Feels like I'm doing...nothin' at all!

This weekend I planned to sit down and prepare a lot of my upcoming blog posts (both for Synthetica and for the A - Z blogging challenge), as well as maybe get cracking on the sequel to Synthetica and THEN, if I had time, outline a brand new WIP that I've been thinking a lot about lately.

So how much of my ever-growing to-do list did I get done over the weekend?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

And. It. Was. Bliss.

I've been pretty wound up over the past week and I don't know why - whether it's subconsciously been to do with work, or home or my writing, or maybe even good old dose of PMT - I genuinely can't tell you. All I can say is that by the time Friday rolled around, I could've cried with gratitude. I've learnt a lot about myself while writing Synthetica, and I knew that if I continued to feel stressed, I wouldn't get anything done this weekend at all. I'd just sit there and panic about everything I simply had to do, while not actually doing a thing about it.

So I took a break. I read. Literally, that's all I did. I finished Maggie Steifvater's The Dream Thieves in two days. I sat outside and read in the sun (because England finally appears to be getting round to spring). I read inside with a cup of tea. I watched Netflix. I read some more.

It was fantastic. I actually woke up this morning in a good mood! Which, for me, is basically unheard of for a Monday morning (let's just ignore the fact that it only lasted until I got into my car for work, and then the whole subconscious stress/PMT battle started again).

Not only do I feel more energised and ready to tackle my to-do list, I have to say, I was also extremely impressed with The Dream Thieves. I loved The Raven Boys, and I'm so glad I finally got round to ordering the second book in the series, which was just as good. But it wasn't just the story that I haven't been able to get out of my head today - this book has been the first book in a long long time, which made me sit down and think seriously about my own writing. The author has this way of completely and utterly drawing you into the character's world - I could almost hear the cicadas and feel the heat of a Henrietta summer. I was actually a tiny bit surprised when I looked up and found myself in England instead of Virginia.

Reading this book has forced me to stop and assess my own writing. Not in a bad way, but it's just made me realise that I want to write to the very best of my ability. All of the time. For every single book I write, or attempt to write. Not that I haven't been doing that so far, but now, I'm going to try and consciously think, is this the very VERY best I can make it?

I want people to do what I did. I want them to lose a whole weekend reading my book, because they can't bear to put it down. I want my novel to leave an impression on my readers. I want people to think about my book while they're at work, and wonder whether the order they placed for the next book in the series yesterday, could have possibly arrived today (it hasn't. But one can still hope).

So that's all my news! This week, I'm going to focus on working my way through my to-do list, but making sure I take time out if I need to. Let's hope the sun stays out!

Have a great week, everyone!