Category: Weekly Writing Check In

Weekly writing check-in: Morning rainbow

A little more progress this week on Coffee and Ghosts, not to mention this rainbow out the back deck this morning.

My ankle is so much better, too, surprisingly so. I’m hobbling around the house and garden reasonably well. Our eggplants and cucumbers are flowering, and we have tiny peppers and tomatoes.

Right now, I’m looking at ways I can get more writing done during the week. Oddly, working from home doesn’t translate into more time for writing.

When I went into the office, I wrote during my lunch hour, away from my desk. That was my mental trigger for: now it’s time to write.

I don’t have anything like that these days, and it shows.

This week’s goal: figure out a new writing trigger/ritual.

Weekly writing check-in: Lemons into Kona blend

So, just when you think it’s safe to step outside and maybe walk the dogs … you take a tumble and end up hurting your ankle.

When the doctor first saw it, she gave me a 50/50 chance of it being broken. Fortunately, it’s not. Just a bad sprain.

My urgent care experience was excellent. Yes, there were the COVID precautions, which I appreciate, but it didn’t take too long, and everyone was so nice (and apologizing for the wait–truly, it was fine).

My ankle is still swollen and has entered that truly ugly phase of all the bruising coming to the surface in all its purple and greenish glory.

So what to do when life gives you lemons? Make lemonade, or in my case, some Kona blend.

I opened the outline to season four of Coffee and Ghosts, made a few notes, and then this morning, wrote the first scene.

So that? That was good. I’ll take it and hope to post more progress next week.

Weekly writing check-in: Victory garden

Fight Nazis. Plant a victory garden

Look! We have a garden. Maybe it’s not the prettiest garden out there, but it’s ours.

And soon, we’ll have peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant (along with the mint, basil, parsley, and dill).

I found this article in The Atlantic, and this particular paragraph sums up most of May for me:

Others are likely having problems with their sympathetic nervous system, which controls unconscious processes like heartbeats and breathing: They’ll be out of breath even when their oxygen level is normal, or experience what feel like heart attacks even though EKG readings and chest X-rays are clear.

So, not so much writing lately. I did work on a few edits of stories. Because the brain fog part of this whole deal is also a thing.

So I leave you with a picture of our garden.

 

Weekly writing check-in: writing in the time of COVID

As I mentioned, way back in the dark ages of April, I came down with all the symptoms of the coronavirus. I got better, got a bit of my writing mojo back, and all seemed well.

You know where this is going.

A couple of weeks ago, I started getting shortness of breath, tightness in my chest along with some pain. At first, I thought I had some allergy-induced asthma since we went from cold and rainy to BOOM! sunshine and blooms.

But no. To make a long story short, this week, I got confirmation. Yes, I absolutely had COVID back in April, and what I’m experiencing now is that second round some people are getting.

But no worries. My lungs are clear (chest x-ray), a blood test for clotting (just fine), and an EKG (also fine). I have a stress echocardiogram scheduled for Thursday just to make certain all is well with my heart.

Still. I cannot imagine what some people are going through with this virus. My lungs are clear, and it still hurts, I’m still short of breath. Often it’s weird and random. I can feel absolutely fine and begin to chide myself for overreacting, and then twenty minutes later, I’ll wonder if today’s the day I might be visiting the ER.

I made dinner last night since I was feeling like a sloth for not doing much all day (and by dinner, I mean that I put some pasta on to boil and dumped salad into a bowl–this was not a strenuous activity). After? I had to go lie down.

In actual writing news, I did get everything scheduled for the 2020 story project through July (whew!). I did take notes on the new project, and I think I found a plotline for a Coffee and Ghosts short story.

All things considered?

Not bad.

Weekly writing check-in: outlining in the rain

Actually, the rain is outside, so I wasn’t outlining in the rain. However, I did finish an outline for what I think will be my next book (novella or novel, not quite sure at this point).

At least, I hope it will be my next book. I don’t want to jinx it or anything.

In the meantime, I need to go research a few things, like haunted engagement rings, wedding magazines, and ghost puns.

Weekly writing check-in: murderbot and story planning

I’m really enjoying Network Effect, the fifth book in The Murderbot Diaries series. I’m glad I reread the first four books before diving in. I’m not 100% sure the fifth in the series stands alone. It could, but I think it’s far better to read the entire series in order.

This week, I finished scheduling stories for May and came up with a plan for posting stories for June and July. It involves a serial story for July, which was not my original intent.

But you know what? I did not expect a pandemic and murder hornets and all the rest. As we used to say in the Army: Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

So I think that’s what I’ll go do on this cold, rainy Mother’s Day.

Weekly writing check-in: pollen and murderbot

So much pollen. But a little writing as well. And a lot of reading.

This week, I’m re-reading The Murderbot Diaries in anticipation of the release of book #5 on Tuesday. The first in the series is on sale at the moment if you want to give it a try. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about the series is the novella-length of each title. We’ll see how I feel about the standalone novel-length entry (maybe by next week–I’ll let you know).

And now I’m going to try to do something despite the pollen.

Weekly writing check-in: sunshine and pollen

Wait, wasn’t it two weeks ago I was complaining about the snow? Yeah, it was either two weeks or four years ago. One of those.

I’m really feeling the pollen this year. I suspect it’s because I was sick about a month ago, and my lungs aren’t fully healed yet.

But the sun is shining! We’re building a little garden in the backyard. I turned in my article and started a story.

As weeks go, I’ll take it.

Weekly writing check-in: chocolate eggs and sunshine

Now we have some sunshine. It’s lovely out there, a far cry from last weekend. And we still have chocolate eggs, so there’s that as well.

I’ve been pondering my 2020 story project. I had the notion for it back in November of 2019, and I was all:

Sure! Let’s do this!

After all, I have a back catalog of stories that aren’t doing anything, plus I figured I could fill in any gaps during the year. I scheduled several weeks in advance and all was good.

Then 2020 actually happened.

I have one story in the queue for next Friday. And that’s it.

Mind you, I still have stories I can post. Some are … weird. I’m not talking trunk stories. These have been published, but they’re still a little, shall we say, quirky. I’m thinking the theme for May should be oddities and ends and just call it done.

In other news, I’m nearly done with my article. I want to do a “listening proof” (text-to-speech) before I send it out. I highly recommend this as a way of proofing your own work.

Weekly writing check-in: chocolate eggs and snow

We have some chocolate eggs here, and we have snow. This is a Minnesota thing.

It’s more surprising when it doesn’t snow on Easter.

I’m feeling better this week. I can string sentences together, and I think I’m mostly caught up at work.

I also did some writing!

About five years ago, back in early March*, I sent out a query for an article. I promptly forgot about it, got sick, and sometime in that foggy in between, got an acceptance.

They’d like the actual article, please.

I spent time this week drafting that. I’ll let it rest for the week, revise and edit next weekend, and then send it on its way.

On today’s agenda, after a little writing, I think I’ll consume some of those chocolate eggs and get in a couple hours of reading.

*It feels like five years ago, anyway.