Short update this week, due to issues beyond my control, and me taking a day off to celebrate. The week started off fine, with progress made on both projects. Then came Wednesday. Wednesday was my birthday, and I’d planned to take the day off and do a road trip. Except the weather didn’t cooperate. Neither did my car. I elected to spend Wednesday wrapping up a paid assignment (due Friday) and take my trip on Thursday, when the weather was supposed to be better. Good thing—later that afternoon I got in the car to pick up some groceries and the damn thing wouldn’t start. Again. It’s been having battery issues for the last three months, but I thought it was fixed. Guess again. It was too late in the day to contact the garage, so I went back in the house and fumed and got the assignment done. That was also the first time in two weeks I had insomnia overnight, and I’m sure it’s because I looked at the clock. I haven’t looked at the clock since, and I haven’t had insomnia since. So that trick’s working. Hope it can help somebody.
Thursday turned out far better. The weather was indeed much nicer, just right for an extended road trip. Now if only I could get the car to cooperate. The mechanic from AAA who gave the battery a jump said I had a bad battery. Trouble was, it was a new battery, roughly a year old. We’d been focusing on the connections and hadn’t considered the battery itself was the problem. The garage put a new battery in, which I got for free because the bad one was under warranty. I considered that my birthday present. Maybe my luck is finally changing for the better, after the expensive hell that was 2023.
So Thursday ended up being my birthday, with a long, satisfying drive around Philadelphia’s outskirts followed by a pizza dinner. I’d sent the assignment back that morning, so I was able to do all this with no obligations or stress.
You’d think this recharge would have upped my writing production. You’d think wrong. For the next three days I couldn’t write a thing. I had to resort to flash. This is strange, because I’m mostly typing longhand on both projects. The problem is, it’s been a while since I wrote the original versions, and now new, better ideas are banging around in my brain and I basically end up rewriting the whole thing. Not to mention all the distractions offered by the internet. I finally got myself back together and advanced the new project (the romance) and figured I was back on track.
And then I got sick.
Nothing too serious. It was either food poisoning or a 24-hour virus. But dang, those little buggers are powerful. This one gave me stomach pains and kept me in bed for almost 12 hours. I may have had a fever too, and chills, which is why I’m leaning toward a bug. I seem to be okay now, but I’m going to stick to bland foods in small portions for a day or two, just to make sure.
The moral of the story is: you can make all the plans and schedules and resolutions you want, but sometimes life is going to throw you a curve ball. You can power through some of them; had I chosen, I could have taken a notebook along and written longhand while I was waiting at the garage. Others, like fever and fatigue, are going to knock you off your feet and there’s nothing you can do about it, other than take care of yourself first so you can take care of the work. Downtime is just as important as work time. All work and no play makes Jack grab an axe and chase his family through the Overlook Hotel. Yes, I know Stephen King kept writing while he was recovering from getting hit by a van. Some people are wired that way. Or just plain obsessed. Since I’m neither, I have to find what works best for me. That’s what this year is all about.
There’s another truism I need to keep in mind: if you want to be a writer, at some point you have to write. If you don’t you won’t have anything to send out and those royalty checks won’t be coming in. There’s a lot more to it than that, like marketing and all that boring business stuff, but it all begins with the product. I have half a month left to finish one of my current WIPs. If I apply myself, I can do this. Unless I get sick. Or the car doesn’t start. Life is a never-ending adventure. See you next week.
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