Well, I can’t say I’m surprised, but my month-long Nano streak has died. This happens every year.
Well, I mean, not exactly, I don’t normally work every day in November either. I did this year, but that’s the exception to the rule. But generally no matter how well (or not well) November has gone, I just can’t seem to keep going once December hits.
But anyway, I worked on my story a bit on Friday/Saturday, but not really–I re-read what I had thus far and made a list of chapter summaries, to give out to my critique groups, for people who either haven’t read the earlier chapters or have forgotten what happened. That took…longer than expected. I think I got maybe two sentences of actual progress.
Sunday I played video games all day and was generally not productive.
Yesterday I worked on a couple of side projects and other things I’ve been neglecting, and randomly possibly solved a Book 2 plot issue that has long been a problem for future!Kit. It will need to be explored further, but that is also a problem for future!Kit.
Today is just a mess, and then we’ve got to get serious on Christmas.
I mean, that really is the issue every year. Christmas just requires…so much. I’ve got to figure out presents to give everyone, but I’ve also got to figure out enough of a Christmas list for the rest of the family so I can give suggestions to other family members about what to get my family. (The old just have everyone make a Christmas list thing doesn’t work. Oh no, we can’t possibly risk people potentially buying the same things and…um, probably best to just cut this line of thought off here.) There’s decorations and Christmas cards and pageants and concerts and special events, and yet we’ve still got to bake in enough family time to make sure we’re really getting into the holiday spirit.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas. Or at least the idea of Christmas. But it is exhausting.
(I’ve yet to buy stuff for my work Secret Santa but apparently everyone else has, so that’s adding stress too. I’d like to get to it today but I just really don’t see how that’s going to happen.)
The good news is I’m far enough ahead in the revision that I don’t have to worry about having stuff ready for my critique groups (my in-person one isn’t meeting til January anyway, but I do need to spend some time doing critiques for the December mini-marathon). But it is still hard when I have been on a roll to see that momentum die.
Oh well. What’s a girl to do?
There’s normally some added stress from looking back at what I wanted to get done this year vs what I actually did get done. Luckily this year I was pretty good about it, and didn’t set myself up for failure. My goal was to finish my revision, and while I’m not done, I have written 70K on it, which is more than half, and I’ve gotten good feedback, so it is going well. And progress is the most important thing. So I don’t feel the need to stuff in a couple more resolutions here at the end of the year.
Good job, past!Kit.
Anyway, I’ve just got to remember to give myself some grace, and not stress out too much, and let the month flow the way it needs to.
I’ve got a promo with a review for you on Thursday. See you then!
