It’s mostly writerly stuff, which is a nice change of pace. I’m scheduling writing time in my planner. I’m listening to writing podcasts on my evening walks with the doggo. The wheels are churning enough that I feel destracted from the day-to-day with all kinds of writerly excitement. So I’m just gonna dump it all out in a series of bullet points so I can *hopefully* move on and focus. Because this is my brain right now:
To the list!
- I applied for Clarion West!
- I know that the odds are NOT in my favor (the applicant pool is huge, international, and they only select 18 writers each year), but I’ve talked myself out of applying for like three years now, so applying at all seems like a win.
- I joined/founded a SFF Critique group through Willamette Writers!
- We met (virtually) for the first time last night. we’re mostly strangers and we’re writing all kinds of different stories, but I’m super excited to get to know them and their work, and to see what good this group can bring to each of us.
- I found new podcasts to listen to!
- I’ve been walking the dog each evening when I get home from work, and am now all caught up on Deadline City. I needed more writing podcasts and found EIGHT of them! I’m pumped to start listening tonight.
- I’m beginning the 2022 Planning Process
- I’ve drafted my New Year’s (New Look?) post and have started to schedule out the first few months of 2022, including backwards planning for all kinds of writing goals. It’s seeming increasingly likely that my whiteboard and monthly and/or weekly goals will make a return in 2022!
- My podcast is getting its [ish] together!
- It’s been a struggle to get all four of us scheduled to record. Four is a lot of hosts and brings all sorts of interesting issues to recording and editing the show. But we love it, so the show will go on! Just with much better scheduling.
- I have two writing craft books queued up to read this month!
- Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by Charlie Jane Anders and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: in Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders. Two very different books that I am somehow equally excited to read.
- I’m only slightly behind on my reading goal for this year!
- I’m very confident that I will catch up and maybe even surpass my goal! I have two weeks off at the end of the year (one of the perks of working in public education) and I am looking forward to using that downtime to read and write. Historically, I read more than five books in December, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
- I’m considering a site revamp!
- This is all I’m going to say about it. The thought is nebulous and new, and could go a million different ways. Best to keep this one close to the chest for now.
I feel like there was more, but it’s all dribbled out of my ears. This worked. I started this post buzzing with all the things, and now they’re out and I’m feeling much calmer. This is part of living with ADHD. It’s this sort of frantic, obsessive thinking that leads me to compulsive list making. Which leads to sticky notes and scraps of paper everywhere. Which leads to a very frustrated spouse wondering why I have eighteen versions of the same list scattered around the house.
Oh, it’s nothing, Honey, I’m just so excited I literally can’t hold it in my brain anymore. It’s fine. No, don’t look at my desk, it’ll just stress you out. What do you think? Pizza for dinner? Pizza sounds gooooood.
Damn it. Now I want pizza…
BZ
To Write These Words Down... 