So, today’s a bit more of a mid-month check-up here on Muse, Rant, Rave. For starters, I held a Playlist Plotting contest on the blog last week, complete with a special guest judge, Lisa Gail Green of Paranormal Point of View, but unfortunately, there were no entries. *insert sad face* But no worries! That just means there will be MORE prizes for next week’s contest, How a Scene Can Turn on a Word: Comedy or Tragedy?, where we’ll have another special guest judge, Angela Ackerman of The Bookshelf Muse. *insert happy face*
Prizes up for grabs during next week’s contest:
- 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald Tobias (I just finished it and it’s a really good guide to making a universal plot all your own)
- The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master by Martha Alderson
- The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises by James Scott Bell
- Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by Jordan Rosenfeld
- Across the Universe on DVD
And the best way you can obtain one of these goodies to put your brain for just a little bit.
Now….moving onto those alligators - or rather the subject of being in the water with 'em.
Yeah, this is what it feels like when you try to make split time between the following during the week:
- Fresh entries into your current WIP
- Edits to polish up another WIP so it’ll be query-ready by the end of the summer
- Complete 2 lectures AND their homework assignments for Margie Lawson Deep Editing course
- Read a book you’ve been waiting 6 months for
- Pull 40 non-stop hours at the day job
- Cook dinner at least 5 nights a week
- Try to be sociable on Twitter
- Try to be sociable 3 times a week on your blog
- Spend time with the significant other
- Watch your favorites teams play in the ACC & NCAA tournaments
- Spend time with your family
Exhausting right? So yeah, it’s called being eyeballs deep in alligators…and that’s a scary concept. And I know I’m not alone as I saw a posting on FB by a fellow author/blogger wondering how in the world can writers find that balance?!? Yes it’s difficult. Yes it can feel lonely because your mind is on everything else you gotta do before bedtime. Yes you feel as though you’re being pulled in twenty different directions at once. And yes you want to murder someone from time to time because they interrupted your writing time or your lecture time or your reading time - which will make you look like this:
Thus is the life of a writer sometimes, eh?
So once again we’ve gotta tell ourselves to:
BREATH. RE-BOOT.
And that’s exactly what I plan to do the entire month of April. I’ll be celebrating 11 months into the blogging world next month, and I will be taking a break so that I can start my one year bloggiversary off bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (cliché, I know).
And guess what? It’s COMPLETELY okay to take a break sometimes. I had a mini-conversation with S.P. Sipal of Harry Potter for Writers last week on Twitter about this. We’re in this for the long haul, and as such we have *got* to take breaks – whether a week, a month, or three – to shut ourselves out of the social world in order to step back, gain a fresh perspective, get back on track, catch up, or to quite simply rest a little. Maybe we’ll return with a better idea of how to keep away from those alligators, or maybe we’ll return and throw ourselves back into the swamp. But regardless, that break can and should be taken for both your sanity and that of your Muse (or your spouse, take your pick). I’m going to be buckling down, yet again, with another Margie Lawson course (Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist), so hopefully without the added pressure I’ll be able to safely get myself out of that swamp and hit the ground running away from it when I return in May.
But until then, I’ve got a great contest cookin’ for next week so that I can say I ended this absolutely insane month of March with a BANG!
Are you also eyeballs deep in alligators? What is your plan for giving everything it’s equal amount of attention during the week? What about social media? How do you manage your time and energy on social media so that you’re not either buried over your head with it or barely dipping your big toe in the pond? TIPS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED WITH OPEN ARMS! Please share.
PS: Print this out and post it in your writing and/or work space. If for nothing than a good laugh, it'll actually help a little. Enjoy!
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