May 2022

 Well, I'm not sure what I have to say about May.

I've been busy and stressed out and stressing about being busy. Yet, while I'm struggling to deal with some things, I'm also finding that I am actually doing the things.

✅ Finished Puzzle

My husband bought me the Disney's Villainous: Captain Hook puzzle for Christmas. It arrived late, so around mid-January, and then it took me a little while before I decided that I had time to get started on the puzzle. I definitely did not expect it to take me as long as it did to complete it. The thing about Captain Hook is that he wears red and when there are umpteen images of Captain Hook in the same puzzle, all wearing the same red jacket, it gets to be a lot of similar-looking pieces. Also, I tend to work on jigsaw puzzles in spurts. I enjoy the "problem solving" aspect of them while also getting to utilize my visual connections centre of my brain (Nope, don't know if that's a real thing) because sometimes I like to just look at things. But I can't do it for an extended amount of time. Maybe an hour here or there. So 1,000 pieces can take a while if it's a bit tricky.

✅Read from the To-Be-Read Pile

Honestly, this is probably by biggest accomplishment for the month. I want to acknowledge that I purchased new books at the end of April (birthday gift cards!) and that, like the reasonable person I am, I promptly read two of those new books and then re-read a few books from one of my all-time favourite series. In my defense, I honestly opened up the first book to read the first page (to answer a writing-related question) and then I just kept going.

All in all, I read 8 books in May and I'm hoping to keep up the momentum because I make really good book choices and I don't know why reading hasn't been something I've made the time for (That's a lie. I totally know why).

I absolutely adored Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall and Sari, Not Sari by Sonya Singh and I will always recommend Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series.

✅Write Regularly

Yes, this is also a thing that I have managed to do! I had a very interesting conversation recently with someone who told me that it sounded like the best course of action would be to create a writing schedule and, just... write. And the thing is, I kind of tried to do this in April with CampNaNoWriMo but I don't think that my goals and timeline and intentions actually meshed with my headspace and capacity at the time. May was more of a "ooooh! What about this!" and then the writing happened. There was no regularly scheduled times, though there have been a lot of late nights because peace and quiet often comes only once everyone has gone to bed. Also, it's when I come most alive, so that is when the writing happens. 

At the moment, writing is coming in the form of writing outlines. I was never a "planner" before I got my BA, but I'm noticing that my brain just doesn't quiet operate the way that it did before when I would just spill all of the words onto the page and cross my fingers that it would all work itself out. Now, I find I'm too easily distracted by the stray thoughts that send me down information rabbit holes to verify facts that I'm thinking I might add into the story. Outlining, I'm finding, allows me to flag that thought so I can go look it up later and then I can keep going. It also lets me plug in small sections of dialogue for a scene and move on without any of the details. I'm not sure what's going to happen when I actually sit down to write out the novel(s), but I'm having an interesting time trying to puzzle out all of the steps from beginning to end of the story.

Overall, as disappointing and disheartening as some things have been this past month, I've managed to carve out time here and there to do things that bring me joy. I hope that anyone reading this is also able to find those things that bring them joy.