I always think I’m going to have a lot of time over the summer–and I always end up not. A huge part of it is losing the routine school imposes on our lives most of the year. With a weeklong summer camp here, a couple of playdates there, having a cookout in the middle, I’m kept busy juggling our slippery ever-changing schedules.
Writing-wise, I’ve declared this to be the Summer of Fun. This is when I play with those smaller pieces and premises that I’ve collected over the course of the year. PLAY WITH is the important part here. This means that I get to change POVs if I feel like it, skip scenes that are too boring, change the genre mid-story and just not do anything tedious with my writing. The rules are: I will write, and I will finish what I write, even if it is a sloppy tacked-on dumb ending.
Right now I’m working on a short story with delusions of novella grandeur. Over 5K in and still picking up steam.
What are your summer projects?
I’m trying to think of slowing down, and I can only think, I really, really wish. Between Lightbearers and Inked With Love, I am BUSY.
I love your little “delusions of novella grandeur” statement. Those kinds of stories manage to plague me regularly. Sometimes, I feel like I’m losing my sense of play in the business of submitting fiction, dealing with editorial, and then publishing once the story hits final approved. You remind that I might want to make sure I don’t.
Oh, I love your new website!
It sounds like a *good* kind of busy, though.
Yes, I wanted to regain my sense of play, hence the Declaration of Summer Fun. My site tagline is “writer at play” not because I’m especially playful, but because I need to be reminded that play is good and important.
Thanks! I’ve still got more to do on the site, but it’s a start. And much more professional.
And that’s a good point. Makes me think of the whole “courage isn’t the absence of fear.” I’ll try and remember that.