Coughing in the face of productivity

It's been a weird week. And I start my new job on Monday, so next week will likely be even weirder.

Reading
Finished Bitterwood earlier this week. I really wanted to like the book, but alas. It's essentially post-apocalyptic science fiction dressed up in high fantasy clothing, which could have been fascinating, but for me, it never lived up to the potential of that premise. I have several quibbles with the book, but the biggest stumbling block to my enjoyment was the characters. They never came to life for me, and as a result, I just didn't care what happened to any of them.

For my continued reading adventures, I'm taking a short break from fiction with The Dramatist's Toolkit: The Craft of the Working Playwright by Jeffrey Sweet. I've been toying with the idea of writing a play for a while now, but despite lots of involvement with the theatrical world, I feel totally ill-prepared to write one. I was hoping to find a playwriting course I could take this summer, but no such luck. Most of what I found was for teens. The only local one for adults was an online course, but I'd really prefer something in person. So in lieu of a class, I thought I'd tackle this book and see if it helps jump start my inner-playwright.

Exercise
I've been saddled with an annoying cough since last week, so I've been taking it easy on the exercise front. A little bit of yoga, but not much else. And today's exercise will be helping my aunt move stuff.

Music
Coughed my way through choir rehearsal Wednesday night. Singing has been aggravating the cough in general, which frustrates me to no end. It doesn't hamper the piano playing, though, so I've at least been keeping up with that without a problem.

Writing
I've been productivity-challenged in the writing department this week. A little bit of slogging through My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel, but that's it. I'm hoping to achieve something resembling real progress this afternoon and tomorrow.

Blah, I say. Blah!

Been feeling rather blah this whole week, and not even lovely weather and backyard chipmunk sightings seem able to cure it. It looks like I'm going to have to write off any hope of productivity and hand this round to the slug. I've kept up with the exercise and the piano practicing, but I haven't done any reading all week, and writing-wise I've only managed a sentence or two. I can't even use the excuse that I've been overly busy. I've just found it hard to get my brain to focus, let alone produce something useful. Doesn't help that I haven't been able to sleep for crap lately.

Also not helping is the fact that May seems to be turning into a month-long reject-a-thon. Since the beginning of the month, I haven't made it more than 3 days without another rejection arriving in my inbox. I even had an oh-so-lovely streak of 5 days in a row going on there. Hard to stay motivated in the face of that much morale bruising.

As for that sentence or two I've managed to write this week: I don't know why it's taken me so long to realize this, but one of the things I've finally learned about myself as a writer is that I really suck at starting new scenes. I'll spend forever agonizing over those first few sentences. Sure, I could skip the opening and continue with the rest of the scene, but that, I have learned, only delays the head-meets-desk process. Eventually, I'm going to have to write that opening, and since it's going to be just as painful later as it is now, I might as well be done with it.

This week in productivity

Reading
Through chapters 15-18 in Bitterwood. Also finished the audio book of The Road, which didn't end as bleakly as I thought it would. I give it a thumbs up overall.

Exercise
It's looking like I'm going to slack today, but I'll make up for it tomorrow. Otherwise, I've been keeping to the routine.

Music
Keeping on top of my piano lessons and practicing. Monday was the last regular rehearsal of the season for the chorus I sing with. We have a dress rehearsal tonight and a concert Sunday, and then it's only church choir and some solo stuff on my plate through June.

Writing
I've been hit or miss with the writing this week. Some days I've been super productive girl. Other days, like today, a little tinkering is about all I seem capable of accomplishing. On the plus side, I finished rewriting chapter 4 of My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel. On the downside, that's only because I'm splitting what was originally one long chapter into two smaller ones. Either way, I'm about 11,400 into the rewrite.

The early productivity report catches the worm...

...and beats it until it's worm goo.

The week isn't over yet, but tomorrow's going to be a weird day schedule-wise and I keep thinking it's Friday anyway, so here goes. Any typos or incoherent sentences can be blamed on wine.

Reading
Only got through one chapter of Bitterwood this week, though I'll probably get through another one tomorrow. And only one disc left to listen to in The Road. Just gotta say: being eaten by cannibals? Very high on my "ways I don't want to die" list.

Exercise
I slacked on Monday, but it was at least in the interest of getting more writing done. And I've been on the ball since then, so all is well.

Music
Slacked today, but the rest of the week I've been a productive singing and piano playing crazy lady.

Writing
As of yesterday, the zombie story revision is done, and it's 1,300 words shorter, so woot! Now back to My Big Epic Fantasy Novel.

Submission Land
Really bored with the rejections now. A little bit of good news would be nice for a change.

Productivity Groove Regained

Reading
Got through chapters 11 and 12 in Bitterwood this week. I really wanted to like this book, but I have to admit to being disappointed so far. I'm going to finish it, but I'm not sure if I'm going to move on to the second book or not. Even if I do, it won't be for a while.

I've also been listening to more of The Road in the car, and that--well, "enjoying" doesn't seem like the right word for this kind of book. But I'm hooked.

Exercise
Except for yesterday, I kept on top of the routine. But I think slacking yesterday was probably a good thing. My left leg was sore and stiff from overdoing it earlier in the week, and taking a day off seems to have helped.

Music
Slightly crazy week. On top of church choir and piano lessons, the chorus I'm in has our first of two Carmina Burana concerts tonight. So in addition to the regular Monday night rehearsal, we had the dress rehearsal last night. There's a large contingent of clueless people in this group who have serious problems with that whole filing on and off the risers thing, so coordinating that always takes ten times longer than it should and makes me want to smack my head against hard surfaces.

Submission Land
More rejections, more stories back out the door. I have two stories I'd like to try at Sword & Sorceress, and I thought the markets they're currently at would have bounced them back by now, but amazingly, no. Knowing my luck, they'll both reject the stories the day after the Sword & Sorceress submission window closes.

Writing
I was tinkering with novel revisions last weekend, but the zombie story kept calling to me, so I finally answered and began my next round of revisions on that. I'm rather excited as I think it's going to be a much tighter story now, and I think some of the changes I've made are helping me better develop what's going on with the protagonist. I also realized that I had an entire scene that could go away, so the story's already about 1,000 words shorter.