For The Sake Of August

I couldn't let an entire month slip by without writing something. Well, actually, I could and indeed almost did. Which would be bad. But even worse than not writing anything for an entire month (well, actually longer than that, if you look at the last entry, but who's counting? Not me!) would be yet another "writing a post just to have a post." I've come to realize how pointlessly self-indulgent such things are, which is not to say that the entire act of blogging itself isn't self-indulgent. It's just that I think some things are higher on that particular scale than others.

I don't feel bad about taking a good part of the summer off; indeed, I told myself that I deserved, having finished a novel and all that. There's still that second book that I began last November, the prequel or first novel, or whatever, I don't know yet how it should all fit together. One of the reasons I made the push to finish "Unrepentant" was to clear my plate so I could devote all of my attention to finish this second project (working title subject to change at random). And then I finished one book and... proceeded to not write much of anything on the second.

And for once in my life, I feel like that's okay. I don't feel the pressure to get back to writing five days a week out of some fearful notion that if I don't start again, I never will and all of these thoughts will just linger on in my brain, unformed and unfinished. I feel like it's okay if I take a little time off because I know I'll come back to the story. Over this past summer, I didn't really feel like I had anything to say, either for the story or for the blog. It's probably a summer thing: the fact is that it's so damn hot here, it's tough to want to do much of anything other than crawl under the nearest rock and hide for a few months. It's like winter in reverse: as the summer finally begins to wane and the weather begins to cool, I find myself coming alive once again. More importantly, I find myself having things to say.

NaNoWriMo is looming in my thoughts. This will be the first year that I won't be going into it as a student, which may be a blessing or a curse, I'm not sure yet. I say blessing, because November is typically the most busy month of your life as a student, especially a Creative Writing student, because it seems like all of your big stories and projects and critiques are all due in the same three week span. So not having all of that on my plate will be nice.

On the other hand, there's the fear that without that pressure, the Law of Inverse Productivity will kick in and despite having more time, I'll get less done. Because that's the way of things with me and my brain. It doesn't make any sense, but I've long since given up trying to figure it all out.

So here's to the end of August and the end of not having anything to say and hopefully a return to productivity and progress on my stories. I'd really like to finish book two by the end of the year, if possible. And I'd like to be ready for NaNoWriMo, since I'd really like to extend my streak to three years in a row, if I can.