Fiction words written last week: 7,883 words

Blogs/Newsletter articles written:  985 words

Writing month to date total: 19,341 words.

Writing year to date total: 41,471 words.

Drawing/painting last week: 0 square inches painted.

Illustration year to date total: 131.25 square inches.

Audio: I spent 6 hours on editing  and recording audio.

Week’s happenings: I feel like I’m just about back on my game. I started my read-through of the 4th Sacred Knight book. I actually made headway this week, until Friday. Then I started having the urge to watch a movie. According to my spreadsheet that I keep, I had accomplished my daily writing goals (the minimum I need to reach in order to get to my yearly goal) every day for 7 days. I was so thrilled that I had the streak going on. Several of those days, I was far above my limit, meaning I was catching up on my prior days where I hadn’t reached that goal. But then Friday afternoon I started feeling the need to veg out and watch a movie. Mind you, I love stories. Movies are probably my favorite way of taking in a story because it only takes about two hours, but I generally feel as if I’m wasting my time when I should be writing my own stories. I literally have to remind myself that I’m watching a movie to take a break. But when I want to kick back and only be entertained, that’s usually my clue that I haven’t take an a recreational break in a while and I need to come to a full stop for a bit. Saturday I got my wish. I watched Howl’s Moving Castle. Dianne Wynn Jones was a wonderful storyteller. I want to be a writer just like her when I grow up.

On Thursday and early Friday, I thought I might even get some painting done. I thought that I’d spend Saturday writing and have reached my weekly goal so that I could spend Sunday writing. Obviously that didn’t happen. I have spent a lot of time thinking about that dream I spoke about in my blog last week and I’ve had so many additional insights about it. I feel like this week I’ve only aquired my inspiration that anything else since I still haven’t progressed forward with it.

I made several corrections to audiobook edition of The Last Ant, so I hope to have those merged this week and begin on my final mastering work. I’d like to have it up in a couple of weeks but we’ll see what really happens. I also spent some time trying to resolve some of the issues which make editing audio so painstakingly long. I re-recorded the first chapter of The Three Books (AGAIN!) and I need to listen to it to see if I’m making any progress. I feel like every time I move forward, I take two steps back. I look at the fact that I’ve spent 21 hours so far this year doing audio work and I tell myself that it’s 21000 words I could have written. Am I having fun yet? No, this is more damn work than I’d planned on. At times it really ticks me off. But then, I get in the booth and start to tell my story and suddenly I’m blissfully sharing my story. If I could actually get from booth to listener with ease (okay, I know it will never be as easy as I had orginially thought it would be, but not spending so much time editing everything would be helpful), I’d be delighted.

Maybe I’m still feeling tired overall, maybe I need more of a recreational break, maybe I’m feeling a little frustrated, maybe a little of all of the above, but I feel like I have so much more to go and too much to learn. In every aspect of my life, there are things that I love to do and I want to be at a certain level that at the moment it seems it will take me forever to get to. I want to be a great storyteller with innovative ideas like Dianne Wynn Jones. I want to be an artist that transports viewers to beautiful, magical places. I want to be a good enough voice actor that people love to listen to my tellings of the stories. Am I wanting too much? Would it be better if if I wanted a simpler life? But I only have the spot where I’m at. I can’t climb the mountain if I don’t start. I must keep putting one foot in front of the other, putting myself out there with what I have. That’s all anyone can ever do. And maybe if I’m lucky, this week I’ll be better than the last week.