Saturday Check-in: pre-deadline burnout

photo credit: Carli Jeen on Unsplash

Hello there my fellow story seekers!

I’ve never successfully been one of those writers who wrote every day. I’ve tried many, many, many times over the years. (If you’re looking to write every day, by the way, and have more confidence in yourself than I do, I highly recommend checking out the #WriteChain Challenge.) I don’t know what it is. Except I kind of know what it is. It’s a combination of two things:

• fear of the blank page (aka writer’s block), and
• burnout

Writing every day isn’t a sustainable creative practice for me. I have to be able to go a few days without even having to think about writing; days-long stretches where I don’t even have to write a sentence.

How I combat burnout with my current writing schedule

During the semester, I don’t have the luxury of waiting for when the mood hits me to write. For my MFA program this semester, I’m expected to produce upwards of 45 pages a month. This is a huge number for me. (Although I must say I’m becoming more and more comfortable with it.)

So I took a 9-to-5 model to my writing. Monday thru Friday, I block out two hours in the afternoons to write. And I only work three weeks of the month (allowing one week to rest while I wait for feedback on my previous submission.) So for three weeks, I have a goal to write roughly 900 words Monday thru Friday.

This way, I get my work done and I don’t feel the continually mounting pressure to keep up an unbroken writing streak.

That being said…

I struggled hard toward the end of this last session. I came up to my deadline like

So even though I’d paced myself, making myself write almost 5,000 words a week challenged me. But like any kind of strength training, it’s going to be sore and stiff after the first few times. Next month, my mindset will be changed by the experience of this month and I’ll be stronger than before.

What I’ve read this week

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• The Memory House by Linda Goodnight (for school)
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The rest of the books in the readathon

Okay, since I started this little endeavor to read all the unread books on my shelves, I’ve read six books. Do you know how many books I bought Thursday at the bookstore? Six.

So here’s the updated list:

1. Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
2. Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile House by Lemony Snicket
   Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
3. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
4. Milkwood by Jerry Spinelli
5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
6. A Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engle
7. Matilda by Roald Dahl
8. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
9. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
10. Under Sea, Over Stone by Susan Cooper
11. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
12. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
13. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
14. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
15. The Dark Tower by Stephen King
16. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
17. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
18. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

And those are just all the books under 250 pages 🤦‍♀️ Now you see why it’s dangerous for me to be left alone in a bookstore with my credit card? And to have a Half Price Books around the corner from my house? Joseph Beth, Half-Price Books–I blame you.

Blog Recap

I posted my first craft review! Check out my review (half reader reaction, half craft essay) of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.

I hope to do short reviews of all these books I’m reading, at least when I learn something about writing from them.

I hope y’all have an enjoyable weekend!

Saturday Check-in: all about the readathon

Instagram @mizwriterlady

Hello my lovely fellow story seekers!

When you got into a relationship (platonic or romantic), did you find yourself starting to like things you never thought you’d like? Or initially disliked but grew to like it? That’s me right now with the band Dance Gavin Dance. I have a pretty broad musical taste–regardless of genre, I’m looking for a hook in the music–but the most hardcore I ever really went was Three Days Grace in high school. I wasn’t initially down with DGD but the more I listened… honestly, the music is really clever and I like the dude’s voice. So lo and behold, I have eleven of their songs in my playlists now. Go figure.

So I have been pushing myself. Now that I have complete control over my schedule, I’ve been filling it with goals and I am so, so, so pleased to report that I have been killing it!

My self-imposed readathon

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I have recently decided to make a desperate push on the unread books on my shelves. I’m planning to move states by the end of the year and LET–ME–TELL–YOU. I have so many unread books on my shelves.

But I don’t want to haul them 1,000 miles when I might not even want to keep them in the end BUT I do want to read them.

Easiest way to go about this conundrum? Please line up shortest to longest, folks.

I can’t even tell y’all how many books I own that I haven’t read. Or, rather, I can but I dare not from shame. Can we just agree that it’s for the best that I don’t work at a bookstore anymore (where I got a 30% employee discount?)

What I’ve read this week

If you follow me on Goodreads, you may have seen these already. By the way, how often do you read reviews? Do you read them at all? I’m curious.

• Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (of course I wouldn’t have appreciated this as a kid; it was so over my head, but what a fun read as an adult! Definitely continuing this series)
• Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (another one that likely would’ve been over my head as a kid, I’ll be honest but I wish I’d read it anyway)
• Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli (oof such a heavy read, but so poignant and amazingly told; I was hooked right from the start)

Currently reading

I’m still reading…

• Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (it’s fallen by the wayside but I will finish it!)
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (can’t believe I made it 300 pages in, but it took me so long to get there that it has to go back to the library already *cry*)

And I started and will soon finish…

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle (obviously there’s a theme of reading childhood classics but this is my first time and I am loving it)

Are you doing the Goodreads Reading Challenge by the way? My goal this year is for 50 books. I’m five books behind at the moment but this push will get me caught up in no time.

The rest of the books in the readathon

So I started with the shortest books first: I pulled down all the books under 250 pages. You know how many I have unread that are just under 250 pages? Eleven.

To just get through the books under 250 pages, here’s what I hope to finish by the end of September:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente
• The Dark Tower by Stephen King

So I knocked out three (almost four) in a week! There’s hope for me yet.

Blog recap

So this week was a light week in terms of posts (just the one) but since the last check-in, I’ve published:

• Book Bribery: How to protect yourself from mermaid attack at sea (a man lends books to mermaids to protect their ship)
• When Magic Surpasses Might (the moment when magic ignites)
• Love Isn’t Always Enough (another mermaid one–I was on a mermaid kick?)
• Little Witch, Pluck (where a girl shows up to apprentice to the local witch and she’s… not unenthusiastic)
• Reincarnated Enemies (rather self-explanatory and very fun to write)
• Breaking Down the First Chapter #AuthorToolboxBlogHop (my first contribution to the Author Toolbox Blog Hop! I analyzed the first chapter of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon)

Next week will be about how I did with my writing these past few weeks. I am SO PSYCHED about it!

How many books do you own that you haven’t read yet?

Saturday Check-in: critiques, writing schedules, and The Hobbit

photo credit Tanya Trofymchuk on Unsplash

Why hello there my lovely fellow story seekers!

It has now been just over two weeks since my last day working as a children’s bookseller at my local indie bookstore. I worked there over a year and adored it. I gave this job up in order to focus on moving onto a job that will allow me to move 1,000 miles away and have complete control over my schedule. But I was absolutely terrified. Why? Because change is scary and because this change involved testing the integrity of my newly developed self-discipline skills.

I know this about myself: I’m inclined towards laziness. And yet lack of productivity drives me crazy. Having a job outside my home was a perfect compromise and now that safety net was being removed. Could I create my own schedule and stick to it?

Two weeks into it and the answer is, surprisingly, yes.

But I can’t stop to congratulate myself now. I’ve got to keep my head down and power on.

I got my critiques back this week

Quick background info: I took every workshop available to me in undergrad and before that, I had a critique partner. The critique element of this MFA program is not unfamiliar to me. Personally, I’ve got a decently thick skin.

But critiques still kinda suck.

These in particular sucked because it reinforced everything I already knew was wrong with the chapter: which was, in fact, everything. (Okay, I’m being melodramatic.) After a year in this program, I’ve drafted the first two acts of my thesis novel, putting me at a pretty 75,000 words so far. My latest submission is the first chapter in act 3. An act 3 that I’m drawing a blank on.

My biggest storytelling fault right now? Creating meaningful tension that rolls from scene to scene to build to the climax.

The worst part about getting critiques is when you agree there’s something wrong, but you have no idea how to fix it.

How do I figure out act 3?

I’m seriously asking. I’ve got a stack of how-to writing books on my desk right now about plotting and I’m not convinced I’ll find an answer to my question in any of them.

My current plan of attack: phoning a friend. I’ve set up a Skype call with my old critique partner and we’re going to put our heads together over this issue I have with plotting out act 3.

I am a plotter. I enjoy plotting, but the ending of this novel has eluded me for years. This little issue of plot isn’t new; it’s been with me since inception of this idea five years ago.

How do you tackle tricky plot endings?

So many pages, time enough?

I’m contracted to only turn in 15 pages every month, but “with the expectation of 45.” Being a people-pleaser, it tore me up to only turn in 15 pages last month and I’m determined to hit that 45 for August.

What helps me with big deadlines like this is knowing what that looks like on a daily basis. So let’s bust out our calculators, shall we? Math actually CAN be useful, quelle surprise.

The deadline: 45 pages by August 30

45 pages = ~13,500 words

I only want to work Monday thru Friday. So that leaves 15 full days to work.

13,500 words/15 days = 900 words

900 words = ~3 pages

3 pages is a very manageable amount for me–so long as I know what I’m going to write. Perhaps this is being dramatic (plot twist: I am being dramatic), but I fear that the success of my 45-page goal hinges on this chat with my old critique partner because otherwise… (dun dun dunnnn)

Cross your fingers for me, fellow story seekers!

Blog recap

This week, I published six posts:

• The Merits of Picture Prompts (wherein I discuss how I tackle my daily writing)
• When You Find a Fairy Door, Take a Picture Dammit (how many photographers do you know carry their cameras around in the hopes of finding that fairy door again?)
• The Last Time Beneath the Arch (the moment before a starving boy turns you in for apples)
• Fresh Flowers for the Sting (how do you passive aggressively say ‘fuck you’ with flowers?)
• But for the Evil Black Mice (the wedding wouldn’t have been ruined otherwise)
• A Beast of Great Taste: That is to say, a great, big beast who likes to read (and is polite about it, too)

Currently Reading

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I had no business going to the library when my current tbr pile is literally too high to stack on my shelf. You hear that? I’m double-parking books now.

But I went to the library anyway.

Aaaaaand I may have gone to Half Price Books and picked up Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, and The Heist by Janet Evanovich 👀

But I’m only actively reading a portion of my tbr stack. Here’s what I’m actively reading, the titles you’ll find on my currently reading shelf on Goodreads:

• Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (as astonishingly beautiful as Strange the Dreamer)
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (oof burglars are safe from this only because it’s too heavy to lift to smack them with)
• Seven Tears into the Sea by Terri Farley (a reread from ages ago, a perfect end of summer read, especially if you like selkie stories)

What I finished this week

On a whim, I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt and I will most definitely write a post about it soon because it is incredibly well written and plotted and I can’t believe I didn’t like it much as a kid.

I also watched The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies and loved them. I’ve recently found myself a pretty decent Tolkien fan after reading The Hobbit for my Fantasy Classics class last semester and then Fellowship of the Ring on my own this summer.

^ my Tolkien fan friends when they found out I was reading The Hobbit and watching all the LotR movies

Tell me about your week!