The August Writing Plan

Did you get the pun in the title? It’s a poor one, but the idea of it had me smiling on a Friday morning, so I went with it anyway. I’m finally back to posting on Fridays! I hope this trend continues, but I doubt subsequent Fridays will be as free as this one seems to be. As you may know, my life has undergone a major change and July was a very average month for me in terms of blogging as I didn’t have the energy (and sometimes time) to write blog posts. My creative writing suffered more, as my Camp NaNoWriMo goal of writing 5,000 words went by unfulfilled. I couldn’t write a single word, unfortunately. Here’s to hoping August turns out to be much better writing month for me. Today’s post is broken up into three sections: the first will talk about why I write, the second focuses on what problems I’m currently facing and the third is my writing plan that I can hopefully stick to.

The Inspiration Circle – July ’17

Phew! July was perhaps the most difficult month for me, with my writing energy dropping to an all-time low. I do apologise for being erratic with my blogging, but this was a huge change for me and I’m trying (somewhat successfully so far) to not feel guilty about it. I desperately need a boost of inspiration to lift me from my gloom and I’m so glad I had the foresight to make The Inspiration Circle a monthly series.

The Quote

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about.

– Natalie Goldberg

The Inspiration Circle – Jun ’17

The months ahead are going to be filled with unpredictability. With equal parts dread and hope, I’m stepping into a new phase of life in July. Before I do that, however, I want to put myself in a positive frame of mind. That is why I decided to bring this feature back at this juncture.

The Quote

The future is completely open and we are writing it moment to moment.

– Pema Chodron

Writing and Reading Wrap-Up – March 2017

I haven’t been keeping to my schedule this month due to a few reasons and tons of excuses. It hasn’t been an easy month for me. Being a non-summer (anti-summer?) person and allergic to pollen, I’ve been tired and sick for most of it. Hopefully, April will be better (I’m not hopeful about the temperatures coming down before June, but I’ll survive), at least in terms of blogging. Apart from getting baked under the tropical sun, this is what I’ve been up to in March.

The Inspiration Circle – Feb ’17

The Quote

You fail only if you stop writing.

– Ray Bradbury

Writing and Reading Wrap-Up – Feb 2017

I had no plans for this month since my previous one didn’t go too well, so I went back to my old as-you-like-it way of doing things. February was a roller-coaster of a month for me. I’m currently on a low – the annoying trinity of cold, cough and fever have descended on me. This week has been far from productive, and I’m in a reading slump currently. Let’s see how the others went.

I Want to Write About…

I had a fiction piece ready for today, but had to schedule it for the coming weeks because this felt like the right thing to write about. This week’s Monday post gave me a lot to think about and I did mention I would write more ‘true pieces’ in that. There will always be expectations or obligations to live up to, but I want to be able to write about anything and everything I feel like on here because this little space on the Internet is a reflection of me. Today I’m going to be telling you the things I feel strongly about and would like to incorporate in my writing.

The Inspiration Circle – Jan ’17

Welcome to the first ever Inspiration Circle of 2017! As you might know, January was an average writing month for me but a good reading one. To make sure February is better, here is a little motivation for myself as well as any of you readers who might need it. It’s going to be shorter than the usual ones because I’m typing this in a tearing hurry. (I feel like this is a recurring pattern in January. Hmmm.) Let’s get to the good stuff now.

Writing & Reading Wrap-Up – Jan 2017

Remember my writing plan from two weeks ago? (It’s okay if the answer is no, you can check it out here.) I did promise a monthly writing wrap-up along with it, but I decided to add reading to it as well. Since I have a separate book blog, I will mention my reading only briefly here and leave links to my posts on that blog if you want to read further. With that introduction out of the way, let’s check on my progress (or lack of it).

Fictional Fridays #20

This is not the original story I had planned. I had written a draft with a complete story titled ‘Resilience’, but the page refreshed and I lost the original. I had hoped that the draft would be saved somewhere, but no such luck. I am disappointed and quite angry, but what good will that do? I couldn’t recreate the story and do justice to the original, so I decided to write a new one. I apologise for the length, but there’s only so much you can write when you’re frustrated.