(Originally published on
Patreon on Jan. 9th, 2019)
The holiday season is officially over and I finally feel like my daily life is back on track. Since the second week of December I was working 10-12 hour shifts at least two to three times a week plus a couple normal shifts, my family came into town, and then there was the need to shop for Christmas presents which I put off until only a few days before Christmas…as usual.
On the Christmas week, me and my partner had the same four days off. Christmas Eve and Christmas day we took turns going to each other’s families for dinner then spent the 26th together and finally had Thursday to ourselves, a day for both of us to get back on track. Getting back on track definitely did not happen for me. I ended up going to Park City to spend the night at a relatives house and didn’t get home until Friday afternoon. And the start of my workweek was that same day only a few hours later.
In summary, I don’t feel like I really had a day off on Christmas week, and then I worked all weekend. Worked a morning shift on New Year’s Eve, then worked 11 hours on New Year’s Day. Just one thing after another, got a flat tire my first day off since Christmas, then my family came back into town to say hi for New Years. Started my work week again, then on Monday my battery was dead and I had to take a lyft to work.
Finally, here I am, Wednesday, January 9th, my first real day to myself, my first real day off.
I have a million groceries to buy. I’m down to a roll of toilet paper, a cheap razor found in the bathroom closet and eating chili out of a can unless I want to eat Captain Crunch. I’m not necessarily looking forward to all the shopping I have to do but I am relieved, it feels like forever since I could wake up and know I have an entire day to get my daily life squared away.
Laundry – might need to go to a laundromat today, washer isn’t working and dryer is questionable
Go to craft store buy yarn (I’ve been crocheting a blanket the last few months, its huge)
buy detail (fine) paintbrushes, I’m working on a plaque (acrylic paint)
Write (1-3,000 words today)
Work on Blog (set up posts for the next week, talk about where I’ve been)
Post on Patreon (this is it)
Between my shifts, coming home late at night and relaxing before I go to bed, I’ve been reading reading reading. For Christmas I got some pretty amazing books, all the books I suggested or asked for and it’s always great to get what I really wanted.
One of the books I got for Christmas is M Train by Patti Smith. Right now I only have about 50 pages left, it is approximately 300 pages long. It was a slow start and for a moment I was unsure about this Smith book but I am a huge Smith fan, I love her writing, her music, her work, everything, she is one of my biggest role models, so I stuck with M Train and finally got into the groove about 100 pages in.
Now I’m almost done with it and I am already feeling a little sad it’ll be over soon. What I am noticing in M Train, is that Smith is weaving together many different aspects of her life such as dealing with the loss of Fred (her deceased husband), her dreams (her descriptions of her dreams are poetry, absolutely beautiful), and her travels where ever they lead her (tracing the lives of artists and writers or work).
It is an exploratory journey, reading Smith and there are so many subjects that she talks about that resonate with my ideas and my own experiences. So reading her work is both comforting as well as inspiring for me as a writer to push myself, my writing, and at the same time really be aware, live life and be present with each experience as an individual and as an artist.
This book is amazing, I am already half-way finished with it and it is the perfect companion in helping me with my first completed rough draft of my book. The advice is amazing and it also includes useful tips, questions, and exercises to help writer’s practice what they’re learning.
Self-Editing talks about dialogue, beats, narration, show and tell, point of view, interior monologue and much much more. It’s written in a very comfortable and clear voice that makes it incredibly easy to read and I’d have to say it is the best book I’ve read thus far on editing/writing fiction.
I am reading other books right now, about 12 to be honest, but these two are the ones I’ve been focusing on the most recently. I feel like there is a lot that I can gain from giving so much of my time and attention to picking apart M Train while at the same time absorbing everything Self-Editing has to say.
These two books, I know will be pivotal to this month and my writing. For the month of January I plan on finishing my second draft of my book and chiseling out a rough outline of chapters, parts and plots so that I can get started on my third draft which should be (I hope) close to a place where I can start giving sample chapters to people to read (an idea I am playing with, it could be a bad idea).
I look forward to the rest of January and I know that this year will be amazing. I have a load of fantastic books to finish reading, tons of plans for my writing, and a good amount of content that I can start working on to submit to literary magazines in hopes of publication.
Thank you for reading, please feel free to comment or message me.
-Alina
