Can you? 'Cause I'm not sure what they are either.
I have spent the last month continuing to work on name research and replacement. It's taking me longer than it should. Partly, this is due to the depth of research that I'm doing due to some irrational fear that I will miss the "perfect" name for what are, at this point, important, but not the most major characters (having named all of the major characters already). I actually am close to being done with this; I think I only have one left that requires the more in depth process I'm doing. For the other minor characters that have yet to be named I can probably just pull something from the lists I've already created. Until I write more and need more names, ha!
And that last part brings me to why, even though what I have been doing is important, it feels like I haven't done much. The Wolf and the Sheath still stands at the 51,729 word mark, where it was in late April. I have not written any new material since then. (This doesn't mean I have writers block; I have plenty of scenes I need to write and know pretty much what I am going to do for them. I just got to the point where I said, "I'm past 50,000 words; I need to finalize these names.")
It also occurred to me within the past couple days that I'm going to have a lot going on in September, and to a lesser extent, August. I may very well not get much, if anything done, on W & S these months. (I'm not saying I'm going to intentionally not work on it, just that I know my realistic limitations and I'm not going to set myself up to be disappointed at not meeting an unrealistic goal.)
I keep thinking that these months are SO far away, SO down the road that I hadn't thought much about them. But tomorrow, is July 1, meaning that August and September really are just around the corner. Looking now at what I will have occupying my time during that period, I think I may take a break from W & S completely (aside from writing brilliant scenes that come to me in the shower, 'cause that's what I do) and work on some smaller projects.
I actually have a couple projects in mind for September. One of them is that I will return to something I did a few years ago and post a bog entry for each day of Banned Books Week (at the end of September); actual posts, not reposting the same thing I posted two years ago. I will probably write them ahead of time; the whole reason why I was reposting BBW blog posts last year is that it actually takes a lot of work to write a blog post every day. I have another project in mind, too, but y'all will have to wait a little while to hear more about that one.
I think for August I will work on small projects; polishing or finishing existing short stories, or creating new ones. I've been thinking a lot recently about how I need to start working, really working, using my writing. I need to start submitting my pieces to places where I will get paid more than a contributor's copy. I do want to eventually be able to work "full time" as a writer (by "full time," I mean that that would be my primary source of income). At the rate I'm going, that's some time in the far-flung future. And, yes, I need to finish writing my books. But with all but one of my complete short stories published, I also don't have anything to submit to paid publications right now. I need to find a better balance on that front.
So, what does this have to do with July? For July, I will finish my name research and replacing (that might even happen this week). I will then do a full reread, making sure that all the names have switched out properly. (I only trust find/replace so much.) I will slot in names off my list I've been compiling as I research for those minor characters who need it, so Lady X and the cook can actually have a name. We'll see where that gets me in July. If I have time, I will commit all those brilliant shower scenes to the page. But I will also prepare to put the story away for a while. I've been "working" on Wolf and Sheath (some months more steadfastly than others) since November, and it may be that I just need to step away and refresh my creativity a bit. I also have one more writing contest I definitely want to enter that opens tommorow.
So this July 4th I will be celebrating my independence from an indefinite timeline and "to do" list and see if maybe that helps jump start myself some.