Writing Update + Setting Goals

July was another successful writing camp for me. Since I was (and continue) dealing with post-WuVi symptoms such as short-term memory loss, sudden fatigue, and severe lack of focus, I set a small (for me) goal of 25,000 words for the month.

Last week's article told you about some timely reminders I'd received. Friends, these reminders helped me vastly. I was able to zoom right past my word count goal as well as a secondary goal. I nearly reached my third goal of 50k words, coming just short at 48,101 total words for the month.

While I didn't reach the 50k I'd hoped for, I have exited July with great satisfaction that I was able, by God's sweet grace, to push through the severe lack of focus and short-term memory loss in order to pen a plethora of words. There were many late nights and last-minute pushes to claim those words, but they have been logged in despite the slight sleep deprivation I may have imposed upon myself in order to do so.

August will likely not see me writing quite as much, but I have new goals I'm setting and striving to accomplish.

Timely Reminders

I recently read an article by Jill Kemerer (visit the original article here) that served as a great reminder for me.

A month or so after I got over Wuhan Virus, I started experiencing post-WuVi (my term) symptoms. Some include short-term memory loss, severe lack of focus (way worse than my normal ADD), and quick exhaustion. These symptoms come and go as they feel like it, disrupting my train of thought and ability to accomplish goals.

You might have noticed my blog has been more miss than hit so far this year.

The thing is, I still have goals that I want to accomplish. I'm frustrated that these symptoms are not allowing me to do so.

When I read Mrs. Kemerer's article about writing through one's moods, this hit home for me. Not necessarily about writing through a wide variety of moods, though that's necessary too. But to write through the symptoms I'm continuing to deal with.

It hasn't been easy since I realized that on June 9. My writing has still seemed to only trickle in the following weeks. Not for lack of trying. Not for lack of motivation. Solely because of symptoms I couldn't seem to lick.

Then I received an e-mail encouragement from the hostess of Go Teen Writers' 100-for-100 Writing Challenge that I'm participating in this summer and autumn. In that e-mail, Stephanie Morrill shared the following quote by James Scott Bell:

Anything Release Tour {my debut book}

Friends, my debut book is here!

Anything features short stories and a poem by thirteen Christian women (including yours truly), so you're in for quite a treat. I hope you will consider purchasing a copy for a friend, family member, or yourself. Summer is coming soon, and Anything is a great book to add to your summer reading list.

I've already heard from some of you that you've purchased a copy. THANK YOU! Your support and encouragement are greatly appreciated. If you enjoy reviewing books, please consider leaving an honest review on retail sites and/or Goodreads.

About the Book:

He was willing to do anything.
Talk about anything, they said.
She hadn’t ever done anything.
You can do anything.

 

In this heartwarming collection, thirteen Christian authors weave tales both historical and contemporary in a variety of imaginative settings. Anything features characters stretched to their limits: a pencil and a crayon who are best friends, a Tea-Dragon with a mischievous and mysterious habit, a terminally ill child with a lovely wish. In these pages, you’ll discover an eccentric gentleman who never stops reading, a foster boy who makes up in appetite what he lacks in conversational skills, and a single mother with a fault-finding mother-in-law and five rambunctious children who haven’t learned respect for a living room.

 

Watch as a couple sacrificially prays for a lost and dying sister-in-law, a young lady tearfully talks her best friend through a coma, a courageous brother offers to lay down himself for others, a camera-shy teenager faces her greatest fear, and a music camp applicant struggles mightily with writing an interesting bio. Warmth, hope, and encouragement pervade the pages, echoing the theme of “anything” from a refreshing variety of angles both insightful and entertaining, spiritually profound and eternally valuable. These short pieces will delight and encourage the whole family.

Anything Release Tour + My Publishing Debut!

Friends, I'm just going to jump right in with the best news.

I'm finally getting published!!!

The King's Daughters' Writing Camp (KDWC) is putting out a collection of short stories and poems, and one of my short stories -- which has not yet been posted here on Writing to Inspire -- is going to be in it.

The collection is called Anything, and here's why:

A couple of camp sessions ago, several of the ladies in camp were recommending "anything" by this author or that author, meaning any of their published books. Someone in the group (and I really don't remember who) suggested that we all write Anything stories -- stories called Anything.

So a baker's dozen of us did!

Anything will be published this month -- on April 26, 2021. It will be available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and in paperback.

I can hardly wait for you to meet Sarah Mae and her rambunctious kids in my story, entitled Any Thing. Yep, my title is slightly different than the other twelve, in that mine is two words instead of one. I can't share the reason without spoiling the story, but let's just say there's a very specific and whimsical reason for the two-word title.

Stay tuned here on Writing to Inspire for future updates -- including some quote graphics! -- on my Any Thing story.

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Now for the other news. I am pulling together a release tour for Anything, and you're invited! If you have a blog or social media accounts, the team and I would love to have you join us in celebration of KDWC's debut story collection. Just fill out the following form and let us know how you'll be able to help spread the word and get a buzz going for our debut release.

Spring Cleaning + Camp Prep {a personal invitation}

It may not yet be spring, and I may not typically do spring cleaning, but this year feels like I am. In February, my water pipes froze and then burst in the sub-zero temperatures north Texas experienced. I ended up having to use a ton of blankets, comforters, and towels to sop up the water that spilled into my house before my dad got the water turned off. Since I didn't have working water for almost two weeks, I fell behind on washing dishes and other water-related chores.

Now that my pipes have been fixed (thanks, Daddy!), my spring cleaning this year is catching up on laundry and washing dishes.

There's a bit more cleaning going on around here, and some reorganizing too, but the water-based chores are definitely top priorities this season.

In other news, I'm also getting prepared for writing camp. The next session of King's Daughters' Writing Camp (KDWC) -- a writing camp for Christian ladies -- takes place in April. This month I'm outlining, doing a bit of preliminary research, and dipping my toes into several different stories I've got in the works. Since I'm dealing with post-Wuhan Virus short-term memory loss, my creativity is struggling more than I'd like. So I'm trying to figure out how to beat that even as memory issues plague me at the moment. The good news is that I've found pockets of inspiration in the last week or so. The writing sessions of 150; 300; and 500 words (averages) have added up to over 5,000 words already this month. I'm shocked by that number, because it's felt like such a huge fight to get each sentence onto the page. While that number is super low for my normal monthly pace, it's a huge milestone for me with my current memory situation.

I'm celebrating with ice cream tonight, because fighting my way to this milestone has felt like climbing Mount Everest.

Would you like to join me in writing camp next month?