Coronavirus, grad school, and other things that stop writing.

I’m not coordinated enough for juggling.

However, despite my creative left-brained tendencies, I thrive on organization, to-do lists, and time blocking. I’ve talked about those before in this blog.

Those routines take a long time to establish, however, sometimes years. Last year I got up and wrote every day, and in 2018 I got up every morning and went to the gym, training for a marathon. Now we’re just into March and my mornings have been dominated by grad school assignments and reading and that won’t take a break until the end of April.

I was going to go to AWP in San Antonio to get my feet back under me when it came to writing. I haven’t opened a manuscript in months, and I didn’t send any queries in February (although I did pick up two more rejections.) March I have a goal to send 10 queries to make up for the month I missed, making 15 total for the year.

However, Coronavirus’ rapid spread throughout the country put the lid on AWP, my friend and I deciding to skip it in favor of not getting sick and getting our money back. I considered risking it, but when she bailed that made up my mind.

Conferences and expos of all types are great shots in the arm. Every running expo I’ve been to energized me to perform in a race and train more in the future. Every marketing conference sent me back to work with great ideas. And although I’ve only been to a few writing conferences, they’re always energizing and inspiring. But AWP 2020 was just not meant to be for this girl.

So now I am back to the drawing board with my morning routines. Monday-Wednesday, grad school? Thursday-Friday writing and querying? That makes sense with a class on Wednesday evenings, and I have got to get some balance back into my life.

I will say that all semesters are challenging in grad school but this one is exceptionally tough, with my classmates and I trauma bonding over more caffeine than usual. I just don’t find that I’m accommodating the workload for my class gracefully.

How do you divide your time? I know I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and I am just two months away from a summer break, but I definitely could use any time management tips you have for staying engaged!