Well, faithful readers, it has finally happened: Here it is, Update Day, and I don’t have an update ready for you. 😔 I even had an extra week to finish the next chapter of The World Will Be Waiting, and it’s still not finished. Not for a lack of trying; I have still been writing every day, my streak is up to 561, and I’m 7 pages and almost 4,000 words into Chapter 42. But it’s not done, and there’s no way I can finish it in the next few hours without putting pressure on myself to push out a piece of hastily-edited writing, which I’m just not willing to do at this point.
I knew this day would come, if not this week then probably next week. It’s August, which is one of the busiest times of years for teachers. School doesn’t officially start for a couple weeks, but if you are a teacher or know a teacher, you know there is a lot of classroom prep and professional development that happens before the first day for students. I’m in back-to-school mode and just don’t have a lot of time to devote to writing right now. I do have a great routine established and am committed to keeping my streak going, so I will still be writing every day – it just won’t be enough to stay consistent with my weekly Saturday updates for a while. I will post Chapter 42 when I’m finished writing and editing it to the point that I feel confident posting it. I’m not sure yet when that will be, but I will try not to leave you hanging for too long. I was actually surprisingly productive on this story last August, so it may not be long at all, but I’m not going to make any promises about weekly updates until I have a buffer of chapters built up again and know I can deliver on it.
I am celebrating the fact that I was able to keep up with my weekly updates for as long as I did. With the exception of three planned and announced weekends off, I posted a chapter weekly for almost ten months before I ran out of chapters. If my chapters for this story weren’t so dang long, I would have been able to keep it up for even longer. I am also appreciative of the fact that, while I’m still enjoying writing TWWBW, it’s not constantly in my head, haunting me the way some of my previous stories have. As much as I love feeling inspired, it’s frustrating when all I want to do is write but can’t because my career and other real life responsibilities have to take priority. My morning/before work writing sessions I still do every day started a few years ago out of desperation to finish AHTIM and get it out of my head. With the content of TWWBW being a lot more light-hearted, I don’t feel as driven to get myself and my characters to the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel; I’m just enjoying the journey. I hope you are as well! If you’re not caught up on TWWBW, this is a good time to do it. I’ll most likely be back later this month with the next chapter, and we’ll go from there! Thanks for being patient and waiting for me; I appreciate you! ❤️