And sometimes, you just need to step back.

Maybe way, way, way back.

Today was Day Four of the great Book Blurb Writing/Tweaking. I didn't touch it yesterday, because I felt I needed a day to work on other things and not that. Apparently today was too soon to come back to it. I was just given instructions by my friend to not touch it for two whole days. (Which I needed to hear, seriously.) I have plenty of other things to do, so I am going to try to do this so I don't drive myself (and everyone else) insane.

It's not just book blurbs. Sometimes we need to remember there's a balance between pushing ourselves to do something and giving ourselves a break. Sometimes we need a break from writing, or editing, or rewriting, or book blurbing. Have some chocolate, watch a movie, read a book, work on something else. And sometimes,  if we have trouble getting ourselves to do this, we might need someone to tell us to take a break.

If you're in that place where you need to breathe, give yourself permission to rest.

If you're in that place where you're in the flow of the writing and things are clicking and falling into place, YAY! Go get that writing!

If you feel like you're pulling teeth to get anything written, but you know you need to keep on and that it's not time for a break yet, grab something yummy to munch on or to drink and conquer that sucker. You can do it!

No matter where you're at in the writing/plotting/editing/querying/throttling a blurb process, no matter how you're feeling about it, you're still doing it. (And yes, taking a break is still doing something in the writing process--you're recharging your creative juices!) You're writing a book and that is an incredible thing. Seriously, seriously incredible. You're starting from nothing and ending with a world, and characters, and a story you care about. Even on those days when you can only write ten words and you want to bang your head on your keyboard or throttle your characters--you're sticking with it.

Some people might say that makes us crazy, but I prefer to think it makes us awesome.

NaNo: end of week 1, start of week 2.

I do not know how coherent I am going to be doing a blog, so I'll say that my brain feels something like this:

As I said before, I'm using NaNo to finish or make serious headway on stories I've already started, so I'm bouncing between novels and counting everything I write toward my NaNo words. It is day 8 and I have written 25,810 words so far this month.

O_O

I don't know what it is about NaNo--maybe so many people writing and so many of my friends writing so much that the part of me that loves writing challenges kicks into high gear--but it is a great time for me, personally, to reach goals I've been struggling with during the year.

Right now, my characters are all clamoring for attention and they won't. shut. up. This is a good thing, considering I've spent a good half of the year begging them to talk to me, but they won't shut up to the point where I haven't slept much this month and my eye keeps getting a twitch from lack of sleep. Or maybe all the caffeine.
 
NaNoWriMo is for some people; it works for some people, and if you're on the sleep-deprived crazy train with me, I'm sorry. Er, I mean GOOD FOR YOU! >_>

But if you are one of those lovely writers not participating, GOOD FOR YOU too! Part of writing is knowing what you want to do and what you're up for doing, and every single person writes differently. Last year, my pathetic attempt at a NaNo novel fell horribly flat, but it was good for me because I got back to work on the book I really wanted to finish.

So I'd like to take a moment to cheer on all of you doing NaNo--you can reach your goals!--and a moment to thank all of you not doing it for having patience with those of us who are.

You are all awesome. :D

I'm Still Here

Can I just say: moving takes a lot out of a person. I've been moved for two weeks now and my brain feels like a giant puddle of mush. It seems like it's only been a couple of days and then I'm all "AHH! My blog is so neglected! I'll post something soon!" and then I'm all mushified. (Why, yes, mushified is a word. *adds it to dictionary*)

Then yesterday I got hit with some virus or something. My head feels like it's stuffed with cotton and I'm achy and my voice is all funky. Basically, if i hadn't already felt like a giant puddle of mush, this would have made me feel that way anyway. Huzzah. ;)

I have been doing a ton of editing. And rewriting. And more editing. And some plotting. And did I mention editing? I've been working on two different novels--the one that I said I was going to self-publish has been passed off to my final editors and as soon as I can decide on how to approach the cover, my wonderfully amazing artist friend is going to work on the cover art. My goal it to have this sucker published by the end of July or sometime in August. It's kind of hard to think right now. O_o  I've also been working on rewriting/tweaking one of my other novels so I can start writing the sequel in July.

In July, I plan to be writing like crazy. My goal is to get half of my next book written. I have several writer friends who are joining in with their individual goals--some writing books, some doing rewrites or whatever else they've been wanting to do. I find it incredibly helpful to have people working on goals side-by-side with me--it gives me a good push and holds me to my goals and allows me to encourage others to stick to their goals.

Do any of you have writing plans for this summer? What are you working on right now?

I have a list of writing topics I want to discuss on my blog, and I am going to do my best to get one written and posted within the next few days. I'll be back soon. :D