Summer might be finally winding down, with the average temperature back under 80, but life certainly isn’t getting saner. One thing I think I definitely need to work on in the future is how housesitting and dog shows knock me on my ass and put all my projects back at zero. My last two weekends, my last two weeks, pretty much got eaten alive.
My writing is still stalled. A few weeks ago I tired to start the idea of the summer, only to have it turn out a prefab steel building – functional, but ugly as hell. I realized I was trying to force my writing, and I’ve always believed that it’s one of those things that cannot be forced. The results simply aren’t worth it. This last weekend I wrote 500 words of story exploration, a bit of worldbuilding that will likely never see the light of day, and it flowed freely from my fingers. It felt good. I’m going to take it as a good sign.
I’m attending a writing workshop put together by the Alaska Writers Guild this weekend. I sort of stumbled into going, earning a partial scholarship with a story I hauled out of the depths of my hard drive and edited the day before the deadline on a whim with not much thought to actually getting to go. I’m not sure why I’m going, I’ve never been to any sort of conference or workshop before (cons definitely do not count) so I’m unsure what I’ll gain from it. I’m less nervous and more wary. At the very least it’ll be an experience?
Next week the preparations begin. Autumn is coming, and NaNoWriMo is coming. In addition to getting my cat herding equipment ready and outlining I’m going to try and set up a schedule for blog posts. With topics and everything! I just need to figure out what, being an unpublished writer, I’m qualified to write about. (Suggestions are quite welcome.)