OK. I got that out of my system. I just wrote a whole blog post about how I didn’t want to complain about writing a weekly blog post.

It came across as very complainy.

Luckily I had the good sense to not post it right away. I waited two days and now that post is gone. With some time to reflect, I can now say how lucky I am to have so many projects and the time to work on them. And, I can say that with honesty.

If any of you ever hear me complain about having a lot to do, you have permission to give me a little slap. Note: Please make it very little as I have a low tolerance for pain, and I abhor violence. Thank you.

That all said, though I do feel lucky to have lots to work on, I am only human. I have moments of stress. That’s what this all boils down to. I give myself an aggressive work load with deadlines. I meet all of those deadlines. Sometimes at the last minute. Often I am tempted to change these deadlines. After all they are not “real.” I just made them up for me. But I don’t change them and push through.

Personally, this is how I get things done. Without those deadlines, I would do nothing. So I give myself the stress (which is actually very rare), but it all balances out. Truthfully I think I would have more  stress without the pressure of deadlines because I would beat myself up about not completing anything. We all find what works for us.

40 weeks! Time to celebrate.

I love milestones. With any goal I set, I create milestones along the way. And I celebrate them all. Today iI had ice-cream and cookies.

Ok, I know I have 40 PB first drafts, and that should be a big enough prize. The results should be their own reward, but the ice-cream and cookies certainly help too.

Have I mentioned before that I’m not good at self motivation? I’m not. I’m always surprised when I get anything done. This 40 weeks is a huge accomplishment. I’m mostly surprised that I haven’t wanted to quit yet. This is exactly the kind of thing I would normally talk myself into. I might decide that I’m bored, or have gotten enough benefit from the exercise. Not this time.

I keep going. I have twelve weeks left. Three months of writing. Something else good is bound to appear out of my pencil. And I am proud to say that I am happy with my week 40 book. It got a smile out of my husband which is always encouraging. It’s very different, very meta. Short, sweet, cute, funny. It makes me happy.

And I have next weeks story all mapped out which is a nice change. In recent weeks my stories have been popping out at the last minute. It will be a happy change to have six whole days to work on  a draft. I’ll be able to work nice and slow. Slow to me now means six days instead of one. I’m guessing that isn’t really slow to most people. How perspectives change. That perspective is definitely a product of the last 40 weeks.

Villains. We all love to hate them. Everyone except me. I tend to completely ignore them, at least in my writing.

Last week one of my critique partners shared an article about ways to be evil in a children’s book. After reading the article I realized I don’t write villains. Rarely.  I have plenty of conflict. There is always something for the main character to overcome, but it’s rarely another person.

So this week I invented a villain. My first idea was too big. Maybe in the future I will work on that idea. I needed something else. I haven’t written any animals in a while, so I created an animal story. I have not one, but dozens of villains. Pretty much every animal in the forest.

I find it interesting that I don’t write villains. Is it that I don’t see people as bad? Maybe. Or does my brain just find sticky situations and personal demons more interesting to overcome. I’ll do some villainous thinking in the next few weeks and see what I come up with.