October Books: 5/6 (One of Those Faces, do not recommend, and House of Shadows)
Been doing a bit of soul searching, squiders, because I was supposed to come back from Disney/Universal and get going on organizing all the writing I have Not Done over the past few months, and have I done that?
No.
But also I’m realizing that I’ve kind of dug myself a giant hole that I am potentially never going to get out of.
In terms of writing, this year has been Bad. I mean, I always misjudge how much I can get done, so I am always behind my schedule, but usually things are getting done, albeit slower than expected. But we’re not even getting less than expected done. We’re getting nothing done.
Normally at the end of the year I look back and I’m like, oh, yeah, I sold two shorts, and I wrote 30K on this draft, and I polished this draft and published this book. But this year? I’ve failed two different revision projects (and I’ve only just remembered that I was supposed to go back to the World’s Edge revision after the critique marathon), have written one short story and had none accepted anywhere, and have only really managed to get my submission materials ready for Book 1, even though querying has been even more draining than I remember it being. (We’re like 40 queries in with only rejections.) The morning pages died in September.
Now, when I first started writing seriously in my mid-20s, I didn’t write all the time. I’d normally do, say, NaNo in November, and then come back to it in January and write through May or so until the draft was done. And then just messing around in between. But now that I’m in my 40s, there’s also a feeling of running out of time.
So that’s fun.
Obviously things aren’t working. It’s probably a combination of life responsibilities, the state of the world, the projects themselves, the way querying makes you wonder if you can actually write at all, and a number of other things.
Adding on to all this madness is that I signed up for a challenge called Novel90 in, like, April, that has now started. The idea is you outline in October, write in November, and revise in December. Earlier in the year, when things were bright and new, this seemed like a great plan. But now it just feels like something else that I’m behind on.
So I think I’ve got to just knock everything off my plate. Clear the ol’ project list. Find something to do for fun, something that’s not going to make me feel guilty or behind, until I can get my feet back underneath me.
Now to figure out what that something is.
See you later, squiders.
