Slow Summer, Slower Writing

Sometimes sitting around and doing nothing is fun. It can be a much needed break from a hectic life, a chance to clear your mind and relax. But sometimes, it really gets on your nerves - especially if sitting around and doing nothing is ALL you ever do. Such has been my life this summer. I have had absolutely no fires to fight this summer, and while that's good for the forests and grazing lands - I'm a firefighter. If I'm not fighting fire, I'm sitting around doing nothing, essentially. For me, doing nothing tends to kill my motivation for doing anything at all. Thus, it's been hard to sit down and write, even when I do have some spare time.You may have noticed I didn't even get up the motivation to post for the last two weeks.

That's not to say that I don't want to write. It's just that, well, objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Equally, it's hard to get my brain in gear and start writing when all I've been doing is staring at the forest all day thinking "Why won't you catch fire already!?" (I jest...mostly.)

Kricket's Song finally made some progress this last week. I would say "good progress," although that won't be entirely evident in the word count. A lot of the progress was in finally resolving some of the planning and visualization issues I was having with later parts of the book, particularly around the climax and the events leading up to it. While listening to the "soundtrack" I've selected for the book, I got some good brainstorming done. Hopefully, that will translate to faster typing during those times when I can convince myself to sit down and write.

I've also been thinking on The Serenity Solution and what I want to do with the rewrite, but I don't have anything definite there yet. Short stories are pretty much on hold right now, though I have been thinking about finally finishing that rough draft of "The Abyss" and maybe revising "The Wall" again. "Exequies" is on hold as far as submissions go, simply because I'm out of touch with the entire world - internet included - while I'm out at the remote guard station. That doesn't make for prompt communication. When I'm finally relocated to my new job and have consistent internet again, I'll try to get moving on that again.

And that's about it for now. Stunning revelations I know. This is the hard part about being a writer. It's all about that grinder...