Once more unto the breach…
In which: Maggie recovers from the Plague™️ and makes a plan for 2023!
Hello hello, dear friends — I just learned that “Once more unto the breach” is from Henry V, which you’d think I would know. I just reread the speech and, not gonna lie, it’s pretty badass.
“When the blast of war blows in our ears, / then imitate the action of the tiger” is a pretty good way to describe my plans for 2023. A year-long writing class, a new part-time job, a twelve-week run of The Artist’s Way condensed into ten weeks because of the aforementioned Plague™️… (at which point I had to take a break from typing because I had to cough so hard; delightful)…
I’m strapping in for a whole lotta nonsense but in the best possible way. I’ve officially given notice to my largest client and will have their workload off my plate at the end of the month — maybe a couple weeks into February because the Plague™️ kept me from working for two weeks straight.
So, about that — it shockingly wasn’t COVID, it wasn’t strep, it was neither the flu nor RSV, just an extremely sh*tty virus that knocked me on my ass for literally two entire weeks. And it wasn’t the fun kind of “stay home from school and play video games” sick — I was genuinely so sick that I couldn’t sit in a chair; I could only lay in bed, propped up on pillows, leaking from just about every orifice and subsisting on Gatorade and an applesauce-only diet.
When I say it totally blew — it totally blew.
So now I’m two weeks behind on client work, January’s half over, and I’ve only got so many brain cells left to devote to my career. But it’ll be okay! My new adventure starts next Wednesday with YLWP orientation, and I start my new part-time job tomorrow, provided the lingering effects of the Plague™️ lessen up enough for me to go. (I’ll reserve some info on the new gig for a bit for the sake of anonymity, but suffice to say I’m genuinely really excited about it!)
In February (or March, if I really have to), I’ll be starting my new Routine-with-a-capital-R and I did some thinking last night — in a fit of coughing-induced insomnia — about what I want that routine to look like.
I know I want to divvy up my work week with specific writerly tasks each day. My plan right now is to reserve Mondays for my clients, because I do still need that income, but if I get my sh*t together (maybe I finally will now that the workload will be balancing out?) it’s reasonable to expect to finish a month’s client work in a single workday — two, maybe three if I’m having trouble focusing. So we’ll see if that’s something I could stick to because it would make my life a lot easier in other aspects!
I’m thinking my weekly schedule will look something like this:
Monday
Client work
Very light writing day: 30-60 min
The Artist’s Way group session from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday
Heavy writing day!
Class from 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday
Light writing day — focus on editing
Update this blog!
Client meetings, if necessary
Light client work, if necessary
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Thursday
Heavy writing day
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Friday
Light writing day
Outreach: Querying, placements, submissions, applications
Look into grants, fellowships, and residencies to apply for
Learn Something New: 30-60 min
On the weekends, I’ll have time to do other things, like Wag! and Uber Eats, to offset my income (as well as the occasional Saturday shift at Ye Olde Part-Time Job). I’m going to be about $200 short of paying my bills just based on estimated income as of February (yikes), but the good thing about that is I don’t need that much income to get to where I need to be. So a day or two a week of gig work could be plenty, depending on the season. I’ll also have late evenings for giggin’, even if I’m just running one or two orders on my way home from my jorb in Columbia. To be determined!
Once per week, I want to dedicate around an hour to Learning Something New: low-stakes, fun things that are adjacent to my writing and my work, like taking a random cooking class or learning French. Sort of an extension of Julia Cameron’s “Artist Date” once my sessions end in… March? (March — March 20th, to be exact.) I also specifically noted time each week (Wednesdays) for doing some edits, whether that’s to a short story I’m working on sending for placement or adjusting my YLWP pages based on group feedback.
I (somewhat arbitrarily) put updating this blog as a weekly task for Wednesdays because I like taking progress updates in the middle of the week, but I think once YLWP really gets goin’ I’ll be writing here a lot more often. (God, I’m so excited.) So, take that with a grain of salt. Hopefully I’ll be posting more than once a month from now on. :-)
There are also certain things I want to do monthly or quarterly. I plan on writing a new short story once per month that I can workshop, get critiqued, and submit to various outlets. (Peep that “outreach” day sitting pretty on Fridays.)
I also have a list of things I want to do semi-regularly, but don’t exactly fit in a neat schedule:
Join (or start?) a writers’ critique group with regular meetings. Biweekly would be nice/realistic, depending on timing. I wouldn’t mind starting my own group, but I’m already in charge of the Artist’s Way one and I don’t really have any local writing contacts right now. I reached out to my favorite professor from college to ask if she has any recommendations for me, so more on that later.
Connect with other writers in the community. It would be nice to attend an open mic or do something low-key that counts as community connections without the heavy framework of a critique group. Just something to keep me connected, whether that’s attending book signings or open reads or what-have-you… (Side note: Should I print new business cards?)
Submit to writing contests. This falls under the Friday “outreach,” technically, but given there are so many contests out there with such specific requirements this may have to be its own category.
Attend writers’ conferences, maybe 2 or 3 per year. This may be more of a 2024 thing, or at least the latter half of 2023 when I have a full manuscript under my belt and ready to pitch to agents/editors. Also, they’re hella expensive (Wordsmith 2022 was like a $1400 trip), so I don’t know how realistic it is for me to do this. But maybe I could at least attend a couple small, regional ones? Or maybe I’ll just stalk Kristin Cashore and save up enough money to attend whatever conference she’s speaking at… Or just ask her to be my friend... (Kidding.)
I’m also considering rebooting the Highway MFA Instagram account, or making a new writerly one for the pen name I’ve picked out (more on that later), but I don’t want to add that to my list of “musts.” That’ll only be for fun if I actually have interest, rather than an assignment.
The nice thing is that I get to do whatever I damn well please, starting very, very soon. This change has been a long time coming and the more I plan, the more excited I get. It’s going to be an adventure, and I’m going to be very, very broke, but I know this is the right move for me and I can’t wait to get started!
“Cry 'God for Maggie, England, and Saint George!’”
Til next time,
Mags