Although I never stated it as an official Momentum goal for June, I think I still telegraphed my plan was to simply drop off the face of the Earth. A few people and a few events have managed to interrupt that, but I’m happy to report that for the most part I can file this one under mission accomplished.
After roughly two decades of teaching, I’ve learned my summer vacations usually fall into a regular routine. In June there’s all the time in the world. No pressure to do anything immediate, nothing school-related daring to cross my mind. The only thing I have to do is be. A morning workout, an afternoon movie and stopping at a gas station for a fill-up and a car wash can become a pretty full day, and I have little problem with that. When July begins it still feels like there’s all the time in the world, but time spent alternating between reading and napping for five-hour stretches starts to feel self-indulgent, and that “Things To Accomplish This Summer” list I come up with every year scratches a little harder at my brain. In July I start making an effort to accomplish actual goals, even if they are a lower grade of goal that just about anything I would need to take on during the school year. Once August arrives, things change. The countdown to that first official day back slowly become more tangible. So if there was going to be a month when I’d give myself permission to drop off the face of the Earth or a month when it would be necessary for my mental health to do it? Yeah. We’re looking at June.
But June is almost over now. July holds some promise for being an enjoyable month -- at least the first half -- but that Summer To Do List is scratching harder. So in the words of President Bartlet: “Break’s over.” And to make sure I avoid the stress that accompanies long-term procrastination, I have a few projects I’m going to start paying more attention to in July so they don’t pile up in August. But only one of them is getting selected as my Momentum goal for July.
Before we get into that, let’s do a quick recap. We’re now halfway through 2013, so this seems like a good time to reflect on how well this experiment has worked out so far:
January: Finish writing the manuscript I began in November. Spectacular failure.
February: Take the decision-making out of any situation and always make the healthier choice I had available. Conditional success.
March: Organize all of my electronic files related to school. Failure.
April: Clean my house from top to bottom. Success.
May: Write a blog post every day. Success.
June: Drop off the face of the Earth. Conditional success.
Which brings us to July. As I mentioned awhile back, maybe in March or April, one of my older manuscripts (Following Infinity if you’ve ever been one of my readers) had a little life breathed back into it when one of my colleagues took on the job of using it as a read aloud for all three of the fifth grade classes. That was enough to get me to dig it out and give it a second look. Infinity has always been one of my favorites since it’s very personal and emotional, it was one of the easier ones to write (probably because it was so personal) and it was the first one to catch the interest of a literary agent. Of course it didn’t go any further than that, and the disappointment saw me shelve it for awhile and move on to something else. But getting it out for a second look reminded me that I still believe in it, and I decided this summer my big writing project was going to be revising it into fighting shape and giving it more of a chance in the marketplace than I had before.
I started picking away at it in June and soon discovered that as much as I still believe in it -- wow, is there a LOT of work to be done. And the thing about revision, for those of you lucky and/or smart enough to stay away from ever trying to write a book? It’s five times harder than writing the original draft, and takes ten times longer to do well.
Knowing I have a limited window of time before the coming school year begins to infect my thinking, I’m making it my Momentum goal for July to finish revising Following Infinity before August. That way I’ll have some time to start thinking about submitting it again before I’m back in my classroom, and I should have time to enjoy as much of the remaining summer as I can before I freeze up in the approaching headlights of the 2013-14 school year.
Okay, that’s all you get for now. I’ve got a book I really want to finish reading before I dive back into hardcore revision, so I think I’m going to go find a sunny spot to read before my next nap kicks in....
