Tinkering with already-written stuff

Making notes

Crossing out/deleting notes

Trying to remember what notes mean

Rereading a critique

Thinking about a character and feeling stuck

Napping while thinking about said character

Journaling about writing

Blogging about writing

Tomorrow Bob and I are leaving our self-created writing retreat in the Northeast Kingdom.  That’s right, we’re in Northeastern Vermont, which claims this moniker.  It is quite lovely.  Somebody actually asked us today if this was our first trip to the Northeast Kingdom.  Unironically.

I did all of the above activities today, and also went running by Lake Memphremagog with Bob and Callie.  While they napped, I took a kayak out.  I appreciated solo kayaking—yesterday with Callie sharing the kayak it wasn’t so smooth.  I mostly drifted, looking at the different views from the middle of the lake.  Then I took a swim and a hot shower.  Bob was aware of none of this, sleeping in the hammock.  Callie knew and whined a little.  Later I napped too.

This evening we walked to the Canadian border, a little over a mile down the road.  Our view from the cottage is mostly Canada.  But the Northeast Kingdom stops at the border, apparently.

I had hoped to work on my memoir, which I began in 2009, but I am waiting for a beta reader* to get back to me—she got the flu and has been delayed in sending me her comments.  So I worked on some linked short stories I’m calling the Boob Stories.  They have the same main character who is a late bloomer, like I was, and very self-conscious about it.  The first story I wrote involves a synchronized swimmer who is also an avid pot smoker.  That was me too.  So far I have six linked stories that all touch on boobs in some way (see what I did there?).  It’s fun and silly and I hope not trivial.  Managing boobs is a big part of girls’ and women’s everyday life.

I also have a novel-in-progress with a main character who is transplanted from Jane Austen’s Emma to 2015. Paying more attention to the Boob Stories now makes it clear that I have three writing projects going at once.  This is neither good nor bad.  (Not to mention my sabbatical project for Spring 2023.  More on that in a future post.)

All of this counts as writing.

*A beta reader is, according to Wikipedia, “a test reader of an unreleased work of literature or other writing, who gives feedback from the point of view of an average reader to the author.”