Writing Update: Breaks and Bumps

February 8th 2020

1:20pm

It’s Saturday! Which should be more exciting, but after the long couple of weeks I’ve had, the weekend just feels like any other day – sadly 🙁

I haven’t been super vocal on this blog about how my writing is going, but over on Twitter, I have been very vocal about what an awful month January was. Despite all the good energy and positivity for a new, fresh chapter, it seemed the month never got the memo and instead one horrible thing after another came tumbling down on both my professional and personal life. I honestly balled my eyes every single night because of such unnecessary things, that looking back at it now seems so stupid but at the time it truly was the end-all-be-all.

Entering February, I’m pretty sure majority of the world is in agreement that our 2020 starts now. And thankfully, this month started off beautifully. I managed to get in a few words, but more importantly, in the midst of the chaos (that still hasn’t fully settled), I had something that lifted me. That held me up and inspired me constantly. When my world felt like it was falling a part, turning to my characters and their world, regardless of whether I was writing or not, helped me through it all.

I would play pieces of music, or flip through photos and old scribbles, and imagine the hurt, anger, love, and pain my MC might have gone through or is going through. I let my own pain fuel into hers and connect with her in a way I never had before. I imagined the dynamics, the creatures, the magic. I let it all motivate me and push me harder to sitting my ass down and writing. While I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, I still wrote.

Between tears, and headaches, and life being life, I still wrote.

And if there’s anything that January 2020 taught me, it’s to keep pursuing your passion no matter what. It never stopped being there for you in your difficult moments, so don’t ever stop doing it. I mean, I for sure, ended up taking a lot more breaks than necessary. But, I had something on the page, be it a word or a letter, more than the time before.

It is also important to take time for yourself. If you need the day away from you manuscript to just watch TV, eat all the food you can get your hands on, and bathe and mask all day long – then do it! Your mental health is important, but never give up on your passion, on your writing, on the moments that lift you up when you feel your lowest.

Writing Update: (not going to lie a part of me is a little embarrassed to write this out since this is a summary from when I began drafting in December 2019… but hey, life happens. The important part is to keep going.)

Word Count: ~3500

Chapters Written: 1.5

Short-term Goal: be at ~10,000 words by end of April 2020

Here’s a piece of music that has really inspired me in the last couple of weeks:

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to February, and your writing journey is going strong!