Weeks Eight and Nine: Burn Out, Baby, and Break Through

OK, I'm back.  I recognize the irony of posting an update about wanting to post more just before disappearing from posting for two weeks.

Toward the middle of Week Eight, I started to fail miserably in getting through my days.  By the end of the week, I was completely burnt out.  I finished Saturday with some pages, and on Monday of Week Nine I wrote about 3 pages.  Then, Tuesday came.  Even if I wanted to write I wouldn't have had a chance.  It was a baby-day.  And by that I mean, it was an "Auntie-Farrell-is-a-jungle-gym-day."  And by that I mean, my close friends have one of the cutest babies ever, and I babysat him from 7 am to 5:30 pm on Tuesday.  He's a 9 month old in the learning-to-stand phase.  Lifting baby > lifting weights.  It was a fabulous mini-vacation.  I wrote again on Thursday.  Once again, not very many pages.  Then, Thursday night.  Harry Potter.

Harry Potter has always been near and dear to my heart, and I know this is a writing blog that I have dedicated to my writing and not other people's, but that means I need to talk about Harry Potter.  Watching Deathly Hallows Part 2 Thursday night/Friday morning (and again on Saturday morning) reminded me of everything I love about writing, and how I started in the first place.  I celebrated the release (yes, celebrated) with my best friend since junior high, Chelsea Bailey, whom I met because we were both re-reading Harry Potter in anticipation for the next book release.  I never wrote when I was young.  I wrote for class, and I didn't hate it.  But it wasn't until I was reading Harry Potter as a pre-teen that I ever considered writing.  Like many pre-teen fans of the Harry Potter series, I began writing fanfiction, which was utterly, devestatingly terrible.  But for the first time I considered the possbility that I could be a writer, and here we are a decade later, and oh hey, I'm writing a novel.  Hanging out with Chelsea and re-entering the world that introduced me to the love of writing gave me a much needed boost this past weekend.  So, I'm heading into my next week with renewed optimism for this novel.

I've reworked my calendar and I think I should still be able to get through everything in time.  I have about 80 to 100 pages (I think) of scenes left.  The next two weeks will be for writing; the two weeks after that will be for hard-copy editing.

Quote of the Week: Fight
It's been a struggle these past two weeks is all I'm trying to say.  And there are plenty of fight scenes to choose from, but Bar room brawls are iconic.

"There were two kinds of nights at the Dyre Den. Nights when Ala’omond was there. And nights when Ala’omond wasn’t.
Nico had chosen the second:  the patrons threw fists, spells, mugs, stools, and whole bodies across the tavern’s main room."