After getting back from vacation the first thing I now need to do is to start getting ready for another school year. Eighth Grade Orientation is Aug. 20th and the first day of school is Aug. 21st. I sure hope Dalton has a good year this year.
The next thing I need to do is get ready to quit smoking (again) , which I have planned for Aug. 22nd. It’s going to be tough. But I just need to be patient and not lose sight of all the things I want to do – in particular, my writing goals. I’ve been thinking about the writers group meeting I went to just prior to leaving for Santa Cruz. I have a worksheet I received in the first meeting that I have neglected to ever fill out – probably because I haven’t been real sure what “My Project” exactly is. I need to assess my goals; I keep finding myself being scattered instead of focusing on one thing at a time. But it occurs to me now that perhaps I should work on the “frog” picturebook and while I’m doing the artwork for that I could be concurrently writing something else – like perhaps that “Bugwump” project that’s been in my head for so many years. I think that is what I want to do. Then when I finish the “frog” project, I’ll start on my next picture book thing and continue like that.
So this is how I have finally filled out my worksheet: “My Project” and I will turn it in at the next meeting.
I want to be able to do a bit of art and a bit of writing every day and still do my daily stuff, errands and work and housework; I need to start walking again, and I want to get the garage cleaned out. I want to get back on track! But the first step is to Quit Smoking. It will come. I decide that maybe I should just read writing books during the time I’m coping with quitting; further my education.
So I’ve started to collect writing books. I got some at Copperfield’s with my gift cards, and ordered some from Amazon.com. And I decided that I’m going to re-read some that I have had a long time. The first one I started reading is “Make a Scene,” which I’ve had for several years but not yet read. It makes me want to start writing! And after that one, I will read “Writing Down the Bones.”
In thinking about my “Bugwump” thing, maybe the best thing is to start out just doing a timeline and put everything in that I can remember, pulling from my journals, and in whatever form, and then also write separately this fantasy/dream story, and then try to weave it in all together. I’ve done a lot of work on this project at various times but it’s kind of a disorganized mess. I need to pull it all together but have never been real clear how to do it. What kind of theme(s) do I have? And what is the plot? I want to find a book about writing memoirs, maybe get some help how to do it.
If I can get some focus and actually work on things to completion, there might be a way to actually get all my various ideas into form. That would be so cool. I have enough material and ideas to keep me busy writing the rest of my life! And more ideas keep coming all the time. My greatest achievement will be seeing myself put these things into form and get them DONE. And of course publication would be the ultimate. But its going to take me doing the work. This is where I have not done well; I’m too scattered, there’s too much distraction. But I want to have the clarity to get things things done and make them real.
And I am really anxious to accomplish certain things this fall:
- Quit smoking
- Get to solid work on my art and writing projects – to completion
- Get the garage finally cleaned out and my stuff unpacked and organized
- Start daily walking/exercise again
- Start taking care of things like my car, seeing Molly, doctor appts., etc.
But most especially, to get my creative things on the table and moving!
I’ve also decided I want to completely redesign my website; put it all on WordPress, make it simpler, cleaner. So then the other day I ended up wasting the whole day trying to do it. I learned that I couldn’t have more than one WordPress installation on my site and after changing things and moving things around, nothing would work! So I then had to put everything back how it was in the first place! Very frustrating; back to square one. I then decided to research the issue and learned that there are ways to do it but it will take some work and it’s a bit more technical than I would like. But enough wasted time. A project for a later date – after I have dealt with quitting smoking!