reading for pleasure and not for school… that said I do have a bunch of non-fiction books that I will be adding in… for pleasure reading.
I’m painting again, so I have a bunch of minis that I’m working through, and I have some side work that needs to be finished.
That’s just about everything.
Thank you all again for reading and welcome to the beginning of year three of my website. Have a few things planned, might try to get some other posts besides the Thesis Diary up and running. Maybe a gaming journal again… or some writing blogs as I work on my outlines and world building.
