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A Month in a Writer’s Life – May 2018

Another month sped by me. If there was a time police, it would have gotten a ticket for reckless driving for sure. In comparison to the super-crazy March and April, May was the time of slowly settling down and checking whether my routine survived the turmoils of the “grand move”. Yet, after two months of struggling to keep going in a somewhat organize manner, I wasn’t about to exhaust myself even more and chose a slower pace instead.

Writing

Even though I wrote something every day, my word count for May was rather meager. At the end of it, I was nowhere near averaging my daily goal of 1000 words, and as the month progressed, I didn’t push to close the gap. Instead, I enjoyed finished a short story that was somewhat close to my heart, and played around with revisions, as well as fleshing out my next project.

One could say that I finished the month with pitiful result: only 15,000 words instead of 30,000. That meant setting myself over 20,000 words behind for the year, but I didn’t feel guilty. Last year I also had a huge gap during spring, and I managed to catch up. Of course, now I can’t allow myself any slacking anymore. Not only I have to get all the missing words on top of my daily ones, but I should also build up some safety buffer for the future.

Art

Taking it slow meant I also got back to doing art. I played around with polymer clay, and I finished a design I’ve been wanting to work on for years. I also brainstormed more ideas, but all of them need more work before I can share them with the world.

Nevertheless, I really liked how “Out of Order” turned out, and I learned a few more things while processing it in Photoshop. Mugs, t-shirts, stickers, bags, and many more items with this design are available on my Society6 and Redbubble sites.

Writer’s Life

As my birthday orchid made it clear that the travel across the States was a bit too much for it. As it lost its flowers and withered, I had to give up on it. Instead, Inq encouraged me to grow something on my own, so while doing shopping, we picked up a pot, some soil, and seeds. With my weakness toward pansies, I decided to go with them, even though they should have been sown back in February…

I’m happy to report that they sprouted, and are surviving spring rains and Virginia’s heat just fine. They’re supposed to bloom in July, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they skipped the summer and bloomed in autumn instead.

We didn’t do much of actual sight-seeing yet. Not that we’re in a rush, since Virginia is supposed to be our last stop. But we did get to explore a bit of our neighborhood while running errands.

How about you? How did you spend your May?

Joanna Maciejewska

Joanna Maciejewska is a fantasy and science fiction author who enjoys all things SFF: books, movies, and video games. Her short stories appeared in magazines and anthologies in Polish and in English. Her epic fantasy adventure series, starting with By the Pact, is available in ebook and paperback at all major retailers.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. J.R.Bee

    Gosh, how did I spend my May? Not sure, like you it was all a bit of a blur. I’m sure I did things…

    1. Melfka

      I really hope the time slows down so I can catch up.

      1. J.R.Bee

        Yeah, that would be a neat trick!

  2. saraletourneau

    I actually wasn’t so productive with writing during May, either. Something must have been in the air… So don’t feel too bad about it. Have you been able to regain momentum this month?

    Awwww, look at the sproutling pansies! Have they grown a little more since then?

    1. Melfka

      I hope June turned out much better for you, Sara. I’m slowly getting back to normal.
      And the pansies have grown much more and holding out very well through storms. In theory, they should be blooming in a couple of weeks. I’ll see soon, I guess :).

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