Checking In - April 2018 · 6:27am Apr 5th, 2018
Greetings! I’m a few days late but it’s time for my monthly check in. I had high hopes for March but life with young children has a habit of altering those plans. Heck, I'm even three days late posting this blog! More after the break and the statistics.
March Statistics:
Total Words Written: 8,847
Published Chapters:
Finding a Place: Chapter 46 (6,193 words)
Thoughts:
So yeah, I got a stern reminder about the dangers of detailed planning when you have children. I had a week off work booked for the week before Easter. I planned on spending a chunk of it finishing up Chapter 47 with some careful scheduling. There was lots of time for family activities and writing after all, so it was a foolproof plan. With such ambitious, I shouldn’t have been surprised when Murphy decided to make me pay for my hubris.
The very first morning of my vacation, we woke up to find my youngest daughter covered from head to toe in itchy red bumps. So off to the doctor we went and got a fairly confused diagnosis. It's not really their fault. After all, if you look up "red itchy rash" on the internet and you'll get every answer from "no worries, get over it" to "oh god, oh god, we're all going to die." The best they could do was rule out the worst possibilities since there was no fever, bleeding or other more horrifying symptoms. That left a virus, allergy or infection so it was just a case of waiting it out and making sure it didn't get worse and giving her antibiotics and anti-histamines just in case.
The problem is, not knowing what it was meant we had to assume it was contagious. That nuked our plans for my week off. My wife and I spent days keeping our daughters from going stir crazy. Plus, I wound up getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night thanks to my poor little girl waking up constantly due to the itching. She doesn't get sad, she gets really mad when she's uncomfortable. Cute during the day, but kind of exhausting at night.
Writing when I’m exhausted is an exercise in futility as I've discovered many times. So my creative process ground to a halt until I caught up on my sleep. Now, I'm happy to report my daughter is recovered and I’m just about back to normal as well. So, lesson learned. Don't assume life will go according to the plan when you have kids!
The good news for everyone who’s reading Finding a Place and cursing my recent pacing decisions, the draft of Chapter 47 is done as of tonight. I just need to proofread and run through my usual pre-publishing touch-ups. I already had to re-arrange the chapter structure once and I hope that will be enough. An idea that sounded interesting in my head would have been awful to read. Without giving too much away, there were going to be two overlapping conversations using different sized text. Fortunately, sanity prevailed, the idea has been ditched and plan B will accomplish the same goal without inducing headaches the readers.
To be honest, I'm simultaneously excited and terrified about publishing this chapter. We are approaching the end of the current story arc and this one is significant as far as the long-term plans go. This is one of those moments I've been anticipating reaching since I started the story. I hope you all enjoy what's next.
As always, thanks for reading and for your support!
I'm more scared than excited for what will happen in the next chapter!
glad your daughter is ok! It sucks to get sick with something like that, believe me I know.
4833503 - It's going to be a bumpy ride but the end of this arc is in sight. I'm posting the chapter that's making you nervous right now.
4833786 - Yeah, It's a relief to be getting proper sleep again. I just wish I knew what she caught!
4834198
Oh, boy! Freaking out here!