It’s time for a new installment in my A Leap of Wonder column at Script Mag. This time I've written about making peace with my writing pace, in my latest article, "Faster Than the Speed of ... Something?"

Though this column publishes every other month, I didn't manage to get out an announcement about my June column since our household was laid up with covid, annoyingly. However! The article is (and was ;)) live, so you can check it out here: "Enough to Go On." You may want to read that one first, if you're following along with ye olde writing journey.

The Latest

Writing plans never quite work out the way we expect, do they? I was recently reminded that it's not sticking to the plan that's important (something something no plan survives first contact with the enemy etc. etc.) but rather that we plan at all. Planning and adapting our plans to reality is what's important.

Alongside our household setbacks — and some lovely time spent with our kids over the summer — I've learned a ton through the screenwriting classes I've been taking, and I’ve adapted my plans to use the classes to develop my current script, rather than trying to do both separately in parallel. Though that was my original intent, I got too behind between the covid-summer-from-hell and the amount of classwork. So... onward!

And, at the same time, it's hard when we don't write as fast as we might wish we could, yeah? One of my biggest ah-ha moments this summer was through feedback from my instructor about how much I second-guess myself and my writing. So the deep work I'm doing alongside my coursework is delving into the why of that, into the specific self-protective mechanisms getting in my way. It's already proving valuable and I will be very curious to see if clearing out some of those mental cobwebs helps me with my writing and development pace.

Extra Extra Read All About It

You can read more about this exploration and conundrum in my latest article, "Faster Than The Speed of ... Something?" or by clicking the image below. You can also check out the full "archive" (all three articles, whee!) for A Leap of Faith & Wonder, at Script Mag, here.

Check out the full article by clicking here ⇣

What Else I'm Up To:

1. I'm still (still!) reading! My reading pace is still slower than last year — mainly because I don't have a book series I'm locked into, I realize. Most recently I read The Midnight Train* by Matt Haig (which nearly killed me), Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (not my most favorite of hers, but my word, she is a genius when it comes to posing narrative questions), Master Alvin by Orson Scott Card (a disappointing installment in the Alvin Maker series), and Starter Villain by John Scalzi (loved it!). I also picked up a copy of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner and I'm slowly working my way through that one. I'm waiting for the first book in the Robin Hobb series to become available through Libby, then I'll likely get lost in that series.
2. I've been playing oodles of games with our 12 year old and really enjoying it. We've got a little routine of playing some NYT games (we subscribe every three-ish days through our public library) and play, in order (very important!), Wordle, Strands, Mini Crossword, and Connections. Then we venture over to parseword.com to do a cryptic puzzle — so tricksy! — and after that we've been playing an iPad game called Slay the Spire. However, we just got Slay the Spire II on Steam so I'm getting left behind, LOL.
3. On the watching front: mainly TED LASSO. There's a new season of Ted Lasso but we got caught up in rewatching the last three seasons so we're doing that before fully committing to the new season. So fun! I've also been rewatching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to improve my learning of "heart of darkness" and "bisociation" (two concepts from the screenwriting classes I've been taking). And I white-knuckled my way through Widow's Bay (not a horror fan, but wowza so good). Also, we LOVED the new Spider-Man movie and saw it in theaters.
4. I’m running FREE writing sprints on Thursdays at 9 a.m. Pacific Time through the end of October in my Called to Write Community. This is a powerful way to get help making writing happen, and get a feel for what our Monday through Saturday writing sprints are like. If you’d like to join us, please message our community manager Sarah at support@calledtowrite.com and she’ll send you a link to join us. She can also answer any questions you have about how our writing sprints work. (Hint: via a private online chat room, no zoom, so come as you are.)
5. I've been enjoying doing a fair amount of editing lately, including providing script notes for many fantastic screenwriters. I expect to have more space in my editorial calendar again in September, if you're looking for support in the editing department. Find out more here:  https://jennaavery.com/for-writers
   

Thank you for reading, and happy writing!

* Any book links herein are affiliate links for Bookshop, which means I earn a small referral fee 
if you purchase from them, and which helps me keep my writing ship afloat. Thank you!