It’s Christmas week! And productivity, as expected, has gone all to pot over this holiday season.
What I’m Writing
My goals last week:
3: Record audio readings of a few chapters to practice read-aloud editing. [Two down, MANY to go.]
4: Hit 150,000 words for the year. [+5k this month. 5k/13k, gotta hustle.]
5. Read 7 more books before the end of December to hit my reading goal of 70 books. [I was struggling with this, at 63/70, but now we’re up to 66/70 and rising. We’re gonna make it!]
What I’m Reading
The Awesome was a recent favourite: a shorty, punchy YA novel that deals with the mother-daughter relationship in a really realistic, refreshing way. It also contains actual, realistic, body-positive sex, a definite rarity in YA!
I also listened to the Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel audiobook and enjoyed it — it’s a brilliantly produced audiobook, though the story itself fell a bit flat for me.
But right now, I’m honestly obsessed with ILLUMINAE, this gorgeously laid-out sci-fi adventure about two daft teens from a mining colony trying to survive on a military ship where life is falling apart. I was sucked in by the gorgeous layouts and typography, but the story behind it is utterly fantastic too.
I know I tweeted this yesterday, but I’m testing out my Instagram. Carry on, as you were
A photo posted by Jay Kristoff (@jay_kristoff) on
What Else I’ve Been Up To
I’ve been using gamified to-do list HabitRPG/Habitica to rise up from a slump with their adorable motivational RPG reminiscent of oldschool `16-bit Final Fantasy games. Quite a few other big name writers have used it in the past to keep themselves in check — Jim C Hines introduced me to it via his posts, and Mary Robinette Kowal also recently used it to combat depression.
It’s not quite as slick and professional as my usual to-do list, Wunderlist, which I still use for shopping lists and the like, but it is a lot more fun.
I’ve also been doing a lot of art, but we’re heading into end-of-year wrap up season on the old blog, so I’m sure you’ll see some of that soon.
Until then: I hope you’re all having a fantastic Christmas week.
Good luck getting your query package together!!!! <3 <3 <3
I always expect to be less busy than I actually am at this time of year. Whoops!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!