Don't worry if you're not where you want to be yet. Great things take time.I’ve been trying to remember the things that took up my time this week (aside from the obvious day job duties), and have mostly been drawing a blank. I had to get up quite a bit earlier than normal, which meant most of my days were spent in some level of tiredness haze. So the office got what focus and attention I had to give.

Which made it interesting when a colleague sent me an article about how the company Patagonia handles work-life balance. Sounds near idyllic to me, and makes me wonder how it is one U.S.-based company can manage this enlightened self-interest when no others I know of do. It’s an odd reflection of Plato’s allegory of the cave, for which hubs found an awesome Orson Welles narration this week.

I also read an interesting set of blog posts I’m keeping open in separate windows as I write to remind me of ways to increase conflict and tension in my story. The ever-insightful Jami Gold had a post about plot obstacles, while Janice Hardy guest posted on Jody Hedlund’s site about why your plot has stalled.

For a story that needs no additional tension or conflict, watch this clip of Inuit mussels gatherers:

I’ve been lucky my plot hasn’t stalled, and I’ve hit the midpoint of the novella. But that means I only wrote 2,868 words this week. I have two weeks to finish this before my editor gets it, so there can’t be any more “I’m too tired” nights. Luckily, I should be back to my regular sleeping/waking schedule this week.

My phone says I averaged 3,463 steps per day this week. Slowly creeping back up toward goal, but not there yet. (Though I also forgot my phone at home for one of our walks this week, so maybe I’m closer than I think.)

Other than that, Gayla is hard at work on her latest book, and expects to be finished with her drafting by tomorrow. So I’ve been editing for her, and am very excited to see how this first in a new series ends. She’s planning a set of related series based on humans escaping Earth, and tracking the mysteries their descendants face thousands of years later. The blurb for the one she’s finishing is:

As the first human to be infected by a Lykanos in thousands of years, Tilly is an anomaly. Being cast out from the village of her birth makes her an Outsider. Learning to be a researcher is her refuge.

Until there’s a murder at her old home. She accepts a place on the team investigating the crime armed with the knowledge that everything she was brought up to believe is a lie—but even that doesn’t make her return any easier.

Faced with the past, she must come to terms with her future while helping to hunt the murderer before more die.

It’s shaping up to be a good murder mystery with New Adult themes, and I’m on pins and needles waiting to read how it ends. 😀

So I’ll be back again next week to report on my (and her) progress. For those of you interested in the ROW80 group, we’re on Facebook and Twitter.

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