The end of summer is here, and for me that means back to school and the chaos that entails. My plan during the summer had been to get a lot of writing done. I guess there’s a reason a million best laid plans idioms exist.

Positives:

• Last school year I wrote a short middle grade STEM focused novel and pitched it early this summer. I got a full manuscript request and am now in the waiting patiently phase.
• I’ve fully plotted out a different middle grade math focused novel and everyone I’ve talked about it with has been super receptive and excited.
• I’ve starting editing Grounded (tentative title), a novel I wrote three years ago.

Negatives:

• My goal had been to finish A Pair of Jacks, the fantasy/mystery novel that began as my MFA thesis. That didn’t happen. I did get past a major hump, but still have 25% or so left.
• I can’t write music. More on that later.

Normally summer breaks for teachers are relaxing, but between summer school and a nearly two week family reunion, I had a surprisingly limited amount of time. Nevertheless, I still wanted to get stuff done. Then I got Final Fantasy VII Remake. Yeah… I remember Jimmy Carr saying he didn’t like video games because they were too good. They were so good they sucked all your time. So, so true.

Even with that reduced time, I still manage to get some stuff done. I mapped out that middle grade book. I’m doing editing on the other novel. And… I tried to write some songs.

What I learned was that while writing words is relatively straightforward for me, writing music isn’t. I’ve played piano, cello, and clarinet, but being able to play is not the same thing as being able to create. So, and I recognize this will probably garner some hate, I tried out an AI music generator.

First note: I did not do this with the goal of making money or capitalizing on it. I was more curious as to how my words would sound. Some of them turned out not so great. Some of them were very fun. My kid has completely memorized a few of them, and for a few weeks I kept waking up with the song in my head.

But school has officially started, so I’ll have reduced time and mental capacity with which to work. My new goal is to get the novel edited in the next couple of months, and maybe work on the middle grade novel if there’s time.

Between kids (mine and my students), home life, and just life in general, it’s hard to get writing done. Fingers crossed I’ll make good progress, and fingers crossed I’ll hear some good news for the manuscript currently in review.