As always, I’d like to begin this week’s progress report by thanking all of you awesome people who’ve followed, liked and/or commented on my blog!

Here are this week’s stats:

Final Word Count for the Fifth Draft: 60,069

Thoughts?

Hey guys! Miss me?

So lately, I’ve been feeling very burned out when it comes to reading and writing. I know how ridiculous that sounds given that I just took a break from everything, but hear me out. This month marks three full years of reading and writing m/m books and at some point, paired with everything I’ve had to do this year in my personal life, I hit a wall. A very frustrating, very scary wall where I didn’t want to read ANYTHING, where I dnf’d EVERYTHING I tried to read, and when I got the first round of edits for my WIP back on Monday and saw the things I needed to fix, I wanted to lay on the floor and have a full-scale tantrum. Not because the fixes were unreasonable or anything, I really love working with this editor and she does great work and demands the same from me. This is all me and my fatigue and frustration.

That said, Monday evening, I applied the grammatical edits and Tuesday, after a full night’s sleep, I tackled the bigger content issues. I got it done with minimal tears and for that, I’m proud.

I also managed to break my reading slump/DNF streak. This past weekend, I read a few short m/m books; Leather Head by Matt Converse, The Master Class Collection by Rachel Haimowitz (one of the writers of The Flesh Cartel series, which I loved) and On His Knees by Adira August, the first in the Hunter&Cam4Ever series. Leather Head really wasn’t for me. The Master Class Collection really WAS for me, as Haimowitz is fantastic at writing BDSM. And I’ve fallen completely down the Hunter & Cam rabbit hole, as I’m currently reading the second in the series. It was awesome to break the slump, but I’m still human and had to DNF one book, Better The Devil You Know by Bey Deckard, as it was a bit too dark for me. I may try to come back to it in the future, as it was beautifully written. It was just a bit too ‘Hannibal Lecter’ for my taste right now.

Goals For The Coming Week

The second round of edits aren’t due back until 7/28, but whether they’re on time or early, my intent is to get to work as soon as they come. My proofreading deadline is 8/5, so I’ve gotta make sure I’m on time with that. Please note, if I haven’t got the second round of edits back, I likely won’t have a blog post next week. For the time being, I’m only going to blog when I have news to report for this process.

With reading, I’m not going to set firm, named goals. I’m definitely going to make my overall reading goal this year, so I don’t see the point in stressing myself out.

Note to Self

It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s okay to have a tantrum for a minute. Just as long as you get back up and keep moving once you’re finished. You got this.