I have not been the faithful writer that I intended to be. I will blame Auburn for that. My final class for my master’s degree started in January, the Thursday after Mom died. It was a research class and the teacher is infamous for being hard and requiring a lot of work. So I’ve been doing a lot of work over the past four months. It went like this: Friday at 4pm we had an hour long class. Before the next Friday, I had to watch one or two video podcasts, usually an hour-ish each. For most of the term, I would also have to do research and then write two literature reviews each week. When that was done, I was still attending class, studying for tests, and watching podcasts, plus writing a fake research paper. I spent oodles of time at the computer and once I was done, I had no interest in writing anything else.
But, as I said, it was my final class and I took the final exam last Friday. And now I am making writing a priority again. A little each day. I want to get back on track with my novel- I know mom would want me to. I also want to find my “funny” again. Admittedly, I have lost interest in the world of Gretchen and her family. I would like to write something lighter, something that has my voice. Or am I discovering that my voice is not as chipper as I once thought? I hope not. All the ideas I have for books are dramas- full of angst and emotion. I’m not in the mood for that.
I might start on a book that I want to write for a younger audience. It is about a middle school-aged girl who goes to everything she’s invited to because she’s afraid of missing out of anything. I think I’ll start working on that now.