March 30, 2022
Week 77
Emotional State: Avoiding Burnout
Books & Writing
I’ve made some progress on the book, but not enough to call it progress. I’m up to chapter 9 in my edits, but part of why it’s so slow is that I’m not just adding in my scribbles from the printed pages, but also because I’m rewriting it as I go as well.
I’m not where I wanted to be a few days away from April. I had planned on using April as a break between edits on book volumes. May is supposed to be an editing month for Book 3, with April set for messing around with internal formatting. But I don’t think I’ll be down with Book 2 by then. I have time. I built in buffers for all of the books to give me time to work it all out and no one knows my schedule but me.
But…I’m worried I’ll push it all out and it’ll get further and further away from me and I’ll scramble on a book I don’t want to scramble on. This balance of doing my best, putting out the best work, while doing life is hard. Exhausting really, which is why I’ve been avoiding it, I think. I said last week I was burnt out, but I wasn’t sure if it was true.
Now? I think I may well be, because instead of editing and working on Book Two in the mornings, I’ve been reading. Okay, I’ve been inhaling books like it’s my job (it kind of is). The series I’m reading is a favorite of my stepkid, so partly I’m reading because they’re still here and it’s something I can talk to them about in person (still plan to discuss it when they’re gone). I’m also reading it because it’s on ebook from the library and I can read it on my phone in the mornings before I’m ready to get out of bed.
I’m still waiting for the next Fantasy Bingo Card and trying not to read books that could potentially end up on my card but can’t. Is that a bit Machiavellian of me? Sure. Do I care? No. I have a lot of books I want to read, and the Fantasy Bingo Card takes up twenty-five book reading slots that I may not have time to tackle with work and the books publishing.
At some point, though, the balance needs to shift from reading to editing.
Eh, maybe later.
Life
In other news, I’ve come to realize that I am not someone who is okay with manga. The stepkid is a huge fan and so we’ve been watching a show, Demon Slayer. The basic story is good, but oh my word, why do they need to tell us what is happening while we are watching it happen on the screen?
“What is he doing? Oh, he’s burying the people who died”… as the guy has just put the shovel down over the freshly dug graves and sits down to honor them.
Yep. It made my editor brain clench and gasp in horror. And it kept happening. According to the stepkid, it’s absolutely normal and happens all the time.
All the time.
Cue the internal screaming. “Flames. Flames! Flaaaames…on the side of my face, breathing, breathless, heaving breaths,” to paraphrase Mrs. White from the movie, Clue.
So, I think I’ll be staying away from the manga. It did provide a funny moment as I got ready for bed last night with the world builder. We spent the moments as the lights went out to tell each other what we were doing while we proceeded to do it. And funnily enough, it was really hard to stop.
Oh no. Did I break myself just by watching manga? I hope not.
She typed on the screen.