In my last post (from two weeks ago, I’m so ashamed) I said I would likely update the following week twice, early on, and then toward the end of the month with the results of April Camp Nano. But I failed. I’m a slacker. I hang my head.
But, of course, there were reasons. Early in the week I was in a funk, that I never quite identified the overall cause, but through which I was able to propel myself, at least in terms of writing. I think it might have had to do with the fact that the mission trip in the story was ending, and it brought up sadness over the end of the trip on which the story was based, even though it was nearly 16 years ago. Obviously, I have lots of deep-seated emotions that I haven’t processed. Maybe one day I’ll get through them all.
Whatever the case with early in the week, by the end I had picked up steam, and I not only got past the 15K goal, I got over 18K, writing just over 5K on the last day. I don’t know if upping my goal to 20K earlier in the week would have helped me to push myself earlier, or really explode my writing pace last Friday. But there’s no point dwelling on the past.
So why didn’t I post on Saturday after the month was over to boast of my win and all that? Maybe because I got busy. I hadn’t exactly been putting off spending time with my family during April, but not having writing to worry about (at least in terms of Camp Nano) freed me up somewhat, and my son wanted to spend a good deal of time out of the house. I wasn’t thrilled at the start of it, but by the end it was a mostly enjoyable day, and I’m thankful for it.
Similarly on Sunday, I spent a great deal of time outside while my kids hunted for frogs and crayfish. My kids wanting to be in nature and not with a screen in front of them? Why would I not encourage this?
But I also fell into the trap of thinking “It’s the weekend. Would anyone read a blog post on the weekend?” (That’s presuming people have been reading these posts during the week.) And then we got to Monday. And then Tuesday. And then Wednesday, which was supposed to be the usual posting day (with the more often than occasional lateness on Thursday). But there’s just been so much going on.
My kids are both in sports (softball and baseball). There’s a Kickstarter campaign for a show I’ve loved for 30 or so years with live streaming events held all throughout this week. I’ve been trying to make sure I get enough sleep.
All this is to say that by falling out of the habit of taking care of writing early in the day, I let posting and other writing-related stuff fall by the wayside as well.
My hope is that with Lent and April Camp Nano over I’ll keep updating on the few things that have to do with writing that continue to go on in my life. (Lent, because that was one of the promises I made, to update regularly.)
Oh! There is one big-ish bit of news: right now my writing group, Bob’s Bitch Lasagna, is down a member, because the only other guy got busy with work. Stupid pandemic allowing us to get used to some people not being as busy, so when they actually return to a regular level of employment, it feels like a tease.
But seriously, since he was one of the more talkative members of the group, I’ve had to step up to fill some of the conversational gaps. I think it’s been going well, but there’s only so much this introvert can handle. It’ll really be interesting to see how things go when we start meeting in person.
Crap. I’ll probably have to start showering more regularly again. Curse you, pandemic tease!