July strangely felt like a long month, but I still can’t believe it’s August. Summer is almost over! And I haven’t been to the beach! I’m hoping to have an extended beach weekend in October, when there would be fewer crowds and (ideally) still some warm weather. But we’ll see.
I procrastinated soooo much in July. Maybe I cursed myself by declaring the Return of the Summer Doldrums. I also feel like I haven’t had a free weekend in months. We’ve been going pretty hard at home improvement things for like eight straight Saturdays.
Still, I did halfway decently with my goals.
To review!
Last Month’s Goals
- Actually finish “Uprooted — The Herb Witch Tales #1”.
- Write 10,000 words.
- Continue with yoga and hit the gym.
- Find a way to read more.
Actually finish “Uprooted”?
*Deeply annoyed sigh*
No, but I’m close. To be fair, this story is becoming longer than I anticipated. I can probably wrap up my current draft at 35-36k words, but I already know there are a couple small bits I want to add for consistency/plot purposes.
I can finish it this week. What I’m really unsure about is if this draft will be ready for any readers or my editor. There are a couple pieces that just feel off to me, but I don’t know if I need to expand on them or just cut them out. Maybe that’s an indication that I need some outside perspectives, but I think I still want to sit on it and review it again before sending it to anyone.
The good news is that it took me basically the entire month to get through a tough area, but I like how the ending is rounding out.
Write 10,000 Words?
Considering I didn’t even finish my draft, no, I didn’t have a chance to start writing another story. I wrote 4,808 words in July, which is a bit more than June, but not enough. I just procrastinated too much and had too many frustratingly fruitless writing sessions.
I’m already off to a great start in August, so there’s that.
Continue yoga and hit the gym?
Yes to the first, no to the second, but not because I was lazy! I thought about heading back to the gym, but then started to question whether it was worth the risk, given the resurgence of COVID-19. Even in my state, Maryland, which has had steady restrictions and testing plans in place for months, we’re seeing a resurgence.
So I decided to stick with yoga for the time being, and I’m okay with that. The gym can wait.
Find a way to read more?
Yes, if by reading more, we mean listening to short audiobooks to pad my reading goal for the year.
The book sitting on my nightstand hasn’t really excited me, and I’m more than a third of the way in. There are plenty of books I want to read, but I don’t like to DNF a book, especially when the premise is so compelling.
I still want to finish that book, but I’ll have to continue listening to Audible while doing chores, etc.
This feels like a shorter-than-usual post, but I honestly don’t have much energy right now. That’s kind of been the theme of this month. I did enough to get by, so I’m taking that as a hard-fought win.
Goals for August
- Finish “Uprooted” FFS. Like I said, I think I can finish the second draft this week. I’m just not sure at the moment what my next step for this story will be, except to let it simmer for a week or two before doing anything with it, which should give me time to…
- Write 6,000 words. I know, smaller-than-usual number, but hear me out. Once I finish the second draft of “Uprooted”, I’m going to jump into the story #2 of “The Herb Witch Tales”. I’ll probably need some space to contemplate the overall plot and get into the groove of a new story. My plan is to beat the hell out of this goal, but I have to reach it first.
- Yoga and more walking. We went on a 4-ish-mile walk on Sunday with my mom and stepdad. It was hot as hell, but it felt good to just be outside and moving for an extended period. We keep telling ourselves we’re going to hike more, and it hasn’t happened. This is the month I want it to happen.
- Finish the book I don’t want to DNF. I think I just need to power through it, so I will. I really have enjoyed parts of it. It just drags a little, but it’s not a bad story.
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 
July was rough. Like I said, I literally met one of my goals by forcing myself to open the word file on July 30. What did I do the rest of July? Procrastinate and avoid it. Yay for new goals!
And I do think there is really only room in life for one – home improvement or X (pretty much anything else). My neighbors must think I’m nuts because there is this one square of my fence I have simply never finished painting…
Haha well now that square of fence is a statement piece! But yeah, home improvement is pretty draining. It’s also one of those cursed things that once you start, you keep finding new things to do. Fortunately, we’ve agreed to take a break this weekend.