October Ruminations

In October I decided I needed to slow down and stop pushing myself so much. So I did… sort of. In terms of the blog and all other writing that I was (sort of) working on, I totally did. But, it turned out to be a busy month, especially at the end. I took advantage of soaking up every little bit of inspiration that I could from different opportunities that came my way this month. For a quick recap of the month I:

>> Attended NerdCon: Stories in Minneapolis, where I got to listen to some great talks and meet Patrick Rothfuss and Daniel José Older (!!!).

>> Took my nephew to see Stomp.

>> Visited Ottawa for a long weekend. I traveled on my own, which is something that I have wanted to do for awhile, and I got to see some really cool sights, as well as attend (a last minute plan) a panel at a writer’s festival featuring Kelley Armstrong.

>> Attended a book signing with Jay Asher.

>> Celebrated Little One’s birthday.

>> Attended a much-needed writing class on Silencing Your Inner Critic.

>> Tromped through a muddy corn maze with a group of family and friends.

It turned out to be a busy month, but it was a good month and I think it was exactly what I needed. It was filled with some new experiences, as well as lots of book/writing-related events. I was kind of amused, as the month went on, that a few weeks after I went through a creative funk and was ready to give up on my writing dreams (only for a split second, the thought really didn’t sit well with me) I suddenly had all these opportunities to attend bookish events and I often heard things that I really needed to hear at this point in time.

So, after neglecting my computer this month (and my laundry, I currently have a mountain to fold and put away) it’s time to get back to work… but hopefully with more balance. I’m actually excited to write again, which feels so great! I have a book idea in mind that I’m looking forward to working on and I even have some ideas for new poetry. And, I have a lot of great topics that I’d like to write about on the blog.

Speaking of the blog, I think I’m going to try a slightly different schedule that will help reduce my stress-level a bit. Instead of posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday I’m planning to post on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. And, of course, for the sake of balance, if life is busy or I have a sudden burst of novel-writing inspiration that doesn’t leave much time for other writing, I won’t try to force blog posts. I’ll take breaks when needed, because, it turns out, breaks are good!

[Tweet “How was your October? #monthlyrecaps #monthend #october”]

PS – I started using Snapchat a lot more this month, so if you’d like to follow along on any adventures I go on, be sure to look me up! I’m dreamsetcblog.