Wow, halfway through the year already! Insane! Just like this past month…

 

June 2019: As I mentioned in last month’s writing update, I anticipated June being absolutely busy, between working, moving, and preparing for graduate school. I did make progress in The Queen of Imagination, but due to all of my competing projects/tasks to tackle, I did not make my original goal. I managed to edit through Chapter 14 (out of 39), rather than making it through chapter 20. While early on I kept up a daily editing practice, as the month went on, I realized two very important facts about my relationship with writing in the coming months:

1. Writing won’t be the main focus, or even the priority. Graduate school means prioritizing schoolwork, graduate assistant work, etc. While I’ll probably have time to write as well, it probably won’t be as frequent as I’m hoping. Which leads me to—
2. I’ll have to be diligent to stay on top of my writing. I can’t set lofty goals, work on multiple projects simultaneously, or allow myself to get discouraged by a slower timeline. It’ll take some trial and error to find a rhythm, but my writing is important to me, so I’ll definitely find a way to make it a part of my routine.

My other goal for June was to outline the first book of my new series. I did accomplish that during the first weekend of the month, but since then I’ve had some second thoughts about the direction of the story. So, I my outline might be scrapped in favor of these alternative directions. Beginning to write the series may be delayed further as I’ve also had a burst of new inspiration for my Leah Pool saga (Our Company of Fools) that I’m interested in pursuing after editing The Queen of Imagination.

 

July 2019 Goals: July will be slightly calmer than June. I still have a significant list of tasks to complete, but I should (hopefully) have the time to work on my writing every day. I still think finishing edits of The Queen of Imagination by the end of July is a realistic goal. I have 25 chapters left. If I can edit one chapter a day, I can meet that goal.

I also want to do some spot edits of Our Company of Fools and revise my query letter as I prepare to send out more pitches. As I’ve mulled over the most recent draft, there are a few scenes that don’t sit right for me. With my new ideas for the series’s direction, too, I need to re-add references and foreshadowing I trimmed out in February/March. Revisiting the places I’d like to fix will take a solid week’s work. My progress with The Queen of Imagination will determine if I end up doing this in July or if I’ll tackle it during the first weeks of August. If it looks like I won’t be able to finish The Queen of Imagination, I may set it aside temporarily to take care of Our Company of Fools. But if it looks like I’ll make my end of July goal, I’ll most likely push through until the end before returning to Our Company of Fools. We’ll see.

~

Life doesn’t slow down. We can’t always wait for the perfect time to sit and write. But it is okay not to meet writing goals—as long as we’re still being diligent to our craft and intentional with the time we have.

(If you’re curious about any of the projects I mentioned in this post, visit this page for more information!)