Month 5 in Review

This past week has been tiring and busy. It’s one thing to be physically tired, but being tired physically and emotionally is a bad combo for me. This month I missed two days of writing and posting. One of those days I actually fell asleep with my laptop on my abdomen. When I woke up the screen was dark and I realized my computer had fallen asleep after I did. The following day, I decided to just put myself to bed, as I pondered all the days of my childhood when I said I didn’t want naps and didn’t want to go to bed. Foolishness, I tell you. Straight foolishness.

Well, with all that’s been going on, particularly this past week with the shootings across the U.S., it’s made me ponder, even more, the purpose of my writing. Yes, my goal for this yearlong blog project is to write every day and gather ideas that can be turned into short stories and, eventually, a novel.

But this week I was struck by the desire to not just write something I enjoy, but a work that actually leads to impact in society. Maybe that’s too lofty or even crazy to have that as a goal, but it’s what I really want. I want to write something that alters the way people think about a subject, for them to read what I wrote and have their eyes opened to a better way. That could be too grand. Time will tell…

(sigh)

Now on to the regular stuff:

Stories I like:

• Gegenschein
• Heuristic
• Slyboots
• Paranymph-Alliaceous
• Zeitgeber
• Inchoate
• Tohubohu
• Rib-tickling
• Hermetic
• Supererogatory

Stories I’d like to expand:

• Slyboots-The idea of two people becoming fast friends, sacrificing and helping each other from the beginning to the end of their friendship seems like it would interest me
• Paranymph-Alliaceous-I actually have an entire storyline in my head for this idea, so we’ll see if I pursue this story about friendship and love that persists under pressure
• Inchoate-This could be transformed into a short story about a writer who gets inspired by a young boy who deals with his own challenges of life
• Hermetic-I’d like to write a mystery and I feel like this could at least be a short story that revolves around a family

Questions I wrestle with:

• How can I get enough rest and still write daily?
• How do I make time to write more?
• Is this sustainable? Or am I doing too much?

What I observed this month:

I have been extremely tired and when I become extremely tired I write longer or completely pass out. That’s not really great for the writing process. I need to make sure I’m managing my time so that I can write pieces that are of some level of quality (in my mind). I really want to get to my short stories and novel writing, but I’m not making much headway in terms of making time for that writing.

One piece of slightly positive news is that I entered into a flash fiction writing competition a couple months back, which felt like an internal sign that I’m getting up the nerve to submit my work and developing thicker skin. I also hit 100 posts the other day and that surprised me, but felt like an accomplishment, because I did something I had never done before, which brought me a certain level of joy.

In short, I’m chugging along, but there’s more that I need to do…and such is my view of my life. (sigh)