This week has been semi-successful. Successful in that I managed to run my half marathon without dying. And unsuccessful in that I didn't write much. But... I did think about it.

I've been trying to catch up on podcasts lately. Which is hard when you also want to listen to your Spanish lessons or books so you can reach your 100-book Good Reads goal. One of these podcasts is "I should be writing". In some semi-recent episodes, she demonstrates using various methods to outline a novel. I thought this was brilliant and a great way to get started. The three ways were: Story Grid, Save the Cat, and Snowflake method. Each one seems to ask you different questions about your novel/characters/plot to force you to fully flesh out your idea. Currently, this task is about 5 blocks down on my "Argiope/CMTallman" Trello column. Which means it hasn't been touched.

I've also been jotting down my random ideas for stories. Instead of mentally focusing on 1 storyline for enough time to finish it, I tend to wander every few days. Inside my OneNote notebook, I have sections for blogs, old FanFiction stuff, Flash Fiction ideas, a romance novel I started several NaNoWriMos ago, a whole fantasy series I've vaguely thought up, and then "Misc Ideas". This has become my dumping ground for other romance plots I have thought up. None of them are as worked out as the NaNoWriMo one, but proof enough that I can't focus on 1 storyline. I feel like this should mean I'm great a flash fiction or short stories that don't require real dedication, but as we can tell by my lack of fiction pieces on the site, it does not.

For next week I do have some unique goals: do no work.

Next week is an actual week-long vacation. The last vacation we had was on March 1st in Nashville and it ended with a tornado landing about a mile from our hotel. I am lucky enough to be able to take 1 day off a week and mentally remove myself from work. My partner isn't so lucky and needs a break.

As we approach the trip and I'm getting anxious about all the projects I want to finish beforehand, like sending off a website mock-up for a client or editing a PowerPoint for a 3-day course. So I find myself trying to assign projects during my vacation. Since it is partly a dive trip, my partner will be off diving 3 mornings and it would be a perfect time for me to write. But who plans what work to do during their vacation?

The only work I should do is promoting the resort we're going to. They are obviously hurting for business and from what I can tell, are going to be taking great care of us. So I'll be doing all I can to promote them, while hopefully not coming off as an ass having an amazing trip during a pandemic.

‍