PaWriCo Week 1 Check-In

Hey all, Sam here.

When I posted about my participation in a end-of-year writing challenge last week, I believe I mentioned that I wanted to try and do semi-regular check-ins on my progress. We’re just over a week in, so I guess let’s talk about my progress…

Well, I knew Day 1 was going to be a 0 word day, because I was silly and forgot to re-read over all of my writing and notes from “Roll for Romance” before November hit. That was silly because I had October 29th-31st off work and totally could have re-read my writing, but hey, these things happen.

I figured Days 2-4 were also going to be lower word count days, because of how my work and sleep schedules end up working out. Between those days I think I managed about 300-ish words in total. So definitely not my hoped for 1k a day. But I already knew going into this challenge, that my primary writing days were going to happen during my three day weekend (which for me is a Tuesday-Thursday).

But you know what happened on Day 5? That’s right, the election in the US. I spent most of my day trying to keep busy, and my husband and I went out to eat and decided to play a few games at the bowling alley. But the results started rolling in by the time we got home, and I simply couldn’t focus.

This leads to waking up with a new reality on Day 6, one where I was feeling so broken down and devastated. It all felt so hopeless and I wondered if it was even worth it to keep working on “Roll for Romance.” After all, would there even be a place for it in the world after I finished? One of the MCs is asexual, and there’s a diverse batch of side characters in the story.

But, I spent some time scrolling through my Threads and Instagram and TikTok on Days 7 and 8, and my community has helped to uplift my spirits a bit. I spent a number of years making myself tolerable to others, dimming my own light so as to not be too much of a disturbance to others. But the older I get, the more tired I’ve gotten of that.

I have a bit of privilege in my position. I am a white woman married to a white man. Yes, I am asexual, but to the untrained or unknowing folks, we are cis-passing. But so many of my friends, my chosen family, do not have such a privilege. I owe it to myself and I owe it to them to keep pushing forward, to keep elevating LGBTQIAP2S+ and BIPOC stories, to keep writing books with diverse characters, to keep reading and writing books of love and hope and happiness and acceptance.

So, I’m a bit behind schedule, and I’m trying to give myself grace as my emotions have been all over the place this past week. But, I’m not going to give up. I’m going to get back to writing.

And hey, if you want, come find me on Instagram or Threads (I’m @SamRushingBooks). I’m still posting about awesome books I’ve bought recently, as well as ones I’ve read and loved (recently and long ago)…and yes, many of those books are ones that certain people want to ban because it doesn’t fit their stupidly tiny worldview.

All right, thank you so much for stopping by. Hopefully I’ll have a more productive update next time. That’s all from me for today, but I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.