NaNoWriMo Update: Week 2

This has definitely been a different sort of week from last week. I wrote so much last week that I had broken 20k words by the end of the day on the 7th. Unfortunately, now I’ve been writing barely enough words daily to hit 50k by the end of the month (based on the calculations the NaNoWriMo stats page does). 1400 is roughly my average for the last week instead of nearly 3k. I guess I knew that would happen, the week two slump hits me pretty accurately on the 8th each November, but I would have preferred to be making at least 1667 words a day still. It’s not a problem until I can’t make 50k, but I’m still crossing my fingers that I’ll get more out of the next week.

My ghostwriting is going pretty well, and I’ve already conquered one potential hole without even meaning to. I’m ahead of my schedule for that project, at least, which is definitely good. I’d hate to fall behind in what’s technically my “primary” NaNoRebel project and irritate my client, this has been too convenient a gig. Other prose has fallen flat a lot, so I still don’t have anything ready to post for December prose, but I’ve set aside time this weekend to try and remedy that. In theory I should be able to have at least a couple stories ready to post, but the ghostwriting does have to come first. Contracted schedule, and all that.

Health

I was happy to be able to tell my doctor that I was doing better, which is a rare thing. I sort of crashed after I finished book one in this ghostwritten series at the beginning of October; it was a vacuum of energy and motivation that felt out of the blue after working so hard to get it finished. Now that I have NaNoWriMo and the local community that I enjoy being part of each November, I’m doing a lot better and my motivation to write can tug along my energy levels, which in turn affect my ability to handle chronic pain. The rain on and off this week has been trying to prod my fibromyalgia, but so far I’ve done pretty well with that, too. I like being able to say this week was an improvement over last week and last month both.

I’ve settled into a better routine for NaNoWriMo, and now I’m able to get my work done, my word count done, and keep up with the chores around the apartment that I have been dragging my feet with. I still have some big tasks ahead, but I seem to have balanced out the energy level swings (from hyperactive writing to having trouble dragging myself out of bed) to an acceptable middle point.

Happiness

It’s funny when I’m happier doing work than I am doing relaxing things (my crochet lap blanket is coming along nicely), but that’s how it is in NaNoWriMo now that I can be working and writing novels at the same time. Best job ever as far as I’m concerned. I should probably get back to doing a mix of writing, editing, and ghostwriting, but that can wait until after this book is done as far as I’m concerned.

My cat has been acting like I’m neglecting her during NaNo, so I’ve been spending time petting her or tossing mouse toys for her to chase. It makes me happy like nothing else; this cat is my soul. I love it when I can set aside even five minutes to spend with her. Don’t forget to pet your animal companions! It’s supposed to be very relaxing, and I’d have to agree.

I’ve watched a bunch of old movies lately, like Dragonslayer (1980). That movie was really awesome for its time, I think, and it was one of those epic fantasy movies that actually happened even before CGI made LotR a better possibility. It’s pretty slow compared to the action adventure movies of this decade, but I don’t care. It’s still something that I remember fondly, and I watch it as much for the smiles the memory of seeing it when I was younger causes as to actually enjoy the movie itself. I don’t know what else I’ll find, but it seems like I’m bingeing movies that I watched first at least ten years ago. I’m enjoying them and getting to crochet at the same time. Works for me!

Best Moment This Week

Oof. This week hasn’t been as spectacular as last week, which makes it harder to pick out a high point—this week has been more stable middle-ground than highs or lows. But I think I’d have to say I really enjoyed the 13th Age game I’m running on a play-by-post forum (think Dungeons & Dragons in prose form). The players in my game are at the midpoint of the campaign, and they’re facing off against demons for an epic battle. It’s always fun to be able to game with them, and this combat is pretty enjoyable for me as the Game Mistress since I’ve added new enemies each round so far. Piling on gets a more evil-GM laugh out of me.

Worst Moment This Week

Similarly to the lack of high points, there weren’t really low points either, unless you count getting less done each day than I’d like to. There always seems to be more, somehow, even when I think I’m planning ahead adequately. I’m psyched that there were no bad moments, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

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If you’re NaNo-ing with me, huzzah! You’re halfway through! (Tomorrow.) We’ve made it this far, we can power through the rest of the month. I am certain of it. If you need inspiration, try some music from your teen years or childhood, it sets a very different mood in your head and I like to think of it as a half-remembrance/half-just-not-2020 sentiment—for me that’s all i need to get into a better headspace to write. If you haven’t found your local region for the challenge, it’s easy to find from the Community drop-down menu on the main NaNoWriMo site. Once you’re in a region, there are others who will be writing alongside you, and it’s amazing the way just being in good company can motivate. I know there are regions which have fewer people participating, but there are virtual write-ins being held by NaNoWriMo themselves, so you have options. Shout out to NaNoBoston for being awesome. You guys make my day, and it’s always more fun to write when I’m sprinting along with you.

For those of us in the US, Thanksgiving is coming up. I hope you find a way to share the holiday with family in a socially distant way, even if that means you just have a Zoom call to see one another and have your own holiday dinners at home. Stay safe, this winter is going to be a challenge for all the areas fighting with covid19, which, to be honest, is still everywhere.

Cheers,
~Marie

NaNoWriMo Update: Week 1

So far this week has really been par for the NaNoWriMo course, by which I mean my fingers fly across the keyboard and a ton of words get churned out even if I’m not sure they’re the greatest words. I hit ten thousand words on Tuesday, day three. (Was I avoiding paying attention to certain events in real life? Absolutely.) I doubled my word count in a single day, which was pretty epic. Now I just need to make sure there’s something of value in there before I get too much further. Unlike most NaNo novels, I can’t really afford to just whip out a first draft that’s a piece of excrement. A lot of the challenge of NaNoWriMo for me is to turn off the inner editor and just get words on the page—not the greatest strategy for ghostwriting.

That’s part of why I decided I would be a NaNoRebel this year and work on more than one thing, because I can work on other prose and let the ghostwriting percolate in the back of my head until I figure out the next direction I’m going. (Did I mention I don’t actually have an entire outline yet? Another less than great strategy for ghostwriting…) I’m not looking forward to the week two slump (usually day 8 or 9 for me), but if I’m not writing only one thing, perhaps I’ll manage to avoid the worst of that? I certainly spent some time on a strange new story that I have no idea what’s going to happen, which suits the pantser in me just fine. It already feels like it’s going to be longer than a simple short story, so it may or may not grace this blog in the near future. I’ll have to decide if I can make it serial once I’ve got more of the storyline written, and at this point (3500 words in), I’ve barely scratched the surface… which is a turn of phrase that amuses me since they’re currently underwater. That’s just one of many stories I expect I’ll work on while the ghostwriting gears turn toward a workable plot.

Health

I’m doing better this November than any of the last five or so years, I think, which I can’t for the life of me rationalize. It’s 2020, how did I come out better than before? Maybe I’ve just learned to use the day lamp (high brightness sun-like lamp) when it gets darker, and I’ve gotten better at compensating for my energy ups and downs. I wouldn’t have said I was doing all that well even a week ago, I’ve been pretty stressed and not able to shed the tension very well. It could just be week-one-NaNo excitement, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough now that we’ve reached the end of the week.

I am a little irritated that so far it seems like my mid-afternoon siesta—which is usually an hour that I use to unplug and lie down so my body doesn’t hate me so much—has suddenly become three hours instead of one. Yes, I’ve been churning out a lot of words in the mornings, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to skip the other tasks I need to do. A sink full of dishes, for one, can be rather limiting when trying to figure out what to eat! Since I won’t let myself write less for NaNo each day, what’s being impacted is basic household chores, real life requirements like paying bills, and other things I said I’d do but now suddenly am two hours short on time. I’ll have to test how much control I have over this; I might need the three hours for a reason, and have to rearrange my schedule to not tire myself out so much. Work in progress!

Happiness

I’ve said it before (I think), but I love my regional group for NaNoWriMo (NaNoBoston). The in-person events were always a huge part of why I keep doing NaNo, whether I hit 50k words or not. This year, due to covid, NaNoWriMo banned in-person events and everything has moved digital—forums, Discord servers, Zoom meet-ups. The covid ban on in-person events wasn’t entirely certain until the end of the summer, so there’s been some definite adjustment needed, but I have to say, having the writing community I’m familiar with from my years in NaNoBoston online and active in a much bigger way is so much fun! I had tried to set up a Discord server for off-month writing connections and events, but it wasn’t something many people took to until now. 

If any of you actually stumble across my blog, I love you, NaNoBoston Wrimos! You really make my day, pretty much every day. I’m definitely hoping this online activity will continue after November, even if we only really get together and laugh once a week instead of every day.

Best Moment This Week

I mentioned it before, but Tuesday’s writing completely surprised me. I had trouble reaching my week one goal of 2,000 words early in the day, but after a few sprints, a dream idea was prodding me and I had to write it down. 3500-some words later, I was exhausted, but I felt amazing. (Successfully avoiding Election Day was a big plus, since it is just stress-inducing until votes get fully counted. I refuse to watch the incremental progress that just makes numbers swing wildly all over the place.) My word count chart only had room to count 4k words each day, because I hadn’t expected to have crazy writing sessions like Tuesday evening. I ended up highlighting the entire box on my calendar, and now I’m trying to decide if I should alter my 250-word-increment box plan and make each 500 words so there’s room for a lot more. I don’t think I’ll have too many days over 4k, though, so maybe I should just stick to the plan and add extra stars—yes, I give myself star stickers, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Worst Moment This Week

It’s not a single moment, but I’m getting really sick of my neighbor’s loud significant other. With everyone staying close to home so much, their arguments, banging of pots, and energetic/vocal discussions are distracting, and if I’m trying to lie down to avoid a migraine, it starts to become a problem. Until this person moved in next door, I have legitimately never heard anything from other apartments around me. Not so much anymore. I’ve worn earbuds and earplugs on and off all week, and still spent a lot of time bitching mentally about little things, like the fact our leases (special subsidized housing) say no guests more than three weeks a year. Guess how many weeks this has gone on? [insert growl and/or expletives here] I don’t want to be the jerk who calls the landlord to ask if my neighbor is “supposed” to have the significant other living here (duh, I know they’re not supposed to) just to get it enforced, but I am also on my last nerve here. I feel like I’m a few shouted words away from heading to reddit’s/twitter’s “am I the ass” threads. Rawr.

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I’ll repeat earlier comments about loving 4thewords as a way to make me get my daily words (gamification of writing, slaying monsters with word count). I’m not doing too shabbily without it so far, but having the set goals and time limits makes me focus in a different way. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with that lately, so we’ll see if the special event helps! If anyone is on the fence about trying 4tw, definitely do! They’ve a thirty-day free trial that will get you through November. I find it pushes me to write more consistently and at more length than I ever have been able to do without it, to the point I’m willing to spend money on the subscription even on fixed income (which I still consider pretty fixed, even with freelancing taking an honorable mention at this point). For that matter, use my referral code if you do join, it’ll get us both a little bonus when you subscribe: KSQZP52502.

How is everyone doing with their word count? Did you manage to get ahead this week while we’re still riding the week one high? I was pointed at the “reverse NaNoWriMo” idea where you start with over 3k words a day and slowly taper off so you only need to write one word on day 30, and I like it. It’s essentially my strategy for getting ahead early done by someone who actually had the brain power to work out the numbers. Definitely check it out, but don’t feel like you’re further behind just because you didn’t get that many words this week! It’s just an idea.

Cheers,
~Marie

Currently

Loving

It’s National Novel Writing Month! (Insert a brief, flailing around, giggling interlude here.) I love NaNoWriMo to death, it’s part of what helped me get where I am today, ghostwriting novels. I couldn’t finish any of my own projects until I started doing NaNo. So I try to do National Novel Writing Month at least once a year, and I will encourage anyone I talk to about writing to do it also! (Yes, that includes you fine people reading my blog!)

Reading

If dragging my feet and reading little bits and pieces when I have the mental bandwidth to do so counts as reading, then I am reading Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. Some friends got me into it and it was a bit slow going – heavy on the prologue feeling for the first few chapters – and when my friends were reading it in a loosely organized sort of book club, the library-loan ebook reached the end of my checkout period. Not the greatest way to read a book, I can tell you. But I requested it again and finally the holds list got around to me again. So now I am attempting to continue, though I’m having some issues with remembering names of characters I’m fairly certain would otherwise have been known to me. Most of my time this month is going to be writing words for NaNoWriMo or trying to do brainless things to ‘turn off’, so my reading is likely to continue suffering.

Watching

I have a confession to make. I have recently watched a bunch of really lousy movies that made me laugh. Case in point: Tremors (as many of the series as I could find, which I think was all but #4). I knit while I watch movies, and it’s really relaxing for me to have something for my hands to do that’s repetitive enough to zone out but mobile enough to keep me from fidgeting. I may end up with a really pretty lap blanket at the end, too, so there’s that! Now that I’ve gotten through some Halloween-themed movies (watched Dracula and some other b-horror flicks), I expect I’ll go back to watching more quality entertainment, but I don’t know for sure. Having a movie that’s as much to make fun of as to enjoy can be really fun.

Listening To

I’m on a Moxy Früvous kick at the moment, it’s active music without being as harsh on my delicate head (not a migraine, but not exactly headache-free either) for some reason I’ve been waking up singing songs from the two albums I know best (the two I own). So no matter what suits writing best – usually instrumentals – I will be listening to these awhile. Hopefully I’ll get sick of them at some point and turn on something more conducive to writing! Last week I found myself listening to Bach Cello suites, which was really gentle and nice. I really hadn’t listened to that in ages, so it was a nice rediscovery. I think the Bach Lute album I have (Andrés Segovia) will make an appearance again soon, too.

Thinking About

This next ghostwriting project! It’s book two of the same series I began this summer, and I am starting writing today in lieu of what I’d call a “real” National Novel Writing Month project. There’s really no difference between a ghostwriting project and one of my own choosing, beyond the obvious motivational differences and source of ideas, but somehow it doesn’t have the same feel as starting November 1st with a blank screen and a crazy idea. Maybe I just miss writing my own projects (I do) – I’ve been reminded more often of late of the series I was working on. But regardless of my recent failings to work on my own projects, I am enjoying working with these characters and trying to make something new with familiar romance tropes.

Wishing

I really wish I’d spent more time planning this novel I’m writing! I’m starting writing today with the inciting incident scene which I know exactly how I want it, but I’m going to have to write piecemeal as I figure out what goes into the plot holes I have currently. (And there are an unfortunate number of empty spots on my outline.) I think I know the subplot that’s specifically for the male MC, but I’m a little hesitant to write about serious illness in 2020. I’ll have to consider it for a while before I start writing it.

I also wish I were a bit more relaxed. I store tension in my back, neck, and shoulders to a ridiculous degree, and instead of waking up this morning loose and ready to write, I’m tense and even stretching just tugs at the muscles, it doesn’t feel like it’s actually improving anything. Maybe once I write my daily word count I’ll take a long hot shower and see if that helps anything. I probably should’ve gone to the chiropractor at the end of last week, just in case, but it’s too late for that now! Hindsight is 100%. (I refuse to use the phrase 20/20 this year, it just makes me sad.)

Anticipating

I’m always eager to get feedback on my ghostwriting projects. In this case, I’ve already written one book for this client, so I think I know what I can look forward to. I’m definitely hoping my plans so far jive with my client’s, because some of what I’m coming up with (like the aforementioned illness in the family subplot) are kinda coming out of nowhere. I’m building on details that never actually made the page in book one, so I’m not even sure if my client saw them. But it works as a reason to build out the hero’s character, and later it’s actually a bonding point once they get past the whole “you’re out to ruin me” thing.

Making Me Happy

My region during NaNoWriMo (NaNoBoston) is always very active and a very supportive community. We’ve had to switch to entirely online this year due to the pandemic, and it’s been a bit of a learning curve. But as of yesterday’s Kickoff Party, I can safely say I’m loving it just as much! I look forward to a combination of the two (real life and digital events) in future years, though I think the Municipal Liaisons may need some more help if they’re going to add to the number of things they already do! I can’t imagine running biweekly events in person, then getting on the computer and adding two more to keep up with. They do have lives, or so I am led to believe. It might be a lot of work to keep up with the same kind of schedule, but I will enjoy what I have and maybe offer to help when future years try to expand into both digital and meatspace events. That makes a big assumption that they would want my help, but we’ll see!

Unfortunately…

I don’t have any stories written already that I can post during November. If I find time or have to vent something unrelated to my ghostwriting project, I may get something posted, but otherwise, it’s going to be NaNoWriMo updates only from me for the next few weeks. I hope to have written something by December 5th, but there have been years where I wrote so crazily for NaNoWriMo that I ended up crashing for a significant chunk of the first week of December afterward. (That is not my goal, but it can be a bit nuts… and I can be equally nuts… during NaNo.)

Good luck with all your writing endeavors!

~Marie

Currently

Loving Hating

I’ve decided I’m not going to start a new project for NaNoWriMo. I’m not even going to have any NaNoWriMo project at all, though I will continue ghostwriting. With that contract spanning several months to come, I don’t think I have blog posts, short stories, and fifty-thousand words in me. That’s ridiculous, even for me, and I’ve had to admit it. I may still count words the way I normally would, just because I think I’m pushing 50K already with short stories and ghostwriting, but it’s not the same rush as wildly writing a 50K manuscript from scratch. Ideally I write enough short stories for November and December as well, what with the holidays coming up. I’ve run through the stories I had in reserve and I’ve been down to the wire most of the month, and that’s not counting the one week I just failed outright to post any story at all. My short stories range from two thousand to ten thousand words, usually averaging about five thousand, so the four stories I normally post in a month are already 25K, and the ghostwriting can easily make up the difference.

I’m going to spend October prepping for the next book I’ll be ghostwriting, as I still need… well, most of it. There’s a lot more that’s on me for this coming book’s plot and characters; the one I’m still finishing up was mostly ready-made when I received it. (Super awesome when that happens, but I can do this myself, really I can…) I’m just reading up on romance tropes and trying to figure out how to make it my own. Some of the exercises I’m posting for NaNoPrepMo are definitely going to help me with that, too.

Reading

I’ve been beta-reading a fantasy novel, and I will be submitting a proposal to beta-read a novel or three novellas, I’m not quite positive. That’s kind of boring to tell you, though, since I’m not supposed to tell you anything about them. I’ve downloaded a bunch of sample chapters from books that were written by other people who use 4thewords.com as their writing platform of choice. (It’s gamification of the writing process, where you type against a timer to write a certain number of words and “kill a monster”, and then you get quests to do different things. Some of them are easy, some are harder, but the game of it keeps me writing daily and coming back time and time again. It also tracks your writing streak, which I am pleased to say I haven’t broken in 135 days.) I’ll see which of the sample chapters snare me and report back once I’ve read the rest!

Watching

I finally finished the Carnival Row season one episodes, and while I love the worldbuilding and the characters, the plot left something to be desired. I get that the drive is always to do whatever gets a second season of the show, but if you just create a prologue to an adventure that we don’t get to start yet, that’s as good as letting your audience down. I may review it, but it was kind of a let down at the end, and that seems like something I don’t need to spend extra time on. I also watched a lot of Cursed, and while it was pretty and well written/acted, I didn’t really like how freely they messed with the lore. I think I know the lore, or at least I’ve read a lot more stories that agree on some things, and the show played it fast and loose for more… honestly, I don’t know what. It kinda broke me out of the story, and I haven’t started watching episodes again. It’s sad, especially because it was really pretty, and they had chosen (mostly) tasteful CGI that wasn’t in your face. Maybe I’ll finish watching the season, but I’m not all that crazy about it at this point. Two disappointing shows, and maybe I need to go back to something that’s an old favorite if I want to get something new.

Thinking About

I tend to get contemplative in the fall, usually because I’m trying to plan ahead for how to manage when the days get darker (which affects my depression) and as the weather gets colder (which affects my fibromyalgia). Sooner or later I have a bad weekend, give or take a few days, and I’m always on the lookout for new ways to plan ahead. At the moment, I’m not really sure I have a method for planning ahead. Freelancing doesn’t wait for anything, you know? If I say I’m going to have something done by a deadline, I need to have it done by that deadline.

The Self Journal has been a pretty big success for me this summer, and I’m trying to figure out how to apply it to a season when I already know I’m going to have more health concerns than before (and I’ve been having plenty of late). So far the best thing I have come up with is making one of my three primary goals something to the effect of “taking care of me and not backsliding progress made”, but I’m not sure how to actually quantify that into measurable goals. The difference, I think, between having three goals I’m working on and having two plus a conscious goal of taking care of myself (mind, body, and spirit) should be enough, I hope, to keep me from having it too much harder this fall as we head into cold weather. That said, I only really worked on two of my three goals this past season, so I’m not sure if I’m still asking too much of myself. Only time will tell, I suppose, but I’m definitely still pondering. There’s not much left of my late summer/quarterly journal to think about it, so hopefully I can decide fast.

Wishing

I wish I had more time! I swear, I have no idea where September went, and all of a sudden it’s October. What about all the things I wanted to do in September? I guess I can add I wish I hadn’t lost so much time to a fibromyalgia flare that really messed me up the first half of the month, and made it hard to make even incremental progress as I recovered. I also wish I wasn’t such an idiot and knew how to take days off when I need them. I don’t know how to recharge, really, until I’ve run myself ragged, I crash, and then I have no choice. Pretty certain that’s not the healthy way to do it.

Anticipating

I’m so close to finishing this novel! I submitted my revised draft for my client’s final review yesterday, and so I’m just waiting to hear back so I can make any final changes and then do any last edits and a last proofreading pass and hand it off. It’s been quite a learning experience actually ghostwriting a novel. It’s not like ghostwriting a blog entry for someone to post on their website, and it has a lot more of the ups and downs of the creative process embedded. I’ve been through the whole crazy cycle of creation since I started this, and it’s going to do a number on me when it finally gets published. I haven’t had to deal with the publishing process yet for my own novels (not more than a couple rejection letters, anyway), so I’m not sure how it’s going to treat me when I can go get a copy of something I wrote. But I’m looking forward to finding out!

I’m also hoping that this successful novel from beginning to end will inspire me to work harder on getting my own writing published. I’ve been thinking about dialing it back to just focus on a short story or two, but I’m never entirely certain what stories I like. The quick prompt writing I post on this blog is out of the running because it’s already been “published” after a fashion, and I can’t sell first publishing rights to something already published. Lately even the prompt writing has been hard, so figuring out what story idea I like enough to try and get it published? Not easy.

Making Me Happy

I love fall weather so much! Sweatshirt and jeans weather is my favorite time of year, it tends to be warm but not so hot that it feels oppressive. I can actually sit out on my balcony with my cat (it’s a fully screened-in balcony) and enjoy the days without feeling blinded by the sun or drenched by the heat and humidity. No need for an air conditioner, either, most fall days, which removes some of the white noise from the apartment. (Sometimes white noise is a good thing, I’ll admit, especially when my neighbors are being noisy.)

I hope the return of fall weather brings more people outside to enjoy before it gets truly cold! This is my favorite time of year and I’m already sad looking at some of the trees… there are trees I can see from my window that are a third green leaves, a third colored leaves, and a third already empty branches. Nature can’t make up her mind whether it’s summer or fall, and so I can’t really blame the trees for being confused!

Cheers
~Marie

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

I am pleased to announce the arrival of my new professional website, efromson.com! This is a big step for me in the process of trying to get my novels (and other writing) published, as it requires a different sort of web presence than just a creative or personal blog. It’s taken me two years since I started this blog to reach this point, but I’m so excited that I finally have! It also allows me to have a stronger presence for freelancing, and I’ve a detailed page with the most up-to-date version of my process and fees I can direct people to, should they be interested in hiring me.

Plot Bunny Whack-a-mole will remain right where it is for the foreseeable future. Those of you subscribed to this blog are welcome to come check out my new site, but you don’t need to do anything. This blog will continue to provide stories as often as I can keep up with them. There will likely be the same number of stories posted here, but fewer blog posts otherwise, at least until I have the new blog settled and I’m comfortable keeping up with both. I would like to eventually move this to that site, or at least have it under a subdomain there, but keeping my professional and personal blogs separate is probably a wise move in general; I also have a Plot Bunnies page on that site showing the most recent posts here, so that is enough for now.

NaNoPrepMo articles will be moving to my new blog, however. I intend to post all of my writing-related articles there, to help build the new site into something worth viewing. I have a whole nine-week National Novel Writing Month preparation plan that will start tomorrow and run every Wednesday until the end of October, and I definitely recommend checking out those resources, I’ve put a lot of work into them already and I’ve only started one post. If you’re not looking to add more blogs to follow, I can relate to that, so you might want to check out some of the posts I made last year before NaNoWriMo, including Prewriting and Planning Tips, Be Kind to Yourself During NaNoWriMo, and the post when I offered my Scrivener template (scroll down to the bottom for the most updated version), Confessions of a Black Hole Diving Plantser.

Currently

I think the coming announcement covers a number of the topics I normally post in a Currently update! I’ll still attempt one anyway, but please imagine me flailing around my apartment with a giddy look of glazed glee on my face, squeeing for joy. That ought to cover how excited I am about having a new website and the new stage of my life that it heralds.

Loving

I finally have a professional website set up and published on the net! I’m so excited. It’s been a ton of work, but it’s been so worth it. This is a big step for me in the process of trying to get my novels (and other writing) published, as it requires a different sort of web presence than just a creative or personal blog. It’s taken me two years since I started this blog to reach this point, but I’m so excited that I finally have! It also allows me to have a stronger presence for freelancing, and I’ve a detailed page with the most up-to-date version of my process and fees I can direct people to, should they be interested in hiring me.

Reading

I have been bouncing around all over the place of late. I was in the middle of Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin when my library loan expired, so I’m going to have to wait until I reach the top of the holds list again to finish it. From what my friends in our book club tell me, I was just getting to the good part. I will admit the beginning was slow to get into. It required not one but two historical sections (a chapter or two each, if I recall correctly) to set the stage for the meat of the novel, which I admit surprised me. I’m used to novels that need some background, but once the story jumped ahead several years, I was expecting that to be the main story. Don’t take this as a reason not to read it, but it did make it slow to get into.

I read Enchantress by James Maxwell, and I enjoyed it so much I immediately went and purchased the other three books in the series. I’m debating the prequel collection of short stories, but I’ll probably end up getting that, too; it looks too interesting to pass up.

I’ve also been trying to read contemporary romance (since I’m ghostwriting such a novel), and that’s been hard to get into, also. In this case, it’s because there is so much of it that I’m not entirely sure where to start. A couple books have been okay, but another one I bought and couldn’t make it an entire chapter – disappointing! If anyone has suggestions, please comment or send them to me somehow! I’ll have to go back and figure out which was which so I can add them to my Goodreads list appropriately. I was a bit too fed up with the one that I didn’t remember to post any of them. (I will also attempt to figure out if WordPress will let me embed reviews in my posts here without making it ugly.)

Watching

I had a pretty rough month, though I’m not going to dwell on it. That generally cut down my usual movie/TV-watching time in the evenings as I was simply too exhausted to do anything but crash, often by dinner time. But this past week as I was starting to try and extend my days again I watched a bunch of shows, starting with the first season of Warrior Nun (Netflix) and Project Power (also Netflix). The Warrior Nun concept seemed pretty flimsy, I’m not going to lie, but I ended up watching the entire season almost straight through; I enjoyed it that much. Best viewed as magical realism (a subset of fantasy), not in any way religious, for those of you who might find some of its assumptions and methods antithetical to the Christian (and specifically Catholic) faith. Project Power was enjoyable for a random supers show, I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I loved it, but it’s a solid movie if you enjoy superhero stories.

I also watched City of Bones: The Mortal Cup and rewatched I Am Number Four (both IMDb TV via Amazon Prime, for those that care). I enjoyed both, and certainly I enjoyed I Am Number Four enough to rewatch it. I’d rate The Mortal Cup about the same, I think, perhaps a bit more. I believe both are based on books, but I will have to look up those at a later date. I do like the books more than the movies, usually, but when I see a movie based on a book and enjoy it, reading the book afterward tends to upset me in a funny way. Probably because I enjoyed something only to find out it was bad all along? I’m not entirely sure.

Listening To

Anything with energy. I’m still recovering from a fibromyalgia flare, and I need all the energy I can get, whether it’s caffeine, sugar, or peppy music. This morning it has been Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, to start off gently, and now my favorites from the a cappella group Cadence. I’ll work up to more slowly, rather than risk a migraine.

Thinking About

There’s so much going on in my head lately I’m having trouble doing or thinking about it all in twenty-four hours. Can I get a few extra hours in here somehow? Time machine? Anyone?

Wishing

I put the new website together myself, which is great, but I wish I knew more about web design these days. I can make it look decent, I guess, but I don’t have a good way to know how well it reads to Google search bots and the like. I guess I’m going to be adding to it on the fly at this point, I was too eager to launch it to wait on finicky details that may or may not matter in the long run.

Anticipating and Making Me Happy

Since I’ve been pouring my energy into NaNoWriMo prep resources and blogs to build up my new site, I’m already looking forward to November! I’m excited about the prep work because I’m going to be trying to make a nine-week novel-building course, essentially (instead of just offering successive blog posts on a topic), and I’ll be sharing it with the world in general and with my regional NaNoWriMo group in particular.

I know 2020 has been rough for everyone. You’re not alone out there! Isolation and social distancing may be taking its toll, but I promise others are going through the same. One of my solutions – okay, not exactly a solution, but definitely something that makes an improvement – is to take breaks during the day. I use the app Simply Being, which has a simple 5-minute “take a break and simply be” meditation that helps to break up the cycle of stressful thoughts that seem to collect over the course of the day. If you are meditation-phobic for some reason, I still recommend that app, because it’s not meditation the way most people think about it. It’s literally a woman calmly telling you to close your eyes, take deep breaths, and stop thinking. By focusing on your body for a few minutes (breathing, aches and pains, etc), it undoes the “oh, woe is me” 2020 train of thought.

Please stay safe and be smart about going out! Just because people say it’s okay to do something, don’t be a sheep and follow blindly. Stop and assess, try to consider the opposite viewpoint, and make conscious choices to protect yourself and everyone around you. I know people who have had coronavirus, and it can be life-altering in not entirely good ways. Stay healthy!

Cheers,
~Marie

Currently

Wow, July was a ridiculous amount of productivity for me. Not just Camp NaNoWriMo, for which my project is now over 40k (well over my 30k goal), but also productivity methods and tracking habits that made it easier for me to plan out my week about as well as I’ve planned that novel. It’s nice to not be scatter-brained for once, though I really wish I could just be more like I used to, rather than having to write down the tiniest things. Wishful thinking, I guess?

Loving

It’s been a tough week, so I’m having a little bit more trouble thinking about what I’m truly enjoying. The first thing that comes to mind is my cat, who has been solid comfort the entire time. She’s right behind me even now, being close by.

I guess I’m really loving my ghostwriting project at the moment. I’ve gotten to the last act (in a rough three-act structure) and there are definitely some things that I went off the rails about, but even getting lost with energy is enjoyable. These characters are definitely fun, and they’ve been pretty patient with me the last week while I have accomplished a lot less each day. (Most of my characters are not that polite, they have a tendency to push for me to write their stories at random times when I really can’t stop what I’m doing to start writing.) I think I have a plot bunny or three to wrangle before I’m satisfied with the novel, but it’s looking good, and I’m loving that!

Reading

I just started reading a book which a group of my friends suggested – I’d like to say we started our own book club, to get ourselves to share recommendations and read more in general, but unfortunately we’ve had mixed success over the last couple months. There’s been some discussion, at least. Maybe we’ll hit our stride at this point?

I’ve never read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, but I can recommend that my friends think it’s good! So far I’ve only read the first part, which seems like it’s meant to set the stage for the rest. I don’t think I’ve read enough to really comment on it yet. I can say they’ve already talked enough astrophysics – not as the subject, just as part of the setup of highly educated individuals, don’t panic! – that I had to read a couple passages twice to make sure I understood what the particularly pointed part of each side of the argument was. I don’t mind that, it actually made it feel more real.

Watching

I haven’t really been watching much lately. Increased productivity suddenly means no time to watch TV between productive hours and crashing. I’m thinking about working on that, and I’ve got my eye on that new Netflix show Cursed. I think Arthurian legends are probably some of the earliest ones I recall learning, and I’ve read so many variations over the years… anyway. Cursed is on my list, along with half the world else, and we’ll see how I do about actually reviewing the shows I watch. I’ve got one coming up (probably next week) for you all, but that’s only if I manage to get it done in time.

Listening To

I’m on a throwback sort of kick, at this instant I’ve got a favorites playlist of Simon & Garfunkel playing to keep me a bit more bouncy and energetic than I actually am. Earlier it was a jazz album my parents liked called ‘A Twist of Jobim’, a multi-artist tribute album. Once I’m a little more awake, I think Joni Mitchell is in order. I’m not awake enough to be singing along yet.

I’m also listening – if stop and start or occasionally at random can count as actively listening – to the RPG Crossing podcast. Two people I’ve gotten to know a bit better started podcasting back in April, and they’ve tackled topics like “What is play by post?”, how to apply for a game, and how to run a game for the play-by-post gaming site I’ve spent so much time on. (Not kidding, I hit 14 years of site membership on Monday.)

Thinking About

I’ve been using the Self Journal to keep a schedule and focus on setting realistic goals for myself, but it’s been a bit harder to stick to with a migraine that won’t go away. My mind is pondering the options for how to be more accurate with planning when I am feeling lousy, assuming I already have a migraine when I get up and lay out my tasks for the day, or some kind of system I can use when I realize I’m getting a migraine so that I still plan to do something the rest of the day, but not so much that I’m struggling or end up making my headache worse. It’s a work in progress, certainly.

Anticipating

My grandfather is turning 92 on Saturday. Ninety-two! I’ve been trying to handwrite a journal with a story told in journal entries for the most part, the same entries I’ve posted a few of here that were labeled “Rhydderck’s Journal”. Unfortunately, the five entries I’ve written so far – two of which I haven’t posted here yet – aren’t enough to fill the slim journal I am writing them in. I can’t send half a journal, especially if it doesn’t have any end point in sight. So I’m trying to rapidly brainstorm the next few points of the journey of Professor Rhydderck and then get them drafted so I can put them in the journal. I don’t think I can get it done on time at this point, not when I have to mail it to Minnesota, but I’m still anticipating his birthday! I’m going to call and hope he’s feeling up to talking for a little while.

Wishing

I’m really wishing I knew more about authorial website design, social media for authors/writers, and the whole package of what I need to do to establish myself as an author. Since I am not [yet] published by a traditional publishing house, I have to make my own mark on the web, and do my own PR, essentially. I’m taking some baby steps, but I’ve been so crazy (and migraine-y) that I haven’t been able to really look into it as well as I’d like.

Making Me Happy

I got to enjoy a birthday party for my brother on Sunday. My dad and stepmom have a nice backyard in which we can sit a bit more spread out, and they made a lot of amazing food. (Okay, my stepmom made a lot of amazing food, which my dad assisted with at the very end to grill the marinated skewers.) It was really nice to see them in person, even trying to keep careful distance between us, and it’s always great to see my brother. I wasn’t expecting him to come visit – he lives out of state at this point, and I have doubts he’ll ever move back to Massachusetts – so it was a lovely surprise. I’m a little bit sad that I can’t hug him, but he got a negative covid test before he traveled, so if he’s comfortable with believing me that I’ve been isolated for long enough to know I’m not a risk, I may get to hug him at least once before he heads back home.

I hope everyone is staying safe at home and protecting themselves when they go out. We really need to stop the climbing numbers of covid cases, and to do that, everyone needs to wear a mask and keep a safe social distance of six feet (or two meters) as much as possible. You’re free to do as you like in your own home, of course, but the mask in public protects everyone else from your germs. If you object to masks, think about it like this; would you rather that someone who doesn’t realize they got exposed to covid-19 wear a mask to protect you from them? Then treat others as you would like to be treated. The golden rule is basic, people. We can do this, if everyone does their part.

Cheers,
~Marie

Reflecting on July Camp NaNo

I can’t believe July is practically over! Only a few days left for Camp NaNoWriMo. If you’re writing frantically at this point, don’t stress! You have more words than you did at the beginning of the month. That’s all that really matters. It has taken me a long time to accept that some months just don’t work out for NaNoWriMo. (A lot of my Novembers, in fact, until more recently.) To anyone who strains to reach a goal only to stress yourself out, my advice is simple; relax. Take a deep breath. Count the words you have written. Look at where you started. That’s called progress. Also, don’t forget. It’s a draft, not a masterpiece.

My project hit my 30k goal on the 18th, so it might sound a little hypocritical of me to condemn those of you stressing, but for me, stress literally causes pain of various kinds. So believe me when I say stress is the enemy. I reached 40k yesterday, but I’ve been getting into more of the stop-and-start writing patterns that aren’t helping me move as quickly as I’d like. Seems like each time I try to get a larger chunk done, something comes up that either I wrote poorly before, so I need to go back and rethink it just so I can write the later section, or else I didn’t realize there was a minor plot hole in the way I’d planned things, so I have to stop and figure it out. I’m satisfied that I got this much done this month, but there are definitely lessons learned from some of the mistakes or problems that I had to navigate. (See below.)

Health

The headaches are still coming and going as per usual, but I think I’m doing better managing my time around them, so I think I’m doing better overall, which is a nice change. I’m still not sleeping, but I get by on what I’m getting.

Started a Qi Gong routine this past weekend, and I’m hoping I can make it a habit. It’s a beginner, easy routine, and it’s only eight minutes long. I can handle eight minutes somewhere in my day, right? It feels like a serious cop out if I can’t slide that in somewhere. It’s not quite exercise, exactly, but it’s definitely mindful breathing and should boost flexibility. The period of time when I was doing tai chi years ago was probably the best my fibromyalgia has been in a long time, but 2020 happened just when I was starting to get back to a point I could take the class again, and I doubt the class with the local Community Education center will be offered at this point; the teacher was elderly and I think she’d be high-risk. Maybe I still have her email somewhere… hmm. Ideas for a later date.

Happiness

Honey, my cat, has been nursing me this week, I think. She gets annoyed when I’m standoffish because I’m in pain, but if it happens for a longer time, she clearly understands that something’s wrong, and she dotes on me. She’s almost always in arm’s reach, she gets up just to “pet me” (stroke against my legs) randomly, and if I’m lying down, she tucks herself against my side and purrs like an engine.

I’ve done good work this week, too. Not just writing, but I’ve cleaned up my desk somewhat, I’ve gone through my filing to make room for new freelancing/professional receipts and information, and it may not look much like progress, but it feels like it. My desk is tiny, so there’s only so much I can do to reduce the clutter, but I made a space for my new Chicago Manual of Style to sit at one side, even if just to remind me I’m in a new phase of my life. I think the bright red-orange and blue book jacket is doing a good job of it, too.

I’m also trying to see the upside of my grandfather being in the hospital… now I feel a certain sense of urgency to get his birthday present completed on time so I can cheer him up! I’ve started handwriting the Rhydderck journal entries in a thin journal, like I would publish them if I ever did. It’s time consuming, and I have to be cautious of flaring my tendonitis, but it feels good to offer him something physical that I wrote. It’ll also make me write a few more, because the thin journal is still longer than the five entries I have written so far – coming soon to a blog near you.

Best Moment of July’s NaNo Experience

I think I’m going to have to say getting good feedback from my client on the rough draft I’ve been sending in pieces. Not all of the feedback was stellar, I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything. (There was definitely a section I got carried away on, so I wasn’t all that surprised it didn’t present as well as I’d like.) I have been ahead of schedule pretty much the entire time, mostly because I’m cautious about schedules when a migraine can take me out of commission for a few days. So being ahead of schedule isn’t as enjoyable when that was the plan the whole time.

It’s still very validating to hear someone else like what you’ve written. I’ve shared my work with many people over the years, my own writing mostly with family and friends – what can you expect family and friends to say other than how great it is? Not the most useful feedback. Writing I do as a freelancer, meanwhile, I give to clients who paid for it, so they don’t have to offer any feedback unless they’re asking me to change something. Sometimes my clients really don’t say anything, they just take the work I’ve done, offer a token ‘thanks for doing this’, and move on. I get it; I do. Not everyone has time for the feedback I appreciate so much, and people are busy. But when someone does take the time to comment, it makes it that much better. (This has inspired me to add “Lessons from Freelancing” to my list of potential updates for the near future, hopefully one for freelancers, and one for clients.)

The Takeaway!

Share your feedback freely with others! If someone asks you to read something and they’re looking for more than just confirmation you liked it, try and give them as much as you can. Receiving it means the world!

It doesn’t hurt that I haven’t written this genre recently, and it still comes out well. I’ll definitely write more of it in the future, or at least be less hesitant to write it. I can’t recommend writing outside your comfort zone more highly! Not a complete galaxy away from your niche, but expand something you haven’t written as much. Does your fantasy story have some technology in it? Try something firmly science fiction. Does your science fiction have a romantic subplot? Try your hand at a romance story. Short stories are great for this, by the way.

Worst Moment of July’s NaNo Experience

As nice as it is to get caught up in what you’re writing, if it takes you somewhere you didn’t expect and aren’t as happy about, it becomes a problem. My normal noveling routine, learned from NaNoWriMo in fact, is to write an entire draft from beginning to end before considering changing anything. This time around, however, I had to go back and change things. A short scene that was foreshadowing later events was slightly off, but the difference in the plotted course was significant after several more chapters. By the time I reached chapter eleven (leading up to the black moment in this novel), I couldn’t write what I’d planned at all, it was all wrong. Full stop.

Takeaway Tips!

Anything that brings NaNoWriMo (or any writing progress) to a screeching halt is going to wreck some of the productivity of the next day(s) or maybe even a week. I realize now that one of the things I failed to keep up with was my journaling about the progress of the novel. Normally I have a simple text file with date headers that I add to as I go, after I’m done writing for the day. Since I’ve been cramming my schedule a bit full, as long as I wrote words I was happy. That was my mistake. If I had been noting my feelings about the draft, I think I would’ve caught this sooner. If I’d thought about the feedback I received from my client – who noted that something felt a little off about the foreshadowing scene that caused all this – I think I may have been able to avoid the abrupt stop and the broken energy that comes with it. So don’t forget to spend a little time thinking about what you’re writing, instead of just writing it! 

All in all, I’ve had a pretty productive July, and Camp NaNoWriMo was definitely a success. Everything I’ve started being more proactive about by scheduling my time in my Self Journal is going to help keep me on task going forward. At this point I’m more concerned that I won’t have time to do everything I want to than that I won’t be able to get things done. I’m behind on stories for this blog, I don’t have any of August’s updates blocked out, and I’m coming up to the final chapters of my ghostwriting project. I need to budget for next month before I can figure out if I can spend money on upgrading from just this blog to an actual website. And then there are those social media posts that happen only sporadically at the moment… Like I said, lots to do!

Cheers,
~Marie

July Camp NaNo Update: Week 3

Week three has (for the most part) made up for the week two slump, especially since I reached my goal of 30k words by the end of July! I’ve won, and I’ve submitted the third segment of my ghostwritten novel. There were some things that weren’t the way I liked (or my client liked), but I’m still planning to keep going and push through to the end before trying to come back and fix anything.

Health

I’m doing okay, I guess. Headaches irritate me, the heat is stifling – I swear, the sun used to feel nice on my face, not full of rage! 2020 is 2020. None of that seems to be improving, but that’s not unfamiliar to me. I avoid thinking about it, and that’s enough most days. Politics makes me want to cry, along with all the media.

In better news, I’ve started using one of the many productivity guides out there, in this case the Self Journal. It’s not quite what I think I need most, but it’s a whole lot better than I was doing before. The Self Planner is a six-month monthly/weekly planner instead of the Journal’s 13-week weekly/daily planning… that may end up being more useful to me than the journal itself, since I’ve already got methods for day to day planning. I’ll probably figure out my system when I get the Rocketbook Orbit from the Kickstarter I backed. It’s an infinitely reusable pad of paper (synthetic paper wipes clean with a damp cloth if you use the right pens) with all the usual Rocketbook tech, just this one’s more like a traditional legal pad… if you could swap out the lined pages for dot grid pages, or project goals/to-do list pages, etc. Since Rocketbook just did a big joint project with Panda Planner, I may end up just getting that instead if it’s easier. I’ll have to investigate. The key point is that my stress level is slowly falling as I take more control of my life!

Happiness

Having my goals laid out so neatly in the journal’s system is really helping. Even when I only check off a simple thing from my goals, it feels good. Baby steps may be tiny, but they’re forward movement, which I haven’t felt like I have had for ages. I’ve even laid out how I think I want to try and update this blog in the future, trying to get some sort of system built. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, since it won’t have the same structure as NaNoWriMo – if you hadn’t noticed, my most active months on the blog are usually April, July, and November. But we’ll see! August might be vacation month, but other than that, hopefully there will be forward progress here as well.

Not feeling weighed down by stress to the point of being unable to do anything is pretty awesome, I must admit.

Best Moment This Week

I probably sound like a broken record, but being able to finish a week and look back at the increased productivity (on non-migraine days, at least) from planning things out and laying out clear goals has been really great. It also got me to 30k words on my ghostwritten novel, so I should be getting paid for that shortly (client pays Upwork’s system, which takes some time to clear, takes their fee, and then gives it to my account with them, which isn’t actually cash in hand until I transfer it to my bank).

Worst Moment This Week

I crashed toward the end of the week. Wednesday I was feeling awful but not in much pain yet, but the migraine ate significant amounts of Wednesday through Saturday, which made me feel pretty lousy. It was right as I started my journal, too, so it felt like it wasn’t working. (Took me a while to realize that I was accomplishing things, even with the migraine.) But I can’t say I’ve been feeling all that great.

To my surprise, I was actually able to offer suggestions to someone on the NaNoWriMo forums who wanted one of their characters to suffer from migraines, and needed personal experience/stories to work from to make it seem real. It actually felt like there might be some value in these darned headaches for a change. I may make a thread in that part of the forums for other people to find, in case other people need similar information. I don’t know if it’ll be useful, but even the possibility feels good to put out there.

Stay healthy and safe,
~Marie

July Camp NaNo Update: Week 2

Week two… oh, week two. Right on schedule, July 8th started out great and ended up in the usual week-two slump. When I started writing on the 9th, I realized that in “completing” the scene before, I’d left out a major point of the scene, which was to inform my main characters that their logical plan wasn’t going to work as smoothly as they had thought. I omitted it when I was writing the scene, even though my notes panel was staring me in the face. (I think that might be my new case in point for the week-two slump.)

I’m still enjoying my project, for all my progress slowed down or turned into a lot of stop-and-start bits that may not flow as well. I think for now, I’m going to keep going and push through to the end before trying to come back and fix anything. (For those that didn’t see my Camp Liftoff or Week 1 posts, I’m ghostwriting this novel for a client.)

Health

I was doing better, at least until I got hit with a migraine late Thursday and Friday. I was ahead on my word count on purpose, since I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but it still upsets me each time I get the pre-migraine weirdness – I’d call it an aura, except my aura symptoms were sensitivity and nausea, sometimes dizziness. Those went away with my hormones, and now I just have this brain fog… I’m thinking it might be fibromyalgia aches and fogginess that I’m just not as aware of until my body starts hunkering down to weather the migraine. That’s the only thing that makes any sense to me. Who knows, really, could just be different aura symptoms that were covered by the aura I used to get. I’m rambling, sorry. Onward!

I’m totally bringing back the ’50s bandana-tied-around-head style with the knot in front… I just wish I could say it was for fashion purposes, not keeping an ice pack up against the back of my head.

Happiness

I was procrastinating on Twitter on Sunday morning and got stuck following other writers, and discovered someone who was laughing about “wandering around twitter” also. It may be a little thing, but I retweeted his comment with my own amusement that I was doing the same thing; we traded a few messages that really didn’t have a whole lot of weighty emotional value… but they made me smile. It’s the little things in life that have been keeping me going. There have been a number of little things lately. My cat doing something silly to attract my attention, a friend commenting in a group chat only to realize belatedly that they implied something naughty and laughing with us… I am enjoying everything I can find that makes me smile.

Best Moment This Week

Being ahead of schedule to submit my second installment of my project to my client. (I use Upwork.com for my freelancing now, and one of the methods of payment is by milestones – contract chunks to accomplish and get paid for as you go.) My second 10k-word segment was due Thursday the 16th, but I submitted it Monday and got great feedback. I definitely have some points I’ll need to address on my revision pass, but honestly I kinda knew that when I sent it in. I spent Tuesday getting so lost in it that I wrote 5k words almost in one sitting and failed to accomplish other things I’d told myself I’d do. At speeds like that, I can probably have the rest of the 10k-word segment done by Friday, which means submitting that early, too, and the funds I’m getting paid should post to my account in time to get a significantly larger check come August.

Worst Moment This Week

Unfortunately migraines are a fact of life, and while I coasted during week one on sheer exuberance, it doesn’t take long afterward to get a migraine (almost guaranteed, evening of the 8th, according to my medical journal). I managed at first, but I broke my writing streak and wrote nothing but random bits and thoughts on the 10th. Someday I’d like to be able to write every day without fail. I mentioned the migraine above, but the worst moment part is the overflowing muddle of negative emotions that come with failing to write something daily as was my goal. It’s just an emotional jumble that the migraine makes harder to control. Friday was not a good day for me personally, the weekend was a mess, and to top it off, on Sunday I learned my great-aunt was rather suddenly diagnosed with end-stage leukemia. Since my great-aunt is also my grandmother’s best friend, she’s pretty upset. I don’t want to poke an open wound, but I also wish I could do something to help. I posted the poem I wrote a couple days ago. I wrote it out on a blank card that I decorated with ‘Thinking of you’ on the front with flowers and butterflies. I hope it helped in some small way.

In closing, my heart goes out to all the healthcare workers out there. I was told today that my acquaintance (who is a nurse) had already reached the unpleasant milestone of 50th patient death due to coronavirus by the end of June. They’ve cared for many more people sick with this, but had personally cared for fifty people who had died from the ravages of the disease, and not elderly or high-risk people, either. It may not sound like a lot, but consider a nurse’s patient list in a hospital. Not the ER, that’s constant turmoil. But admitted patients. There are rules and regs about how many patients a single nurse can care for, and I don’t want to get into all that. Apparently at most, this person used to get five deaths in a year, sometimes none at all. When they compared it to two flu deaths in their entire career, that really drove the point home. Please, people, stay safe. If you know anyone who works in a hospital or healthcare setting, shower them with all the love and affection you can, because the drain on them is far more than just being overworked and at risk.

Forget about politics, opinions, and the crazy conspiracy theories. Find a way to send a hug by email to someone who needs it. Stay healthy and safe,
~Marie