Kentucky Mountain Girl News by Henrietta Asher Handy

When the bullet journal experiment began just a short couple of days ago, I wasn’t

picture from Pinterest

expecting there to be much difference in how my time was managed and how the day of writing and chores/errands/phone calls, etc., would go.  The bullet journal is helping me keep track of everything going on in a day and also gives me the ego-boosting pleasure of marking things off a list that has been done.  The hardest part, right now, is putting down unnecessary items just so there will be the pleasure of marking it off – completed!

So, has the bullet journal helped me with keeping track of my writing and editing?  Yes!  Each day I put down the chapter I want to work on and I don’t worry about any other chapters except that one.  In the notebook I keep for each writing project, I have sort of done a bullet journal format, almost.  Facts and notes are a lot easier to find any reference to see if I am keeping everything cohesive and orderly.  For example:  How did I describe ‘Joe’?  I find Joe in the notebook and there is his description, what chapter it was written in, and maybe a couple of fun facts about him.  OK – the descriptions match.  Going on.

I also believe the journal I am using is part of the success of this.  It is a loose-leaf journal, which means if I need to move pages around I can.  It is also much easier to add pages in a section of notes than a bound journal or notebook.

This is the journal I am using:

It is from Maleden, as you can see.  They are very reasonable on Amazon, and it isn’t difficult at all to get refills for it.  This one was a gift from one of my sisters for Christmas.  It has journeyed about with me quite a lot, actually.  The minute I decided on doing a journal for notes, I knew this one would be perfect.  However, I missed having it with me so I could jot notes, thoughts, ideas, questions, etc., I just received a second one in the mail just a few days ago:  I bought another one!  This one is blue, but that’s the only difference in the two.  I can’t say enough good about these little journals – well, not too small, about 5X7 – they are really tough!

Here’s hoping your writing day was successful, and your life was grand!

Look!  Look!  I am typing!  With ALL my fingers!

What a relief!

Because it is winter, my physical body is going up and down with the barometric pressure, but, my pinky can type again so I am not going to complain about anything very much.

A friend of mine has been talking about how much the “bullet journal” helped her keep her writing life and her normal, hectic mommy life so I am going to try it out.  Of course, my life is not as hectic as a mother’s of young children, but, in being serious about writing and publishing said writing, it isn’t going to hurt for me to get a little more organized and keep to the track for the stories, etc.

Tonight I put together my very own bullet journal.  It is very different, new system than what I’m used to, conceived of, or thought about.  At the same time, it seems to be very simple and organized.  I know it will take me a little bit to get used to it, but, once I do, I may end up having several: 1) for everyday life; and, 2) one for the story being composed at a given time.

You can have a look at it, here, at bulletjournal.com.

Since my pinky is injured there has not been any serious typing.  Thankfully, I can hold my Kindle with one hand and type with a finger to do updates here. However, I just realized this today. Yeah, I sort of laughed, too.

This isn’t my first broken finger, and, with my luck, probably won’t be my last. It is the first time I’ve broken my pinky, though, and I can say it has been the most annoying of them all because it is difficult to write, hold a regular book, or knit. The one thing it doesn’t get in the way of is a video game controller.

For reading, this Kindle has been a life saver!  The book collection is eclectic on the device just as on my bookshelf, but having my Bible and books by the Desert Fathers, etc, on it is actually quite nice, because I can easily highlight texts and jot small notes into the device right by the passage or highlighted text.  The one thing I need to find out is how to print the notes off.  I know there has to be a way.

The book I am reading now is St. John Crysostum’s writings. And, as always Saint Isaac the Syrian. The latter book is read at the dining room table because it is so large.

The video games?  Well, they are varied, but keep me sane, or at least preoccupied from feeling like a failure for not working on the book and getting it onto Kindle by The Husband’s birthday.  However, it won’t be too far past that I hope.

This writing project has really taught me a lot about writing, plotting, and so much more!  Not being able to share it right now is hard on the emotions .  Mine anyway.

Now, let’s see what havoc I can cause on Warframe.  

I now have a broken pinky on my right hand. The pinky is taped to the ring finger beside it for healing purposes. Do you know what this means? This means no typing for a while. 

I finally get on track with the story and now am delayed. At least I’ll be able to type in about three weeks. I will just do research for the next book. My reading of the Church Fathers and Mothers can get caught up, too.

Beta readers have come in with results!

Yes, there is a little more work to be done, cleaning up the dust and polishing, of course.  They like it!  They like it!  *whew*

Now – I am going to enjoy Christmas and New Year’s and get back to the grind afterward, with a publishable book, which should be online just in time for The Husband’s birthday!

I haven’t been able to write for several days because of weather changes and the resulting accompanying back pain. The past three days being the worst. Sunday I couldn’t get out of bed. Monday, The Husband took off work to look after me because neither of us were sure I wouldn’t need to go to the E.R.  However, I am pretty convinced the emergency department would tag me as a “drug seeker” and not do anything truly helpful.  Today has been hellish, just not quite as bad as yesterday.

Right this very second I am feeling better than any point earlier.  I am very thankful for the reprieve, too.

Amid all the pain in said back, including sternum, the one thing on my mind has been the novel and finishing the final draft in order to get it on to Kindle by the end of this month.  I have fluctuated between despair – half convinced I wasn’t going to make my deadline – and pure determination, because this is adraft.d storyand I hope people like reading it as much as I am writing the story. The Husband told meifi could get in my wheelchair and stay upright long enough to work to go for it, but if I couldn’t do that a good idea might be to cut myself a break and heal for a while before vanishing into Thriller Land.  Yes, he did make me smile.

Tomorrow is another day, and, God willing, there will be more words added to the final draft.

Hoping you are having good word count days!☺

Today, for some unintelligible reason, has been a stressful one.  The only thing I’ve wanted to do today – as well as need to do – is work on the novel and increase final draft production.  Have I been able to do this?  No.  Why?  I can’t point at one single reason!

There just seems to be some sort of conspiracy happening today that, no matter how much I get done, there is never enough time to sit and write.  It grew to such a discomforting level a stress headache began forming so I called a halt to everything requiring my attention other than the novel and, at The Suggestion of a cup of tea, I quickly took him up on said cuppa.

(Along with the tea – pumpkin spice with three lumps of sugar, yum – I made sure to drink some water in case I was becoming dehydrated.)

After just a couple of sips, I began to feel better.  The headache was still present, but I felt confident the tea would correct it, and it did.  Along with the tea, I roamed the Internet and sighed a lot, at first, because much of what I read was sad and depressing.  Deciding my time was best served reading something other than ‘dreary’, I followed random links and found myself smiling.  Then, just as I was booting up Word, I noticed the dogs were splayed around me sleeping and no one else was in the dining room, which is where I seem to prefer to write, except me, and said dogs.

However, the question remains:  How much work will I be able to get done with what’s left of today?  And, yes, I know I am taking up time to write a blog post, but there are times when there just needs to be space to breathe, think, prepare.  Blogging helps me do this.  Maybe it helps because blog posts are read, which means I am not completely alone; it is just you all are not in the dining room.  This is good, because the dining room isn’t all that big to hold everyone.

Now, off to work for me.