Summer Writing Challenge: Week 4

Loving This Relaxed Summer Schedule

This was a great writing week. I felt focused and ready to tackle the struggles that I had encountered the previous week. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was able to take the weekend to relax and enjoy some time outdoors.

I had a breakthrough with my chapter and was able to bring together lots of small but important components together. By the end of Wednesday, I happily closed my computer with the pleasure of knowing that the conclusion and final careful edit was the only bit of work that is left for this piece of writing. With a colleague arriving as a guest for the long weekend, it was important that I reached this point in my writing to fully enjoy time with her.

What I am discovering all of the time is how much I struggle with ideas in one week and then after wrestling with the ideas a bit, they somehow come together quickly. It takes patience. It takes time. And it takes a forever critical eye to keep myself in check.

For the next two weeks, I will be a little busier teaching a two week intensive class on writing about music at the Boston Conservatory. I am rather excited about this little opportunity to share writing techniques with musicians at this point of my summer to keep myself also in check with what I need to be remembering when I write.

Because of this, I am going to keep a smaller list of tasks for this week. I will begin to edit through my chapter and also read through a long article that was sent to me from a colleague who needs some comments before moving forward with her writing project. She and I have developed a reliance on each other to read and comment on each other's work which has been an immense help in getting publications ready for submission.