Summary

The website content is a personal reflection on the author's focus for the summer, detailing their reading, writing, and exercise goals, as well as their current activities and challenges.

Abstract

The author has chosen "Summer Breeze" as the title for their reflection on personal focus during the summer season. They acknowledge a gap between their chosen word of the year, "focus," and their actions, as they find themselves procrastinating on writing and indulging in leisure activities like rollerskating and Netflix. Despite this, the author has set specific goals for the summer, such as participating in a book bingo challenge on Goodreads, where they plan to read cozy mysteries. They also aim to overcome their writing slump by planning their writing week by week and submitting to Medium publications and literary magazines. The author intends to incorporate exercise into their routine through early morning or evening walks and rollerskating. The reflection concludes with gratitude towards Ellie Jacobson for providing monthly focus prompts that have helped the author reassess their priorities.

Opinions

The author admits to a lack of focus on their chosen activities for the year, except for leisure and learning French.
They limit their Netflix consumption based on friend's recommendations and express a preference for reading books over watching TV.
The author is participating in a book bingo challenge and is committed to catching up despite being behind.
They acknowledge that writing has been a challenge due to disruptions at home and a lack of ideal conditions but intend to write despite these issues.
The author has a list of publications they

Summer Breeze

Reading through the pages on my shelves

Focus. It was my chosen word of the year. Funny, I’ve done very little of it unless goofing off can be considered focus. I’m good at that.

I suppose I have focused on certain areas — mainly rollerskating and learning new moves, trying to keep up with my reading, watching a couple of shows on Netflix, and continuing to learn French.

Netflix watching is limited to a friend’s suggestions, and I only watch an episode or two a night. I just finished Better Call Saul, and I’m currently watching Breaking Bad. Before those, it was Inventing Anna. I don’t actively look for random things to watch. I’d much rather read a book.

For this summer, here’s where I’ll focus my energy:

Reading

I signed up for the latest round of book bingo on Goodreads. This round is a blackout bingo and could last almost until the end of the year. I’m still reading my free space book from week 1, and have to start the theme called for the same week. So yeah, I’m already behind but it’s going to be a long round, and my team didn’t have last week’s theme on our card, which was a relief. It’s given me time to play catch up.

For book bingo, all of the books are cozy mysteries. As always, there’s other genres I want to read but the focus will be cozies.

Writing

I don’t know what it is about my lack of writing this year. Not having my usual everyday peace and quiet (the husband recently started working from home two days a week) disrupts my thought process, for sure, but I think I’ve let it become an excuse not to write. I should be able to write through not-so-perfect situations and also be gentle with myself when I don’t want to.

Each month is a chance to refocus our energy. It’s easier for me to plan month-to-month rather than thinking long-term. For example, I wanted to participate in the 365 days of haiku this year. Once the new year rolled around, I wasn’t sure I wanted to devote a whole year to writing haiku. I’m not going to force what I don’t feel.

Last month, my youngest son’s girlfriend asked me what my prompts were for the month. She’s never asked me that before, and just talking about them with her inspired me. I thought this is gonna be enough to get me writing again. I thought wrong. The inspiration was fleeting and my scattered thoughts took off again.

To refocus myself, I plan my writing at the beginning of each week, and I take it day by day. If something doesn’t get done, it gets moved to the following day. But no more putting off writing something for months at a time.

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” — Douglas Adams.

I have a whole list of Medium publications I’m a writer for, but haven’t submitted anything yet. I’ll spend some time getting reacquainted with those and submit something to each of them. In doing so, it might get me outside of my comfort zone, and get the creative juices flowing again.

A friend recently sent me a list of “10 literary magazines to submit to if you love short stories.” Some even accept poetry. One of the magazines on the list used to be on my radar when I wrote short stories. I’ll take some time to focus on these as well.

I need to get back to my MG novel that I’ve been neglecting.

Exercise

It’s so hot outside exercise is limited to short walks in the early morning or once the sun goes down. I also use rollerskating as exercise. It’s fun and doesn’t feel like a chore, so I fit in as many skate sessions as I can, even if it means rolling around my small kitchen space.

Thanks to Ellie Jacobson for these monthly focus prompts. They’re just what I need to get out of my writing slump and reassess what’s important to me.

What Is Your Summer Focus?

Take the time to contemplate where to plant your energy over the next few months

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