Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Pre-Writing and Family Time

By the time you read this, I’ll have been “off the grid” for almost a week, doing my best to forget about the digital world while we do family things in the great outdoors.

It’s always a tough transition to leave the internet access zone behind (we do it every summer), but I’ve given myself plenty of time to get my projects wrapped up (in writing and real life) and I feel more prepared than ever. (I confess we do have limited access at 2am...which is a tad early even for me)

I have books I need to read and review loaded on my (charged!) kindle, research materials downloaded for book 3, and a list of a plot issues that need to be fleshed out before I can do any serious writing....

My biggest goal? I want all the writing stars to align with perfectly clarity when the kids go back to school in September (which is completely reasonable!)

Whether I can wait that long or not will be the real question. :-)

Do your writing habits change during the summer months? I realize that some deadlines are just too dang tight to STOP writing for a week or two (or three or four)... but stepping away definitely helps reignite that burning desire to write write write if you happen to find yourself pondering whether you truly WANT to write or not. Maybe it's that "grass is always greener on the other side" theory. :-) But also, it's a great reminder that there are amazing things going on in the real world. Enjoy the seasonal opportunities while you can! The writing can wait. In fact, it might even track you down and apologize for being such an unhealthy obsession and re-negotiate better work conditions for a win-win. :-) (crossing my fingers!)

So my question for you is.... Who controls your time-- you or your writing?

See you in a few weeks!
~Toni



2 comments:

Jennifer Jensen said...

Congrats on taking some time off, and with a plan yet! For me, the rest of my life used to control my time and writing just fit in where it could, but that's changed as my book comes closer to launch. That's turned into a power-hungry evil sorcerer these days!

I'm headed out to visit a friend soon, but it's a working writing week so that doesn't count. My concern is the three weeks in September when we go back to Ireland. By then I'll be in plotting/character development stages for the next book, so don't have big deadlines to meet, but I have marketing stuff to monitor, blog posts to pre-write (I'm taking the iPad, not the computer, so I can do a bit but not be ruled by it), and guest posts to arrange. I'm afraid that the to-do list to be ready to leave will knock out any of the anticipation time for the trip. And planning and anticipation is half the fun! Oh well, once I get there, I'll have great craic (fun) with old friends, see places we didn't get to see, take lots of pictures, and leave the writing pressures waiting happily at home.

Hope you have a great time with your family and come back refreshed and rejuvenated!

J Lenni Dorner said...

I hope your time away, your trek into the REAL real world, was wonderful. :)
My own getaway was back in May. Not as good this year as last, but such is life.