Not many words written today. More questions than answers. Lots of what-ifs and uh-oh-now-I-have-to-fix-thats. But I’m moving forward. It’s a first draft, ya know? These things happen.

I’ve hit a point where I am questioning my writing and my plot choices and feeling a little burned out. It will pass. It always does. But, first, I’m going to finish my 10,000 word goal for Camp NaNoWriMo and then take the weekend off. I just need a little breather to refocus and recharge my creativity. Honestly, at this point, I consider this par for the course. If I didn’t feel like this, I’d be more worried, because it would mean I wasn’t pouring everything I had into my writing.

A photo posted by Andrea Brame (@andreabrame) on Feb 22, 2016 at 11:02am PST

The last few months have been a whirlwind. Writing and other activities took a back burner to life. There have been some exciting highs and some difficult lows for myself and those I love.

BUT, I’m writing again now and up to over 70,000 out of an anticipated 65,000 words, with more to write before the story is complete. I have to overwrite; it’s just my process. I trim down my first drafts, like a sculptor chiseling away at a statue–bit by bit, chunk by chunk, edge by edge, until I get to the heart of the story. And then I go into potter mode and basically smoosh the whole thing back down on the wheel and then gently pull it back up from a lump until it forms into the vessel I envisioned.

It’s a messy process.

So. Anyway. About that heads-up in the title. Yeah … my website might disappear and reappear without warning sometime soon. I am going to attempt to upgrade it to the responsive theme I purchased back in November of last year. Life has finally started settling down into a (more) predictable rhythm, so I’m going to give it a shot.

And that’s it.

(Oh, and by the way. If you aren’t following me on Twitter or Instagram, now is a great time to begin. I keep those two social media accounts pretty up-to-date. On Twitter, I talk about books and reading and writing and geeking. Or I fangirl over favorite stories, characters, and actors. I’ve recently learned the art of the GIF tweet. Fun times! Over on Instagram, I am an active part of the #bookstagram community and post pretty pictures of books, bags, journals, and coffee. You know, the essentials of reader and writer life. Click here to follow me on Twitter and here to follow on Instagram. Say hey and introduce yourself, if you’re up to it. I always love hearing from my people … the bibliophiles.)

I teared up when I watched this. So beautiful.

ORGANIZING – Remember back in September, when I was getting my house in order? I’m still in the middle of that. It is a never-ending process, I guess. Right  now I’m participating in a Lenten decluttering project started by Ann Marie of White House Black Shutters. It is called 40 Bags in 40 Days, and I’m about 25 bags into the process. Five years of marriage, three moves, and one baby later, and I think Daniel and I have finally combined and pared-down our belongings. Yikes.

SLEEPING – Sleep was also an issue in September. It still is, I guess. Just a better issue. Toddlerhood has not changed our son’s night waking schedule, but it has vastly improved his naps and bedtime, so I can’t complain. Much. In fact, I can pretty consistently depend on naps and bedtime for uninterrupted writing time, if I take the opportunity. (Sometimes you just have to veg after chasing a one-year-old all day.)

WRITING – I’m still working on my science fiction project. I tweeted the other day that my story seems to be coming together from the outside-in. I’ve figured out the ending, and have a beginning that matches it. Now I just need the middle, and I am filling in scenes in my tentative outline in Scrivener as they come to me. The science-y aspects still are my nemesis, but I will not give up! Which brings me to my last little update …

March is halfway over. April is coming quickly, and with it Camp NaNoWriMo. This year I’m going to keep working on my current project. I don’t have any concrete goals this time around, but I am excited to be bunking with some local writer friends (hi Amy, and Cassie!). It is nice to be out of the baby haze and getting my creativity back, and even nicer to have like-minded people coming alongside to keep me honest and cheer me on in my progress.

So, 2014 was kind of a big year. This little guy came home from the hospital with us at the very beginning of it.

And now,  we just celebrated the beginning of 2015 with a brand-new one-year-old boy who happens to call me momma (sometimes, when he feels like it and is prompted. We’ll get there.)

I can’t wait to see what comes next!

{photo credit for the last picture: my friend, Joy}

Sadness. I simply cannot add another writing project to my plate write–er, RIGHT–now.

So, for me, it is NO National Novel Writing Month.

But to those of you who are tackling it this year, go you!

I’ll be over here, in my little corner, chewing on the end of my pencil and trying to get the last bits of my first draft’s plot hashed out on paper. So I can actually write the durn thing.

Well, I am a week into my “downtime” and while I wish I could say the entire house is now spotless and I am spending hours at a time serenely playing with my kiddo, I can’t exactly say that. I can say both bathrooms have been scrubbed recently (trust me, this is, indeed, an accomplishment) and I restocked the baby food supply before I ran out. Barely.

Also, I threw out a bathroom trashcan’s worth of expired health and beauty products I had been storing in my linen closet. I can now, you know, store linens in the linen closet again. This is a good feeling.

I have a feeling this whole get-the-house-in-order-so-I-can-focus-on-my-writing thing is going to take longer than expected at the current rate of one surface or cupboard being tackled per nap.

BUT! I wrote the rough draft of a picture book idea this week. That was unexpected. See what crazy things your brain might do when you give it orders to rest? Yeah. Weird how that works.

Come on in! This is a post about my progress towards goals I am making in a summer writing initiative hosted by lovely writers Alison, Erin, Jaime, and Katy. We’re posting our goals publicly, cheering each other on, and reporting back via link party to let everyone know how we’re doing. Why not join us?

1.  How I did on last week’s goals

Write Monday through Thursday night, without fail. Without excuse.

And that is all.

I did it! I think I finally hit on a goal that works for me and this stage of my life.

 2.  My goal(s) for this week

Let’s do this again: Mon-Thurs … write, write, WRITE!

3.  A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised

Character revelations, thanks to summer school! By the way, it’s not too late, if you want to join in with a late registration. Hop on over to Nerdy Chicks Write to read some fantastic blog posts by guest lecturers. Our coursework focuses on getting to know our characters better, and I have to say my homework has already made a huge impact on my WIP. I’m grateful to Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Kami Kinard for bringing summer school to life. (And equally glad I was on Twitter the day I read about it and hopped on over to participate!)

4.  The biggest challenge I faced this week

It was my first time being a solo parent for nearly a week. My husband had to go on a business trip, so I was on 24/7 duty, no exceptions, with the kiddo. While it wasn’t completely different from my norm, since I’m a stay-at-home-mom anyway, I realized just how much I relied on Daniel during the evenings. He’s a great dad!

The biggest challenge was also my biggest advantage, however, since I took those nights on my own and turned them into writing opportunities.

5.  Something I love about my WIP

I get pretend what it would be like to be really, really rich.