The Wayfaring Wordhack

My last post from almost two months ago mentioned I was going to try to write 750 words today.  Let's just cut straight to the chase and say that has not happened.   I have been writing* but not setting--or achieving--any daily goals for myself.  I have done lots of research into various story-related things; I have polished up my first four chapters because that is the way I write**, and I have been doing quite a bit of art.

I have also been doing the mothering-thing, the living-in-a-new-country-and-making-new-friends-thing, and generally achieving a state of exhaustion helped in part by sick kids and my own seasonal allergies.  Here I sit, one fever blister*** and one sprained ankle later, with a fairly un-itchy mouth, wondering ruefully why I bothered to post a public goal about my hoped-for achievements...

Wondering why I am going to speak of another goal I am setting for myself.  But there you have it because there you have moi.  

Last week a friend, H, came over, who is also into making art.  She asked what my goal/drive for my children's book is (the one I want to illustrate myself).  When I told her, she said, "No wonder you can't finish it; you are putting way too much pressure on the project." 

Because I canNOT undo the way I see this book or just do a "cutting my teeth" version of it (unless I want to do a crap draft and then an overhaul draft, which fills me with fatigue just thinking about it), I have decided to put it aside in favor of some other, less-complex ideas.  I am setting myself a goal of doing art everyday, broken down into three categories:  1) Copy-to-learn; 2) Book specific studies; 3) Just for fun.   I am aiming for two out of three per day, with achieving all three considered icing on the cake.  The "copy-to-learn"  is actually broken down into two types of copying:  continuing to work my way through Peter Han's Dynamic Bible AND copying an illustration from a pinterest board of styles I like created for this purpose.

No sooner had I decided on this new course than I had a dream about a good idea for a new book, so between that one and a story I made up ages ago for Sprout, when she wanted "stories from my mouth," I have a couple of Cut My Teeth projects ready to go.

Wish me better luck on this.  Oh, and of course, I still want to write everyday.
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* I now have 15+K on it.

** I have to keep going over something until I feel like I have nailed the voice and place before I can make headway with something.  The only thing I was able to really write from beginning to end and not do that on was a story for NaNo where the voice pretty much occurred to me right away and the story lent itself to discovery of place and people along the way since the MC was on the move at the end of chapter one.

*** I get fever blisters or shingles attacks whenever I get really tired.