Picking at It

I've survived another day of music and art camp. One of my special needs girls was a bit more of a handful today. She was a little on the outs with her best friend, which meant she didn't have her usual security blanket, and so not only was she being enough of a pill to her friend that we had to intervene, but she also was unhappy in general. I think she was mostly just overwhelmed. She seems to have the most issues in loud activities like choir and instruments, so I think noise bothers her. By the end of the day, I kind of wanted to join her under the table where she was hiding out. I made the other adults just let her stay there for a while because it obviously soothed her. Meanwhile, I had a few kids who didn't quite grasp the group split for a couple of the activities, so I had some missing. I made sure they were in the other group instead of missing and then left it at that rather than interrupting that class to make them switch.  I ended up doing a lot of running around today.

I never did take that nap yesterday because I decided it was better to really be tired so I could sleep well at night, and that seems to have worked, but I'm just as tired today, anyway. This thing only lasts from 9 to noon, but I feel like I've worked a whole day. I have a feeling I'll need most of Friday to recover. Then it will be time to get ready for WorldCon.

I was beating myself up over my lack of writing progress, then I reminded myself that I'm not on a deadline, and the previous book in this potential series took me three years to write, off and on. It was more off than on, as I wrote four other books in that time, but it did take that much time to work it all out. I'm normally a plotter, but plotting fails me in this world. Things just seem to happen that I didn't plan or prepare for. Characters keep secrets, and when I learn those secrets, it changes everything. I keep having those "Oh, so that's what's been going on" moments. So I just have to accept that it will be slow going. I haven't sold the first one yet, so there's no huge rush. I'd just like to have this one finished by the time either the first one sells or I make the decision to self-publish the first one.  So I will keep plugging, but this isn't going to be one of those books that practically writes itself in a month. It's a "pick at it a little bit at a time" book.

So now I'll get some tea and try to pick at it a bit.