Since I’m getting back into this writing and blogging thing, I figured I should chronicle my progress with regular check-ins. Hopefully these ruminations will help me figure things out – after all, I’m only happy when I’m writing, and if I’m writing something like a blog post on a semi-regular basis, that should count. This will probably fulfill a more cathartic need for me, rather than an educational one for the readers, but maybe something will strike a chord with you. I am, after all, probably not the first person to experience some sort of mental and creative rut.
So, this is the first of (hopefully) many chronicles of what my life looks like lately. My greatest desire is that I will be able to work through some stuff with you and get back on the right track.
Here I am.
And here I will be.
Writing stuff.
What am I writing lately? I’m taking another look at the novel I completed during grad school, which I renamed last year to “Bloodmade.” My friend Beth and I have banded together to submit our novels in February – we’re holding each other accountable to get the word out there about our books, because they’re good, dammit, and deserve to see the light of day. (This might sound familiar, and it’s because I’ve said it before.)
I’m also still doing tech marketing and writing blog posts that are, more often than not, some variation of “Top 5 benefits of cloud computing.” I know a lot about cloud computing now. Or at least, I know a lot about its benefits.
I’m writing stories about student projects and faculty accolades that come out of the Farmer School. I wrote the great majority of the stories for the Winter 2017 issue of our in-house magazine, Journey.
What else? I’m still working on “The Unmaking Machine.” I recently decided to scrap most of it and start over – I’m actually really excited about getting to revisit those earlier chapters and see what I can keep and what I need to throw away. This is the project I want to focus on this year, something big and ambitious and beautiful. I need to carve out the time to do this every day, because I’m only happy when I’m writing. I’ll say it again: I’m only happy when I’m writing. I’m thinking about taking myself on a little “retreat” type vacation for a couple days by myself in the mountains, just to get those proverbial creative juices flowing. You’ll probably hear more about that as I solidify the plans.
Life stuff.
What about life stuff? Well, we recently moved back to Cincinnati from Chicago (you know that). We’re renting a nice townhouse that has plenty of room for our kitties to run around in. I’m slowly becoming acclimated to Ohio once again.
It’s been a bumpy road, and the road will continue to be bumpy. (Do I have health insurance? Will I have health insurance next month? When are my career goals going to amount to anything? When will I get a vacation??). But the pendulum is slowly starting to swing in my favor. I am on my way to more positive thoughts and more positive interactions with myself.
~Liz
Liz Makes Stuff 