I will hit 20,000 words with my next writing session! That’s 1/4 of the way through my planned word count of the book rewrite! I am over the moon at this number because it FEELS huge. The plot has kicked off, things are actively happening, the characters have captured the attention of readers (I hope), and themes are starting to be apparent. Things are moving now. I’m about to hit that “squishy middle” that really needs to be fixed. The best thing is that I’ve learned the “vibes” of my book.
More than anything, this milestone feels like I’ve reached a checkpoint while climbing a mountain.
Personal Chaos
In my personal life, things haven’t slowed down. There’s the normal stuff that kind of just happens sometimes. I’ve changed jobs, we’ve painted my office, and I’ve been dealing with this never-ending winter season that’s been plaguing Wisconsin. My mood has been everywhere this year it seems. Everywhere in the course of a week, even. One day I’ll be giggling and running circles with my puppy. The next I’ll be in tears over something that hasn’t even happened. Sometimes both in the same day!
To add to the chaos, our stove caused a small electrical fire last week. The stove had a recall on it that we were unaware of, having only moved into the house 9 months ago, and it shorted out while we were cooking dinner. Luckily, I was in the other room and heard the breaker flip (loudly) and saw the smoke coming from the back of the stove. While my boyfriend called the fire department, I hit the stove with our fire extinguisher that we keep under the sink. We grabbed the dog and got out of the house.
The fire department said there was no more fire by the time they went in. We were lucky enough to get out of the event with only a small scorch mark on the wall and no damage other than needing a new stove. We were amazed. It looks like we just pulled the stove out to get rid of it and nothing else.
Oh, also we had to clean up all of the extinguisher dust that coated every inch of our kitchen and had drifted into the living room. Again, we had no problem doing this because we were just over the moon that we didn’t lose the house we had JUST BOUGHT. It was an event that massively changed our perspective, especially about our house.
It also taught me a lot about myself. I’ve been getting emotional about the little things for a long time. I’m what you would call a “highly sensitive person” which doesn’t mean I get offended easily, it just means I feel A LOT. But, when it came to a major issue and a major problem, I jumped into action and took control. I might still need to work on the little things, but I sure as heck know I can be dependable in an emergency. It was eye opening for me.
After so much craziness, having writing be a consistent fallback has been actually really soothing. I know some people might think that I should be taking a break, but it’s what’s keeping me in my own mind and present most days. If not that it’s a good form of escapism. How it can be both, don’t ask me. All I know is that it’s working for me and I’m going to keep doing it!
What keeps you going during chaotic times? Is writing your escapism?
Happy Writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 