Writing update: October 2020

I don’t know about you, but my September was a very mixed month. There were a lot of very good things that happened—to name a few, a new baby joined the family, birthdays were celebrated (including mine), and fall officially hit.

All of that, combined with my work life, meant that my writing and photography life… well, they suffered. I don’t know if it was just being tired due to how busy I was, or also a little bit of burn out, but something hit me hard in September. All of which ended in me getting very little writing done.

Which means today’s update isn’t so much an update as a recalibration.

This month, instead of breaking down my projects and the progress I made on them, I’m going to break down the problem I had last month and how I intend to fix it.

The problem

Yes, I was busy, and yes, I was tired, but those weren’t the feelings that kicked in when I thought about writing each night. It was more that I couldn’t go back on my laptop in the evening, after spending a full day on my work laptop. Just the thought of opening it was exhausting. And since that’s where most of my writing lives… well, you get the drift.

The solution

So, I’m going to try a little something new. I’m giving myself permission—and encouragement—not to open my laptop on weeknight evenings.

Instead, I’m slowly working out a system to be able to work on my novels and short stories on paper in the evenings, and on my laptop on weekends. It’ll mean a little extra work, to transfer some of the writing over, but it should be worth it.

I’m still a little too early in the process to know if it’ll work, but I’m hopeful. I mean, it seems acheivable, right?

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.