Summer, Rewriting, and Life

Between rewriting one novel, plotting out another, discussing a potential memoir project, and enjoying a bit of summertime freedom with family, I’ve been making lots of notes for blogs that then haven’t made it to an actual post. So: although I’m tackling the topic a bit late, I want to talk about summer, balance, writing, and life.

I’m not the only one with these things on my mind. Over the past few weeks, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed other bloggers’ thoughts—so I thought I’d round up some of my favorites for you.

• Over at Through the Tollbooth, Helen Hemphill explains her summer writing strategy: the Two Minute Snippet; Stephanie Green tells her use of summer vacation: input, input, input; Carrie Jones shares her wonderful and doable summer writing plan; and Tami Lewis Brown talks about leaving time in your schedule for surprises.
• Holly Cupala's Brimstone Soup blog is co-hosting the Summer Revision Smackdown, complete with goals, camaraderie, and a host of rewriting thoughts and resources.

• Also hosting the Summer Revision Smackdown: the Cuppa Jolie blog, with Jolie Stekly.
• Yat Yee Chong chronicles her writing goals and struggles as she tries to accommodate both her muse and her family during the unstructured days of summer vacation.

For me, the challenge of summer is that it requires me to shift gears from writing-mode to Mom-mode on a frequent basis. I don’t do it well. When I’m deep in writing—or rewriting—sometimes it takes me an hour to drag my head out of the foggy otherworld I inhabit when creating. Maybe I just have to recognize this about myself—and actually accommodate it—instead of trying to keep up my full writing schedule plus a full family schedule.

I love reading and re-reading the thoughts of other writers on summertime priorities, because it helps me figure out my own. It’s important for me to write this summer. I’m in such an exciting place, with requested manuscripts and a brand new agent, I don’t want to lose that momentum!

The trick is that I need to find those moments to put down my pen for an hour, a day, maybe even a week, so that I can go experience life, enjoy my kids, dig in the garden, hike, play with the dogs…all the important things that keep me anchored in this world.

After all, that’s what being a rich writer is all about!

:) Cheryl