June Writing Challenge Wrap-up

Last Sunday marked the end of my June Writing Challenge. Though I didn’t write as much as I’d hoped, I still wrote 21,680 words during the month of June, which is pretty exciting! My third Northwoods Barista mystery is now nearly complete, with about sixty thousand words. I have a few minor issues to wrap up and some revision and editing to do, of course, but the book is well on its way. Hooray!

I've made a few discoveries...

Write Early, Write Caffeinated:

I've mentioned it earlier, but I realized that writing early in the day worked well. Writing with caffeine helped even more. If I wrote in the evening, I was not as creative, and I felt like it was more of a chore to complete before I could collapse into bed. Summer is an exciting time for me to be creative, with school out and spending time going on adventures with my two kiddos. But chasing two small people on a playground or at a waterpark out in the sun can take my energy right out some days and doesn't leave much for the evening.

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Community Support:

I know I benefit when I have a community of writers alongside me. That was one great advantage of the time I participated in NaNoWriMo: I had the community alongside me on the site and on Twitter, and people were encouraging each other daily. Another place where I felt a lot of encouragement to write was grad school: all of my fellow writers were eagerly sharing amazing and diverse writing. That alone was inspiration enough to write whatever I felt I had to put on paper. In the future, I want to build more community among my friends who are writers and on Twitter and other platforms to keep myself motivated.

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             Just Be:

                Sometimes, when I write, I feel pressure that I’m not doing things the “right way”, that I need to be submitting my writing to journals, chasing after agents, publishing everything, and marketing myself non-stop. I do realize these things are helpful, especially if I want to make creative writing more of a career and to build a reputation. I do dream of such a day, occasionally, but sometimes, writing is just a way to relax. The school year is so busy—sometimes I wonder how I manage to juggle two teaching jobs, two kids, and keeping the house from looking like a tornado went through (well, some days...). I think part of the reason I can survive the school year is that I make sure I take the time to relax and recover in the summer. I will actually ignore my email for a while. I will sit on the back porch with a glass of iced coffee or lemonade. I will go camping with my family and roast s’mores over a bonfire. I’ll go for a walk or bike ride without a set destination. And I will write what I want to write just for the hell of it.

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