This is What I've Been Up to Lately

Hello hello, everyone! It feels like it's been ages since I shared a blog post with you all, although in reality I think it's only been about two weeks. Still, I've been posting weekly for quite some time now, and a lot has been happening, so it feels strange. I've missed you!

Today's post will be fairly casual. Mostly, I wanted to take a moment to share with you all the writing things that I've been doing when I'm not working, and the changes that I've recently made. 

First, I stopped writing at night. I know. I've been writing at night since I started taking my own writing seriously, and it has been an odd transition. I'm sleeping better (most nights), because my story isn't so fresh on my brain. And I've unlocked a seriously productive mode within myself. Here's how my writing routine looks different now:

1. Instead of writing in the evenings after my son goes to bed, I've been setting aside 30 minutes to an hour before I start work or after I'm supposed to be finished with work. That way, I'm already in my office, and I can get some things done without feeling too guilty about being "at work" for longer than I usually am. I'm also working halftime at the moment, which helps a ton with that. Some days, my schedule doesn't allow for me to squeeze my writing in during the day, so there are still occasional evenings where I do write after my kiddo goes to bed, though it's sporadic at best.
2. My evenings have been designated as "chill" times, where I sit down with my husband and we do something together. Now, because I've been writing at night for so long, I really didn't realize how much time there is between 7:30 or 8:00 when my son goes to bed (sometimes later, you know how it is) and 11:00, which is when I usually head to bed. Now that I'm not writing in the evenings, that time feels like a lot. My husband and I have been re-watching A Game of Thrones, and we watch it about every other night, with Friday night designated for our scary movie night. On the other nights throughout the week, I usually do something book related that's not writing while I watch him play a video game, or we do some kind of project together. This has given me a ton of time to work on things that I've wanted to do for forever, but had trouble finding time for.  like making notepads to sell, designing my author journal planner (which is out now!), cutting out bookish stickers I've printed off, and so on. 

​So, what have I been up to?

1. Writing (of course). I plan to finish the rough draft of my current work in progress, and I'll dive right into developmentally editing its contents thereafter. I'll be sharing more details soon, but this book is a gothic dark fantasy. I've been calling it a horror fantasy, but my purpose is not to scare my readers necessarily; instead, the dark elements and themes within the story are used to drive the plot and develop character motivations.
2. Putting together my next poetry collection. I'm almost halfway through with putting the poems in one collection, editing them as I go. 
3. I've finally made time to create and release the author journal planner I've been dreaming of doing for over a year! That's out now. Stay tuned on my socials if you'd like a video walkthrough. That should be coming later this week.
4. Doing other author business things that I've been putting off, like rebranding; redesigning my website; listing some of the merchandise I have to offer on my website in addition to my books; and designing, printing and assembling notepads and other fun bookish things (I've now even got temporary tattoos!).
5. Reading. I've finally gotten to start making consistent time during my days to actually sit down and read a dang book. I'm currently reading two of them: Wish Wrecked, by Sara George (for fun, and it really is a fun read), and Energetic Selling and Marketing by Lenka Lutonska (this one is really helping me think through what I want for my author journey and how I want to get it. It's also just been really great for making me think differently about my life as a whole). 

So, yeah! Lots of things happening. Lots of little things that I'm hoping will help me make a big difference. I'll keep you updated as things progress, but I'm thrilled to see how the rest of this year pans out. 

Until next time, keep writing. Keep trying. Stay awesome.