And then an unexpected obstacle arose … (#SFWApro)

So as I’ve mentioned, work on Southern Discomfort has been proceeding very well. Until this week.
Even though I’ve been way off the outline, things have fallen into place smoothly. But this week, I found it really difficult figuring what needs to come next. I’m at 57,000 words and I have a rough idea what’s happening in the final section, but getting there from here looks very murky. And I also realized I’m losing sight of Maria’s character and her big issue, which is a refusal to use violence.
So I decided to take a break rather than push on and force something out that sends the story off the rails. I was really hoping to finish up April’s 20,000 words this week, but it’s not to be.
I had a few obstacles this week in real life too. Tuesday was spent finishing up taxes; doing estimated taxes; settling some stuff with our car insurance; settling some stuff with our HSA; and dealing with Triple A because Someone (who isn’t me) left the car lights on overnight and the battery couldn’t have been deader. And we have guests in for the weekend so cleaning up for them took some time too.
I did get plenty of watching done for Time Travel on Screen and got an inter-library loan in of a book on the topic. It’s out of print and runs around $80 a used copy, so I decided ILL was better than buying. I am having some difficulty figuring how to apportion my time, given how much watching I have to do (I found several more movies to see this week), but I still spent enough time on fiction to wipe out my deficit from earlier this year.
I’m also not making the mistakes I did with Screen Enemies of the American Way, where I focused on watching the movies and didn’t start on the chapters until late. I’m putting the book together as I go, so it’ll be much smoother in early 2016 when I have to finish.
I did not, however, get any of the marketing, queries or other odds and ends I’d planned to work on done during my various movie/TV watchings. It’s possible, but distractions undercut me. Which is more annoying than usual. When I’ve got paying gigs in the work, I can always remind myself “I earned my money this month, so I guess it’s okay I didn’t get as much done as planned.” With Demand Media still in limbo for now, the only measure is actually working. The less I get done, the less of a pro I feel.
For today, I’ll still be working on the book for some hours yet, (no matter how tired I am, I always have the energy to watch things) but as my schedule is in flux (see: guests in) I figured I’d post my Week in Review now while I have a chance.