The Journal, Tuesday, October 2

Hey Folks,

Well, I was going to go back to writing sometime today, but I decided against it. I still have the upcoming procedure (Thursday) on my mind, so I’ve decided not to do much of anything between now and then but relax.

It’s only a couple days until that happens, and then I’ll probably be down for a few days afterward. The Journal might be a little intermittent during the next several days too.

Physically, I felt a lot better, more myself, both yesterday and the day before. As a result, naturally, yesterday I overdid things a bit. Duh.

By “overdid things” I mean when I got tired, I kept pushing until I was really tired. Then I thought Well, this is ridiculous, and I pushed myself a little harder. (grin)

By the time my bride got home, she had to finish making supper. Like I said, ridiculous.

Now, I’m not complaining. Not really. I fully expected to reach a diminished capacity, but I didn’t expect to reach it quite so soon.

Anyway, after Thursday and then a follow-up appointment or two, things will settle out again for awhile. At that point, whether or not my actual heart function improves, I’ll be able to get back to some semblance of normal.

This is all good. For a guy who never expected to reach 20, much less 30, age 48 was a miraculous bonus brought on by a cracked chest and the replacement of my aortic and pulmonic valves. If the surgeon got a new boat out of that deal, well, he deserved it as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, after that, I decided I was probably going to be around awhile. (grin)

When I glided past 60, I took on some new challenges, mostly in writing, and I accomplished everything I set out to do as well as a few things I’d never considered. What a fun, exciting time!

But now, finally, I understand in a very real way that I have to slow down and “pace myself” (ugh, I despise that term). As I said, though, I didn’t really expect that to happen ’til I hit 80 or so.

In retrospect, I’ve been creeping up on accepting my diminished capacity for the past year or thereabouts. It happened about the time my sense of urgency regarding my daily fiction output began to wane.

Thanks to these Journal editions, I could go back and almost pinpoint the exact date. But I won’t. Meh. It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that writing — telling silly stories — is now my life’s work. It’s why I look forward to getting up in the morning and it’s why I look forward to getting back to the WIP. Eventually.

Remember the old saw about fishing? That even a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work? Well, as you know, even a day spent staring at a WIP and wondering how to re-jump-start it is better than a day spent flashing with ease through anything else. (grin)

So sometime or other, I’ll go back to the WIP, read through part of it to reacquaint myself with the characters, and get back into telling their story. In other words, I’ll write the next sentence.

But whenever that happens, I’ll take it easy. I’ll take a break when I want to, do other things when I want to, and do nothing when I need to, as I have over the past year or so.

The only real difference is that at this point, I figure that’s all right. As you can probably tell, that’s the part I still have to get used to.

I might have to drop back to writing and publishing only five or six novels per year instead of ten or twelve. (grin)

Just so you know, I am still planning to publish three novels (Nick 1-3) between now and Christmas. I think maybe that’s my goal.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “October Workshops Starting Up” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/october-workshops-starting-up/.

For fun, see “Pop Quiz” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/10/pop-quiz.html#comment-64349.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 660 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 660

Writing of Nick 3 (novel, tentative title)
Brought forward from September………… 21695

Day 10… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 0
Total fiction words for the year………… 336726
Total nonfiction words for the month… 1230
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 134326
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 470802

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 7
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 33
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193

Days of writing fiction every day………………………… 0