So this is how other people live?

I have not been writing.

This is very odd for me. I am almost always working on a new story. But I've taken these first few days of July to decompress, get caught up on some reading, and put my brain in neutral.

The first thing I've noticed is time: when you're not working on a book, there's a lot of free time. I work full-time, so that's 40-50 hours out of my week that's taken. I normally spend 2-3 hours a day working on writing, and an hour or two thinking about writing. When I free up 3-5 hours of Brain Time, that's a lot of free time.

How am I using it? Doing some reading -- I read outside my genre, so I'm reading historical fiction and other books. That's hard, though. I nitpick them and find all the errors, mentally critique them, and end up skimming a lot. I'm just not much of a reader anymore, sadly. I'm a writer, first and foremost.

I'm also getting caught up on organization -- cleaning out files, re-doing some bookcases, etc. I'm also doing a bit of charity sewing (but it's too hot to do much of this).

All of this adds up to: I'm getting antsy to get started on writing again. I'm just not set up for passive entertainment (TV, books, movies). I need active entertainment (the kind I write and generate for myself).

I expect that by the next time I post (on the 26th) I'll be elbow-deep into a new manuscript. Let's see, if that comes to pass, I will have taken 10 days off from writing.

Sounds about right ...

J L
(jayellwilson.com)

Who hit her deadline?

Oh, yeah. This chick, that's who.

I wrote 20,000 words in 3 days, and yes, I hit my deadline. I wrote "The End" on June 13.

I spent a week doing my tedious "over-used words" edit and pared off 3,000 words, so I'm now at 124,000 words. I started in late January, finished mid-June and in there I had a few weeks where I really couldn't get much writing done. I'll pare off another 1-2 words when I do my real edit later this year. I'll let it sit for at least 3-5 months before I go back and re-read it.

Now I'm picking up all the stuff I postponed while I was writing: promo, figuring out conference plans, considering what to do with a book whose rights were returned to me. I'm also doing a bit of reading. I normally don't read any fiction while I'm writing, so this is my chance to sneak in a few books. I usually read outside my genre, so I'll read a Regency book, maybe a thriller. I've discovered the joy of downloading library books to my tablet and reading them that way. So easy!

And I'm working, tentatively, on a new story. It came to me totally out of the blue, but I think it has potential. Quite unlike anything I've done so it's all very tentative right now. I'll decide in a day or two if it has enough to merit a full-time effort. I usually write a mystery in the July-November timeframe, so it's time for me to pick out my next victim (so to speak).

For the next few days, though, it's kick back and relax a bit and work my way through the To-Do list. It's a luxurious feeling to have so much free time ... but that story is percolating in the back of my mind and I may need to do something about it.

J L
(jayellwilson.com)