Last Updated on: 3rd March 2020, 03:36 pm
I’ve had a tough year so far.
When I last checked in on my writing goals back in December, I talked about how the US election did a number on my motivation and ability to focus.
I sort of recovered from the post-election blues in January and February of this year… but then my cat, Jackson, got very sick. I ultimately had to put him to sleep on March 16th.
Jackson was sick for a while – since at least the middle of 2016 – but he took a turn in February and went downhill very fast. The whole thing was incredibly stressful and absolutely devastating, even though I knew on an intellectual level that my cats were reaching the age where health problems could be a concern.
Needless to say, I was pretty much useless while he was sick and after he died.
At the moment, I’m doing okay. I miss him a little bit every day, but I’m not a weepy mess. I did completely lose it when the vet’s office sent me a card with his paw-prints on it, but other than that I’m on a fairly even keel.
I’ve slowly managed to get back into writing now and then, but I haven’t come anywhere close to a regular daily habit for a while now.
It doesn’t help that April is a busy month. We were out of town the first two weekends (first to Palm Springs, then to Denver for a wedding), and then this past weekend we hosted game night on Saturday and went to an Easter potluck. Next weekend my parents are coming to town.
Needless to say, I haven’t had much downtime to sit down and focus on writing. Weeknights are almost always a bust on a good day, but I’ve been extra tired thanks to those busy weekends.
That said, I am ever-so-close to finishing a project I’ve been working on for a very long time now. I’ve got an outline and about a third of the actual writing done, and I’ve been picking at it whenever I have a spare moment. I probably won’t manage to finish it this month, but the end is in sight.
Once I finish that, I’d like to start work on something completely new. I’m tempted to take another crack at my long-gestating short story from last year, but it feels like I need to diversify.
I spent 2016 working on the same two projects without much forward momentum, and it was a bit of a drag. I feel like I don’t have anything concrete to show for all of that effort. If I’d been more prolific, it might not feel like such a waste of time.