​I started doing stream of consciousness writing when journaling in high school. In college I began using it for essay writing as a way to get all my thoughts onto the page. I bet you can imagine where this is going. Yup. I do it A LOT in story writing. 

​Working on book 2 of my series has brought up an issue I haven’t experienced before. Normally when I sit down to write, it’s all about telling the story. My internal editor makes some noise and complains a lot over spelling and mis-typed words, but that’s about it. This time though, my internal editor is going haywire with commentary. 

​Once I’ve found the tone of a novel, I like to spend time plotting. I do a complete, often partially illegible (I write it out long-hand) outline of the entire story—major and minor plot points included. As I work, I hit roadblocks that invariably evaporate in the face of a relatively mindless activity like walking or mowing the lawn. Occasionally the roadblocks stay, and those are always created by a character.

​I’ve been fumbling around in the dark on Book 2 of my series for the last month. 

Here are some of the publication nitty gritties I’ve been learning in the last six months. 

​This week has been intense. A week of proofreading culminated in perhaps a master copy. To top that, the week ended with a YouTube event that went far better than I had hoped. 

​I had a totally different post in mind for today, but I just got the book format version of my novel Liquid Fire from the publisher. 

My kids like to have a toy on the table while they eat dinner. They say it “guards” their food. We allow the toy to stay so long as they eat. I’m in the thick of editing what is potentially the last round of edits for my novel. In keeping with the kids, I have a little totem figure sitting next to the computer. But my figure isn’t exactly here to guard my story. 

​I realize the title of this is a bit misleading. I don’t currently live a life where idle time exists. There are always so many things to be done there simply isn’t enough time in the day to do them. But what I do have are activities which do not require a lot of brain power. 

My garden has derailed my life. The weather heated up and the plants have gone from strolling along in their growth to a flat-out sprint to see which one of them can develop and ripen the most vegetables or fruit. Even my watermelon plant, which has been so sad and lethargic, has suddenly taken off.