Recovering from the #24hrnovel & my summer writing "semester," a long-form experiment, starts Monday!! EEK. (Patreon)

It's three days post-#24hrnovel and I feel like I've finally recovered.

(Spoiler: I did not last for 24 straight hours. I spent most of Sunday and a smidge of Monday finishing the experiment.)

But you know what?? I had a blast! This might even be my favorite version of the 24-hour writeathon yet?? (I say yet. NEVER LET ME DO THIS AGAIN. I am RETIRING. For real this time. For real for real.)

And as I've already started editing the vlog, I can already tell y'all that I didn't even need to stay up for 24 straight hours for the delirium to set in. I think I made it to Hour 14 or 15 on Saturday and my brain turned to straight GOO.

So hopefully y'all will enjoy watching that.

If you participated in the challenge -- or in the Storytellers' Hearth Weekend Relay, or just wrote over the weekend -- let me know how it went for you!! Do you feel like you've successfully recovered? Have you touched your story again since? (I took the plunge this morning and started rewriting Chapter 1, but honestly, the rest of it is feeling pretty great!!)

As a reward for surviving the challenge, I spent the rest of Monday cleaning and thinking of literally NOTHING, crocheting and thinking of NOTHING, and watching reality TV and clearing my brain with more nothing.

(In true millennial fashion, I must always throw up the peace sign when taking pictures.)

I'm almost done making beanies for my whole family, despite it officially being summer now, so I'm going to have to move onto a new project soon! I'm thinking maybe a bag?? Or one of those cute coasters that turns into a plant?

Maybe my real reward was buying more yarn bahaha. 🧶

Please take this as your gentle reminder though: If you haven't already celebrated and rewarded yourself for completing one of these challenges, hitting a recent milestone in your WIP, or even just getting back into writing after a break, DO IT. You've more than earned it!! (Or tell me, and I'll celebrate for you...with more yarn! Lolol.)

Now onto summer plans! 🌻

I finalized my 5th "class" and now have a full schedule for my 10-week pretend semester bahaha. I've even created the assignments for the first three weeks!

(Pictured above is week two.)

I'm traveling to Charlotte, NC for a few days during what would normally be Week 4, so I'm using that as an evaluation break!

As y'all know, I frequently struggle with setting my goals WAY TOO FREAKING HIGH and not being able to achieve them. I really, really, really don't want to do that this time (and want to try to get better at that, period). Buuuuut, with my predisposition, I figured it was smart to assume history would repeat itself and not schedule all 10 weeks now.

That means I'll take that week off to refresh expectations and create goals/lessons for the coming weeks, and then New Week 4 will be back to class!

As part of my goals, I'll be back here each week (on Friday, Saturday, or maybe Sunday) to let y'all in on what I've learned, what I've actually completed, and maybe share a flash fiction or two. 👀

And finally, in the continuation of The Experiment That Keeps On Going, I still have to finish editing my short story from our Patreon streams!! This has really been illuminating in a lot of ways, and I'm excited to see the final results. If Stream 1 was a poem and brainstorming session, Stream 2 was drafting, and Stream 3 was revising, hopefully Stream 4 will finally be editing and finally typing The End.

I'll be back here in a few days with that stream scheduled, I just need to sort a few personal events out first, but wanted to keep y'all in the loop!

Thanks everyone and happy writing!! 🍄