Balancing moods and goals…

In both reading and writing.

Middle school started and we are all up a lot earlier than we used to be. I’m being very good about doing my physical therapy (to stay strong after an injury last fall), yoga, and walking the dog each day. I’ve accomplished multiple general ‘adulting’ to dos so far this month. But all this means… I’m kind of tired!

So, I’m struggling a bit to get back into a groove with writing Shadow Walker. My brain hasn’t always been in the right place to write new content. I’ve found myself rereading and editing old content.

I’m also having trouble with my reading goals. The stack of library books I borrowed at the end of July took me twice as long to get through than anticipated, because I kept ignoring it to finish ARCs that were nearing their pub date. I still have several ARCs that I want to finish this month and I’m barely halfway through my 25 in 2025 challenge picks—which are all semi-recent adult SFF releases in order to help me stay on top of the genre for my own writing goals.

I’m a mood reader, and looking at my planned reading list, I want to just rush through it instead of enjoying it slowly. Ugh. Looking ahead to October, when I usually grab a spooky season haul of mysteries/thrillers, I’m wondering if I should skip it since I did listen to a lot of mystery audiobooks this year. But it would be so fun to read spooky books in October! The mood! Again, ugh.

Reading and writing are supposed to bring joy. I can’t let my passions become frustrations, so I plan to allow myself to skip around in Shadow Walker, drafting some later scenes that are clearer in my head right now than what I had intended to write (ie the next plot point in the timeline). I am going to try to finish a bunch of ARCs this month, but then I think I will get at least a spooky season mini library haul to enjoy the October mood.

Joy is more important that checking off a goal I set for myself that has no real consequence if I don’t meet it. Fingers crossed that these adjustments work!