Image credit: andres musta

Sometimes, you think: there’s no way I’ll meet this deadline. My brain is fried. My eyes burns. My motivation is at a low point. My fingers feel like fists on the keyboard. And then something magical happens. 12 hours later, after a marathon revision day, after restarting Word after 50 crashes and accidentally taking the Advil PM vs. the regular ole Advil, you reach the last page. It’s 11:45pm. You send an email to your fellow site editor saying there’s no way you’ll write a Friday Feast.

Then you wake up at 6am. You tool around on social media to see what you missed. And you end up writing the Friday Feast anyway because you are on fire. You are unstoppable. YOU ARE A BEAST AND NO AMOUNT OF WORK OR SLEEPTYIME MEDS CAN STOP YOU.

Taking bets on when I’ll crash. Until then, the links!

• National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins Tuesday! Prep yo’self with a Cooling Mist of NaNoWriMo Flavored Novel Writing Advice from Chuck Wendig.
• “I have seen countless reviews written by cisgender people that as a trans person make my stomach turn… Most of these harmful reviewing methods come from confusion and misinformation, not ill intent.” Vee offers some tips on How to Review a Trans Book as a Cis Person. 
• Go deeper. Further. More. You’re so close. The demands of a lover? Nay! A professor! An agent! An editor! Your critique partner! If you are similarly afflicted by your inability to scratch the surface of a character or situation in your novel, you may benefit from this list by Judy Reeves: Into the Deep: Taking Your Writing Deeper.
• A little light reading for the weekend, perhaps? A Reading Guide for Those in Despair About American Politics. Nearly three dozen book recommendations to help make sense of the state of U.S. democracy, from academics, comedians, activists, and more.
• Book pre-orders. Here’s why they matter. (Speaking of, you can pre-order my debut novel Cottonmouths here, here, and here. Lesbians! Meth! Trash-talking church ladies! You know you want some.)