Holiday preparations

Yes, it's that time of year again. Life is starting to get crazy.  Wait, starting?  Who am I kidding?  You've been following my blog - starting is a silly, silly word to use.

I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from writing.  It's pretty standard for me this time of year, actually.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  First, I'm just coming off of NaNoWriMo.  50,000 words in 30 days is a lot.  Although, actually, it didn't feel that bad this year.  What was hard, though, was learning to work with an outline, and trying to pay attention to how I was writing.  I didn't edit as I went, but I paid more attention to word choice, pacing, and all of the little technical things than I usually do.  Granted, I frequently made notes to myself like "fix pace," and "learn more words!" - but I noticed that I was using the same word over and over, or dragging out a fast scene.  I'm starting to realize where my weaknesses lie.

That brings me to reason two for a break.  Now that I have a better idea of what I need to work on, I want to spend some time reading other people's writing to find examples of what sort of things work and feel good to me when I read them.

And speaking of other people's writing... reason number three is that my critique group has just received a piece to read and critique, so I've got that to focus on.  I'm really looking forward to reading this one - I've heard about it for a while, and I can't wait to get started.  I want to be able to give it the attention it deserves.

Finally, it's the holiday season!  I'm having houseguests soon, so I've got to get my apartment cleaned, and try to get rid of some stuff from the spare room.  And of course, there's all the crafting and baking and drinking and sleeping it off! I've got a full schedule!

But no worries - I will continue reading and reviewing on Sundays, I will do a bit of fiction on Tuesdays to keep myself in practice, and I will be a bit more personal and chatty on Thursdays.  See you in a few days!