Notes
📝 I’m doing a writing project currently and I set a goal of 10000 words but ran out of planned stuff to say at 5000, so today I added this to the document:
Because I’m not sure how to get the next 5000 words of this book out of me and because I don’t want to read anything I’ve written until I hit my 10000 words, my goal now is to just freewrite 250 words about [the project’s topic] every day. Then maybe in that 5000 words there will be something that fits with the other 5000 words that I can use when all 10000 words are outside of me and I’ve stepped away for a bit and can come back with an editor’s eye.
🔖 Read What Is Mental Load? (And Why Is It Important?) by Randi Donahue (The Good Trade).
It feels a propos that I read this sitting in the dentist’s office a couple yards away from where my kid is getting sealant on his 6-year molars.
I’m lucky to have a partner who carries a lot of this load, but list-making and note-taking also help me immensely.
📝 I wanted to respond to asking what the point of daily writing is. Here’s what I said:
I wanted to let you know you’re not alone. With big creative projects, so many of us hit a point where it stops feeling worthwhile.
As Austin Kleon says, problems of output are problems of input. If you feel stuck, maybe reading something new would help.
Finished reading: Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole 📚
Finished reading: Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole 📚
Finished reading: Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole 📚
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ I tore through this one so fast. I think it might partly be because the heroine is a PhD candidate.
Finished reading: Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole 📚
My favorite Immortals After Dark book so far. A burlesque dancer becomes a ballerina, ends up a ghost, and falls in love with a vampire who is trapped in the New Orleans Gothic manor that she haunts. 🌹👻🩰
Finished reading: Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole 📚
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ as always. Werewolves continue to not be my thing but I love witches.
Finished reading: No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole 📚
Listen, all these Immortals After Dark books are 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️, okay? That’s just what’s up. I like this one better than the one that came before it, definitely more my vibe.
📚🗨️ “This union was supposed to be for eternity—it followed that their courtship would be extended.” - Kresley Cole, No Rest for the Wicked
See, that’s why W and I were together for 10 years before we got engaged. ("‘Til death do us part" is for quitters.)
📚 This is your reminder that The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond is out today!
I’m currently doing Leonie Dawson’s 40 Days to a Finished Book ecourse and I love this that she said:
It’s a collage of words.
You don’t have to start at the beginning and write until you get to the end.
(If you use the link above to buy the course, I may get a commission.)
Finished reading: A Hunger Like No other by Kresley Cole 📚
Incredibly high spice level, all the chili pepper emoji 🌶️! A Valkyrie/vampire hybrid and a werewolf (there wolf) fall in love. I’m reading this as I listen along to the first season of Fated Mates.
Finished reading: The Truth About Dragons by Julie Leung 📚
A 2024 Caldecott Honor winner.
Finished reading: Two New Years by Richard Ho 📚
Winner of the 2024 Sydney Taylor book award.
Finished reading: Nacho y Lolita/Nacho and Lolita by Pam Muñoz Ryan 📚
Pam Muñoz Ryan won the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. This was where NoveList Plus recommended starting with her work.
Finished reading: Fox Has a Problem by Corey R. Tabor 📚
Reading my way through this year’s American Library Association Youth Media Award winners. This won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book. It’s super cute.
Now I’m thinking about Odo’s maintenance of his humanoid form and how it can be read as an analog for neurodivergent masking. Like, he’s really trying to give back what he’s getting but it’s hard, okay? Faces are difficult. 🖖🏻
Finished reading: Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas 📚
A sizzling historical that has two refreshing leads: she’s a writer, not a bluestocking. He is a gambling club owner, not a duke.
What are you obsessed with right now? For me it’s the podcast Fated Mates, all things romance book-adjacent, and Parisian vibes.
The personal brand paradox wepresent.wetransfer.com
When a person aspires to be a brand, they forfeit everything that is truly glorious about being human.
Parents who are freelancers/self-employed, what do you do when your kid is home sick? Do you just sort of give up on getting work done?