Being in the Moment

I got an opportunity this week to do something I haven’t done in years. I was excited to pull out materials stored in the garage, flip through the pages, and reacquaint myself with one of the loves of my first career: teaching language arts. I’m comfortable with designing a math lesson, as I’ve been doing it for the last 20 years. But I find so many aspects of teaching language exciting and engaging that I over plan. I suppose there are worse things…

I know this is a short-term gig. I’ve decided what the clients need to improve their reading and writing. I’ve also decided that once they return to a classroom full time, they will get plenty of instruction on formal writing, research papers, and nonfiction structure. So, I’m encouraging them to play with words, write stories that have elements of character, setting, and conflict… and one of them told me today that they got carried away with their story… I laughed because that is my goal. I want them to dive into their imagination and enjoy something that I know others after me will make difficult.

When I create nonfiction, I keep the user in mind. When I write fiction, it’s just me and the muse. I finished the math workbook. I found a colleague to be a beta reader. My graphic person finished the cover. I hope to publish it by the end of the month.

In minute pockets of time, I eye the short list of flash fiction I want to include in MV2. I tell myself it will be published by the end of the month.

My narrator finished The Stalker. I’ve started the edits, and I need to finish before the end of the month. She has The Bookie, book 2 in the Waldman Investigations series. I ask myself if I can write book 3, The Syndicate, and have it ready for her by, say, maybe September? With a full schedule? And taking classes for my recertification? And it being summer, the time of year that sucks my energy? How do you deal with a task as you stand at the base of the mountain and gaze at the top, wondering how you’ll climb it?