Hey there everyone. Well we managed to get through another week of Winter and boy has it been rough in Chicago. The word snow is considered a dirty word in our house and when I know it’s coming; my stress levels kick up a notch. But during all that bad weather I did manage to do a lot of writing and I have noticed a few changes since I took the Advanced Fiction Writing course last year.

Every now and then I catch myself reverting back to my old ways of writing as if I hadn’t learned anything. But I also managed to catch my errors. What I mean by that is, I can recognize when I know I could have written a sentence, or a paragraph better than I did. I try to rewrite it better or I make sure I write the next one better with plans to go back and fix the previous sentence later. My memory is pretty bad, so I will admit that it’s hard to remember everything I learned in the course.

I will be honest with you. Even though I took extensive notes on everything I learned, I have not gone back to refer to my notes. Not even once. I know that I should, but I do have a good excuse. Family problems have taken my mind off of it. My mother has dementia and she is on my mind all the time. Trying to make her life better and easier always comes first. But it’s been hard, and I always feel like I’m not doing enough for her. Staying focused on writing this book is not always easy but I’m doing it. If I didn’t, I’d go crazy. Everyone needs an escape. And writing is mine.

I have disciplined myself to write a chapter a week for Brave Little Soldiers. With the last project that got shelved, I was barely writing. My heart just wasn’t in it. I am happy to say that I am not having that problem with the new book. The story has been coming along nicely and I haven’t even finished the outline.

Since I tend to change things a lot as I go, I decided to not rush to complete the outline. I have been writing with and without it and somehow went from being a Plotter to a Plantzer. That is a combination of a Plotter and a Pantzer. My mind often wanders into oblivion and sometimes doesn’t even want to come back. I will always need something to let me know that my mind can go ahead and fly freely anywhere I want to go but I must also remember that there comes a time when I have to bring it back home.

Have a great week everyone.

Until next time…