Over the fourth of July weekend, I had six days off. And it was glorious!

I don’t often string together so many days of vacation outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I was sorely in need of some time away from everything. And nothing takes the edge off like doing absolutely nothing for almost a week.

Life in 2017 has been generally stressful, so I was glad to have some time to myself. Work, writing, and everything else had been slowly closing in around me in such a fashion that everything was starting to feel overwhelming (despite the triumphant return to my blog only a few weeks ago). So I was happy when the 4th fell on a Tuesday: it gave me ample excuse to request extra days off.

At home, I slowly began catching up on Game of Thrones (and after nearly a week, I’m still only at the beginning of season 4), spent tons of time with my wife, played with my pets, and even built a new computer (something I’ve been looking forward to for a long while). And, above all, I feel somewhat refreshed. I could have used more time off, but I’m definitely less drained than I was this time last week.

And my writing has picked up a bit as well.

On Wednesday, I managed to focus enough to put about 1500 words to paper. This is far less than what I’m used to producing, but the fact that I was able to do so with a level of focus that I haven’t enjoyed in months was refreshing. Even more so when I realized that yesterday’s addition to the manuscript pushed it past 67k words.

Based on the current planned narrative, I’d guess that there are well over 10k words to go, but the end isn’t so far away that the task feels daunting. In fact, I’m actually starting to feel like I’m near the end. And that’s no small feat.

Of course, once I’m done, editing will begin, and we all know how long that process takes. Between edits and beta reads, I suspect the manuscript will be done before the next #SFFPit (at least, I hope it will be). Looking over #MSWL, it seems like there’s definitely a market for this story – I just have to hope the market is still there when everything is said and done. Either way, I’m in this for the long haul. If (my still untitled) YA manuscript doesn’t find a home, one of my future works of fiction will. It’s only a matter of time!

And if I get weary along the way, I can always take more vacation! XD