What have I been up to?

Currently, I have a good bit of spare time on my hands. Well, not literally on my hands, but I'm sure you've heard the commonly used phase, right?  Luckily I don't have access to many video games during this stretch, so I'm forced to do something besides play The Last of Us, which is pretty amazing. So, in the spirit of self-betterment, I'm trying to be more constructive with my times and write a bit more. I'm also trying to edit Derek's novel (Derek is my pal from high school; you can read his blog here). While his prose is impressive--it's making me doubt the quality of my own work--my editing is slow. You'd think with all the papers I grade that my editing skills would be like at LV 99, but, nay, I'm still a mid-level editor. So that's taking some time.

I'll try to stop rambling and get to a point. I'm trying to write more and I'm intentionally avoiding my novel. It has been the black hole of my limited creative process for a while, and as many of you who talk to me know, since the initial draft, it's been a slow burn. I've kind of had it with my novel as hinted by my last post, but I'm not ready to drop it in the trash or anything. I need some time to think about something else creative. I need something new that doesn't drain me. So I'm just going to spend some time writing small, finishable pieces (like this one) just for the sake of writing (and practice). I'll probably write a response to The Last of Us when I finish it, and I'm in the middle of two books that I really need to get back to reading Xenocide (book 3 from Ender's Saga) and Game Over, Press Start to Continune: How Nintendo Conquered the World. 

So I have plenty to do. All of it good, but now I just have to go about doing it. I get so annoyed when I see creative people not finishing or starting anything worth while. And I feel like I've been resting on my laurels since I finished my first draft back in November. So if you read my blog, I hope that you'll have more to read in the coming weeks because it's my intention to write more.