Share Four Somethings Saturday: October

Another month of pandemic life has passed and I can’t quite believe less than 10 weeks from the end of the year!

I told my daughter the other day that looking back we’ll simply have to say that 2020 didn’t count. As in, it was a blip year. When it wreaks havoc on statistics and charts we’ll just have to say “Nope, take out 2020 and you’ll be able to see the data patterns more clearly. It’s screwing the results. It was an anomaly. It doesn’t count.”

We’re at the point of the year where I have to decide what matters to me most at this point and what I can realistically accomplish by the end of the year.

Something Loved

#30day10K

I feel a little bit weird putting this under “loved” because, to be honest, I both love and hate this. That’s kind of my relationship with writing. I don’t love writing. I love having written. The effort it takes is often staggering and I’m frequently up against my worsts doubts and fears about myself. But I keep plugging anyway.

I decided at the last minute to join the #30day10k writing challenge with Writing at the Red House. The goal is to write 10,000 words in October, ideally through writing every day. This comes out to about 300 words a day but I shoot for 500. I have not successfully written every day but in addition to blog posts, I’ve put in about 5,000 words on my current work in progress. I’d like it to be more and I hope it will be by the end of the month.

This won’t finish my novel and honestly only makes a small dent (about 10%-20% at best of a typical novel word count). But I like the feeling of writing again and I’m hoping I can try to build a more regular writing habit than I have had for the last six months.

Something Read

I’ve not read as much as I wanted to this month, partly because I’ve been writing so much. But I remember what Stephen King used to say about reading.

“If you don’t have time to read you don’t have time to write.”

So I read for a few minutes each day, even it’s with frequent interruptions or just before I fall asleep for the night.

I just finished up the final, unofficial fourth book of the Gresham Chronicles series by Lawana Blackwell, Jewel of Gresham Green. While not my favorite book of hers, getting to return to see older versions of favorite characters feels like visiting childhood friends.

I’ve started reading Preaching by Tim Keller again. I started it over a year ago, and I kind of got off track earlier this year, so I’m digging deep into it again.

Now that I’ve pretty much finished the Great Lawana Blackwell Reread of 2020, I’ve ready for something new. I’m already planning my Christmas season reading, but I’ll talk about that next month. For now I’m plowing into my husband’s debut fantasy novel, By the Light of the Moons. I haven’t read it in its entirety since the full manuscript edit our writer’s group did right before it published. He’s gotten stalled writing the second book in his series, so I’m hoping some fresh feedback may help him.

I’m also considering rereading a few favorite Rosamunde Pilcher books, including September, which feels very appropriate for autumn.

Something Treasured

Outdoor Fall Adventures

We have not done many outdoor adventures until recently. Summer heat doesn’t agree with most of my family and we had the usual hot September this year where summer sticks around well into fall. But October has been pretty great so far and I made a few exceptions to my “default no” pandemic policy. I took the kids on a field trip to an apple orchard where we met up with friends we’ve barely seen since the pandemic began.

We also go to visit a friend’s property (that I affectionately call “the farm.” ) for some nature study and nature walks.

There is a couple who are members of our writer’s group and the husband is an ER doctor who is slowly moving towards retirement. He offered for me to bring the kids up and he would teach them some tree identification and other nature activities on their beautiful multi-acre property. Our lovely outing concluded with eating packed lunches around the campfire and gluten-free (to accommodate my Celiac kid) oookies courtesy of his wife. I so appreciate his willingness to share his love of nature with my kids and give me a morning off from teaching.

I’m trying to say yes to outdoor fall adventures as often as I can since I know the weather won’t keep and winter will be upon us soon enough.

Something Ahead

Finally Editing

One of the things I’ve worked on this month is to set some writing goals. I’ve decided I want to publish my long-awaited (and in my case avoided) Lenten devotional in early 2022. I also want to have completed the first draft of my novel by that time. So that means I need to break those goals down into measurable, achievable steps.

My goal is to get my writer’s group a completed, edited manuscript to use during Lent 2021 and give me heavy critique. Which gives me a little more than 3 months to edit 40(ish) daily readings. It sounds doable but I’ve been procrastinating about it for two years, so I know I need a clear editing schedule that makes room for the upcoming holidays as well as continuing my usual writing. I’m not there yet, but I know it will probably involve a reward for myself as a motivator and a new habit tracker coloring page.

How has your October been?

It’s your turn to share! Link to your #sharefoursomethings post or leave them in the comments here!