This was our Summer of Yes. Day trip to the beach? Yes. Ice cream run? Sure. Can I take friends to the pool? Let’s Go.
After the enforced solitude and long directionless days of last summer, this was the summer to say yes to every opportunity and soak up the novelty of a busy schedule. We traveled to Tennessee and around North Carolina to cheer on our favorite baseball team (We are! Warriors!). I got to see my son score the tie-breaking run to win the championship game. I rode shotgun as my daughter logged sixty hours of drive time in preparation for getting her license this month. My husband and I took a mini-vacation to Virginia Beach. We went to movies, both inside and outside, dined at our go-to restaurants and discovered new favorites. We shopped at bookstores. We bought season passes to a water park. We slept in and stayed up late. I have my best tan in years.
What I didn’t do was most of my ambitious to-do list. At the beginning of June, I set a schedule for myself of small tasks - write a minimum of 300 words 5 times a week, research agents and send out a new batch of queries every 3-4 weeks, make updates to my website.
Well.
I kept up with the word count goals for the month of June and partially in July, and am, as of this writing, getting back into the daily butt-in-seat mentality. I sent out a round of queries in early June, and then, after a resounding response of crickets, decided that agents deserve their vacations too, and made the decision to suspend querying until mid-to-late August. Really, I’m doing it for them. Clearly.
My reading has slowed considerably during our travels. To date, I’ve read 13 books this summer. However, my purchase rate of books remained steady, so I have plenty of titles ready when I dig back in. I’ve also had the pleasure of beta reading the first two books of a series by a dear, talented writer friend.
I have continued meeting with my Women’s Fiction mentor and attended my first in-person get-together of fellow WFWA members in the Triangle area. I am looking forward to getting to know these vibrant, talented women. How lucky I am to live in the “Writingest State!”
I resumed meetings with my writing coach and developing WELCOME TO BLOOMS. I also joined my first critique group, which will meet monthly and discuss our current WIPs. This will be the first time I’ve ever written and shared my first draft with a larger group of people and I am excited for the opportunity to connect with other writers during the process instead of after the fact.
Looking back, this summer has been a masterclass in balance - Yes, it is good to push and pursue my goals, but it’s also vital to be present in the present. As a wise man once said: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Happy August everyone! What are your goals this month?
Xoxo, y’all!