Hello! First of all, I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and healthy amidst the current pandemic. I have officially been in self-isolation for *checks calendar* forty-four days. (In some ways it feels shocking that it’s been that long; in other ways I can’t believe it’s only been forty-four days – but what is time?) Also, as many of you know, April is #CampNaNoWriMo. I personally do not take part in #CampNaNoWriMo (although I’ve had many a failed attempt) but I did want to do a week-by-week blog detailing what I’ve been up to… only for it to suddenly be April 26 and I have yet to make a single “what I’ve been up to” post. SO, consider this a catch up post! Even though I didn’t take part in #CampNaNoWriMo, I have been quite busy. So, I thought I’d still share a bit of what I’ve been doing throughout this very bizarre time. To keep you all from getting bored as I regale you with my entire month of April, this post will only cover April 1 through April 15.
So, sit back… and enjoy.
Writing Update
We’ll start with a writing update. If you read my last post, you know that I finished the first draft of my most current project on March 25.
Here was my goal: I was going to start my revisions in about a week after finishing and wrap up said revisions by the end of April.
Here’s what happened: I started my initial read-through on April 1 but ended up getting distracted by a brand spanking new idea. I don’t want to be over-dramatic and I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but this idea came to me while I was working (maybe working from home has been good for my creative well?) and I have not been this excited for a project in a very, very, VERY long time.
So throughout this post, I’m going to be talking about two projects: My contemporary YA, which I refer to as “EEMRS”, the acronym for its current title (in my head I pronounce this as “ee-mers,” in case you were curious). And then there’s my new idea, which is a thriller (currently I’m referring to it as “WTW3,” again, an acronym for its current title). While I was supposed to be working on EEMRS, I was, instead, working on WTW3.
I won’t be saying too much about WTW3, but here’s an aesthetic I put together… pretty much immediately.
My plan was for every hour I spent revising EEMRS, I could write 1000 words for my new thriller idea. However… all of my brain power was used up working on WTW3. I made a lot of notes for it and I think I have all of the pieces figured out, but otherwise, I finally put it away (*cries*) and got to work seriously on EEMRS.
For EEMRS, I started my read-through on April 1, as I said above, and I finished my read-through on April 3. I try to do my initial read-through as quickly as possible, preferably in one sitting, but I was distracted (see above aesthetic haha). Normally I like to print my MS out so I can make notes but I have this VERY BAD habit of printing out my MS and not actually using the print out. However, I have a new fix for that problem! Introducing my iPad + Apple Pencil! Now I can read through my MS on my iPad and highlight and make notes with my Apple Pencil! Brilliant!!
And the weather was so beautiful at the beginning of the month. Hasn’t been nearly as nice lately, but OH WELL.
Anyway, I finished my read-through of EEMRS on April 3 and did I jump right into revisions? Noooope. I kept playing around with WTW3. I wrote 3k+ notes. I made a playlist on Spotify (which I might be listening to right now, oops). Basically I did nothing but obsess over WTW3.
I realized pretty quickly that my whole “work on EEMRS for 1 hour, then work on WTW3” plan wasn’t going to work. Apparently I’m not great on working on two projects at once. So… I decided to do my EEMRS revisions so I could get that off to CPs and then I can work on WTW3 with ZERO distractions. (Also my mom really wants to read EEMRS so anytime I mentioned WTW3 she’d be like, “But I want to read EEMRS!” FINE, MOM, YOU WIN.)
So, on April 11 (LOL), I finally began my EEMRS revisions. You should also know that at the end of my digital markup of EEMRS, I wrote the following: “Just finished reading and I have no idea how to fix this ha ha ha.” So yes, I had my work well cut out for me.
Reading Update
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not a fast reader. I also am not good at dedicating time to reading. However, during this quarantine period, I have been reading a lot more – which has been really, really great!
So here’s my reading update for the first half of April:
On April 9, I finished reading HARLEY IN THE SKY by Akemi Dawn Bowman. I had been really excited for this one for a long, long time. Basically I can only wish my writing style was like Akemi’s!
Also on April 9, I finished an audio book. I’m not a huge audio book fan (my boyfriend, on the other hand, ONLY “reads” audio books) but occasionally I’ll listen to a nonfiction book. (I can only do nonfiction because I don’t actually have the ability to listen to a fiction book.) So I gave SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY by Anna Kendrick a listen. And, um, I really liked Anna Kendrick but liked her a bit less after listening to her book. *shrug*
Finally, on April 12, I finished SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid. I loved this book. Such a fun read (see what I did there?) while also being thought-provoking. I’ve recommended it to pretty much anyone I’ve come into (virtual) contact with.
What Else…?
Here are a couple of quarantine highlights:
(1) Food. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been eating a lot more snack-y foods than usual. The highlight is my boyfriend’s attempt at a “Japanese pancake” (I think better known as “soufflé pancake” – we just happened to have these in Japan when we visited last summer) on Easter. I made cheesy potatoes, he made soufflé pancakes. They weren’t quite perfect, but not bad for a first attempt! Also, they were delicious.
Some other highlights include all the cookies I’ve been baking, a bagel every morning (normally I try not to eat too many bagels; little known fact, bagels are my absolute FAVORITE food), and a lot of other goods.
(2) TV & Podcasts. Like most people in quarantine, I have been watching TV, although my boyfriend and I try not to binge watch (apparently we like to torture ourselves). A couple highlights for what I’ve watched or been watching include: (1) Onward on Disney+; (2) Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu; (3) Nancy Drew on the CW; and (4) Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart on ABC, which my friend and I watch at the same time so we can text each other while we watch. As for podcasts, my boyfriend and I have been living for Staying In with Emily & Kumail. We listen every Thursday when a new episode drops.
(3) Exercise. Prior to the gyms closing, I ran a mile a day on the treadmill at my apartment’s gym. I stopped going to the gym a little bit prior to the gym officially closing out of caution and now of course the gym is closed so I can’t go. At first I tried doing at-home workouts through YouTube but I hate being sore, so I went back to running – outside. It’s been oddly refreshing? Especially now that I don’t get out much. I look forward to my run because I get to go outside and get some fresh air. I only run a mile (I am not a runner) and my goal is to get to 8 minutes and 30 seconds, which was my time back in the fourth grade when I had to run a mile in gym. Unfortunately my time seems to be getting worse and worse, probably because I sometimes get stuck waiting for traffic so I can cross the street or sometimes I have to zig-zag around my neighborhood to avoid other people…
Still, I am proud to announce that I ran a mile outside every single day from April 1 through April 15.
And yeah, I think that about wraps up what I’ve been up to! Stay tuned for my next update covering April 15 – April 30. Some teasers: I came up with another thriller idea and made an aesthetic for that one, which I’ll share. Plus, you’ll find out – was I successful in my first round of EEMRS revisions?? Did I get too distracted with my new thriller ideas? What have I been reading? More importantly, what have I been eating??? Did I keep up my mile streak??
All these questions will be answered!! For now, stay safe!
britney brouwer 