All I can say regarding what had to be the best week of writing I’ve had in 2024 is it was a mix of events this week. The fact I’m more or less stuck in a hotel room for a good portion of the next few months has something of an influence on my productivity. With not too much to distract me, I’ve managed to get a variety of writing done. It reminds me of how a publisher locked one of my literary idols Douglas Adams in a hotel room to force him to write the next book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. (Whenever something gets published in one forum or another, I’ll let you, my audience, know.)
Here’s the stats:
Writing statistics for the week ending 24 February 2024: 7,567 words written. Days writing: 7 of 7. Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 90 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.
One good week does not a year make. I need to string more than a few of those together before I can even begin to hint 2024 is a success to me.
The turnaround continues. 😊 See you next week.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
Last week was the end of my moving from Chariton and the beginning of a few months on the road, so to speak.
Laura and I closed on the house Friday and had all of our belongings out of the old place by the morning. Thank goodness we had some great movers or we would have been unable to move any of our limbs by midday. But, everything went as expected and we’re able to move forward.
However, now the move’s gone through and I’m hoping I’ll be able to devote some more time to writing now. I have my own little study set up at our apartment, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well the setup is working1. Also, I’ll be on my own in hotels during the week, so I’ll be interested in seeing how this more isolated existence helps or hurts (I think it will help) my productivity. Goodness knows I need it2.
Here’s the stats:
Writing statistics for the week ending 10 February 2024: 2,138 words written. Days writing: 3 of 7. Days revising/planning: 2 of 7 for 90 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.
The fact I made it over 2,000 words for the week is a bit of a minor miracle. I know I’m going to write more this coming week.
The turnaround is starting for me, I can feel it. See you next week.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
Laura (my wife) said I have a lot of personal space in the apartment, but it also has the advantage of keeping me out of her hair when she wants to relax in the living room or get things done in other places. ↩︎
If not this weekend, I think by next weekend I’ll have a feel for how hotel life is affecting my writing and report back on that. Since the next newsletter is coming out this weekend, it might end up becoming its own post. ↩︎
This might be the last blog post I write in my home for the past four years, Chariton, Iowa. Within the next few days, we will be moved out of our home and (more or less) fully into our new home of Fort Madison, Iowa, right next to the river that seems to be a focus of my life.
Naturally, writing has been on the back-burner for me. To be honest, I barely was able to concentrate on it this past week. I am hoping it will be the worst week from a writing productivity standpoint for me for the rest of this year.
I’ve previously tried to describe the experience of teaching (even in a good learning environment) and how it affects you mentally. The best description I can come up with currently is attempting to complete a triathlon with your brain. It’s an all consuming effort when you are in the midst of the experience, and when you mix in trying to get everything packed up from your home, it is frankly a lot to take in. I might be able to think a bit about the stories I’m interested in telling, do some planning and outlining of those stories, but actually telling them is something else entirely.
I’m not necessarily hopeful I will see a turnaround this week. However, when next week comes around and I will be alternating between Fort Madison and “in the wind, so to speak,” in the words of the fantastic character Omar Little in The Wire. It may be a bit simpler for me to write in some anonymous hotel room where I don’t have to worry about what to pack up for storage and what to take care of in my home. My father did a considerable amount of traveling as a consultant engineer for about 40 years before his retirement, both around and outside the United States. I might have to get some tips from him about properly handling hotel living.
Enough stalling; here’s the stats.
Writing statistics for the week ending 3 February 2024: 862 words written. Days writing: 2 of 7. Days revising/planning: 5 of 7 for 270 total minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Writing statistics for January 2024: Words: 10,769 Revise/Plan: 1,440 minutes Daily Writing Goals Met: 86%
Honestly, I’m surprised I exceeded 10,000 words for this month. I need to be closer to 16,667 per month to make it to at least 200,000 for the year. At least I have some decent numbers for planning and revising, and at least am meeting my daily goals that way.
However, that’s not enough for me. I want to get back to where I was. I might not get on that pace in the next couple of months, but I can get there. I have the stats and the numbers to prove it. And I’ve got a lot to write about.
Better luck next week.
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
I won’t say I’m totally out of sorts, but for the past few days and maybe weeks I’ve been… sort of drifting along, Mostly it’s been due to the transition I’ve been going through personally and the uncertainty it has brought along. I know I will be leaving to make a new life somewhere soon, but exactly what the process will be like and timetables have been hazy at best. It’s only been recently some of these uncertainties have become more certain.
Of course, this has affected my equilibrium… and my writing productivity and consistency, as well. I’ll talk about it, as I write this in my “Eagle’s Nest” in Chariton for the last time.
The Home Front
I feel like I’ll be living out of a tent during the next few months.
This week, in the group text I have with my wife and our two kids, Laura (my wife) said I’ll know what it’s like to be a business traveler this next few months. My daughter, Maddie, called me the itinerant teacher. Sounds about right. 😂
So, this is the situation so far. It appears we have a buyer for the house, and we should close on the house by next Friday. We’ll need to have all of our belongings packed up from the house by then. To be fair, this is a far better situation than it to be July and we have still not sold an empty house. That would be an uncomfortable situation, surely, because we’d have no interest in being absent landlords by any means.
Afterwards, Laura and I will both be officially Fort Madison residents, although I will be hanging out in an area hotel for the middle part of the week while I continue to work for my current district, Twin Cedars of Bussey, Iowa. It may be something of a nomadic life, but it would still cost us less than if we still had the house and the apartment and were paying for than and sundry other family costs.
What I’ve Been Writing
I should have realized this move and all the activity behind it were going to take away from my writing. Not that I haven’t had time, but much of the past couple of days has involved packing away items and getting this place ready to be handed over.
Other than this newsletter and a few odds and ends of writing, I really haven’t done much writing for any of my projects. If trying to write in the middle of a school year at times feels like writing after you’ve been spun around on a merry-go-round and taken the SAT, trying to do this and move from your house at the same time is like doing everything I just mentioned while on painkillers.
Not to talk about writing statistics in great detail here, but I’m likely to be off pace from trying to reach 200,000 words by the end of this year, and feeling behind pace is not a good feeling for me. However, I’m only one month into the year, and I think I have more of an opportunity to pick up my productivity.
Once I get out of the old house and find some temporary quarters, I think things will pick up for me. I’ll only have to worry about working, getting back to where I’m sleeping, and write. We’ll have to see how the life of a nomad writer will be. Considering how often my father traveled through the United States and overseas for his career as a consulting engineer, I need to get some feedback from him about how to deal with being on the road1.
What I’ve Been Doing Having to do With Writing
When I have a free moment, I will have to check my schedule and see what writing events and book fairs are coming up. The book fair “season” really hasn’t started yet, but I do want to try and make it out to some of them I got to last year. I hope I can still make it to the Des Moines area events even though I will be living for all intents and purposes in Fort Madison.
One of my writing friends from the Des Moines area, Amara Clay, gave me some good ideas and tips on public appearances and presentations I want to put into practice the next time I head out to promote my books.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week
Let’s hear it from Jorge this week.
A writer – and, I believe, generally all persons – must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. ― Jorge Luis Borges, Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges: Interviews by Roberto Alifano 1981-1983
Where You Can Find My Books
For direct links to purchase my books in paperback and ebook form, including The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning and The Holy Fool, click on the links in the Substack sidebar or the links on my Substack author page. Or, you can go to this page on my WordPress site, Liegois Media.
You can also get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.
Final Thoughts
That’s about all I have for this week.
This coming week is going to be a crazy sprint to get moved out, so I’m hoping I publish on time on the weekend, but there’s a chance I might not. Hopefully, normal service can be returned in a couple weeks.
-30-
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
After some weeks of writing productivity well in the doldrums, I finally ended up with a week that was not bad although still not up to where I want to be.
In the world of special education, when our students are improving their academic skills at the rate we are hoping they should, we call it reaching the aim line. This week, I was not quite at the aim line, but I am closing the gap.
This is despite the fact my personal situation, especially my living situation, remains slightly unsettled. We will be closing on our old house within a week or two and will have to move all our remaining possessions into our apartment or into storage. I’ll have to be living in temporary quarters somewhere around my current school district where I am working until this school year is up. I might have to get used to hotel living to be honest. However, it will likely be a similar cost to renting someplace anyway, and at least I won’t have to worry about furnishing. To be fair, it’s still a lot better problem to have than it be three months after we’ve moved and the house not being sold.
With all this going on, I was surprised I was as productive as I ended ups being. It’s still not the 4,000-word pace I need to match my quota of 200,000 words this year, but it still is something. Guess I’m going to have to have a big February, then.
Anyway, here’s the stats.
Writing statistics for the week ending 27 January 2024: 3,752 words written. Days revising: 6 of 7. Days revising/planning: 5 of 7 for 270 minutes. Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revising): 7 of 7 days.
That’s it for now. I have to get back to more writing (and packing).
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
Bemoaning a cold snap in my writing productivity as a cold snap hits Iowa, and thoughts about moving
Apologies in advance if this newsletter is more about not writing than writing itself. It’s been those kind of weeks. Shall we begin?
The Home Front
I believe with all the snow days we’ve had, my own school district has only been in session for seven days this month. Hopefully we manage to wrap up our school year before Memorial Day at this rate.
In all seriousness, I’ve been feeling out of sorts in my current situation. This is the second time in my life I stayed behind to finish up the current academic year while my wife went on to a new job opportunity. The first time I did it, I was in my hometown in Muscatine. I had my daughter and dogs living with me, and I also had my parents and in-laws right nearby as well. That went on for nearly a year, and I have to say Covid bringing everything to a stop halfway through the whole process might have helped put the zap on my head as well.
This time, I’m only going to be doing it for about four months. But this time might be tougher. I’m here in our old house, alone, in the middle of south central Iowa, with not even the dog for company. My kids are off in Des Moines and Iowa City. My family is on the other side of the state. I’m starting to feel the isolation a bit more.
I used to joke about my wife being on the phone all the time with friends and family for a couple hours at a time, but I can understand why she often does it now, and I’m glad our move has gotten her closer to her family and many of our old friends. I also have a better appreciation and admiration for my son with how he has done well living on his own in Des Moines and working hard to progress in his given career (heating and air conditioning maintenance and installation). I find myself on the phone with him and a few other people close to me.
One good bit of news is there is a chance we may already have a buyer for our home in Chariton. This might require me to find some temporary lodging in the area for a couple months, but I would prefer to have that as a problem rather than it be July and we’re still trying to find a buyer for an empty home1.
What I’m Writing Now (🤣🤣🤣)
Soooo… it should not be much of a surprise all of this is fooling with my writing2. It’s not like I don’t have projects on tap other than this newsletter. There’s The Yank Striker 2, the second book in my series about a LGBTQ American college football player turned prospective English Premier League soccer player.
Then there’s the continued work I’ve been putting in on my as-yet not officially entitled pro wrestling fiction project.
But honestly, I’ve been having so many distractions it’s been throwing me off. Part of it is my wife is in another place, as well as the fact half my stuff is in a certain place and my old writing space is a bit isolated from the rest of the house, which inspired a small little post on the location of writing spaces.
Of course, I had the bright idea of putting some notes in one of my notebooks so I could refer to it while I was writing some of my recent projects. Of course, I manage to leave my notebook at my school and then we have a snow day, so I’m separated from my notes for a four-day weekend. As Arsenal FC fans tend to say, I was a bit Spursy3.
What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing
I haven’t fully set up some appearances for the spring and summer of this year. I need to do that and start setting up a schedule for appearances. I have to say I did a better job regarding this for my second book than my first book. Of course, I’m sure I have plenty to learn about the dark arts of marketing4.
By the way, if anyone has a suggestion for a genre including a soccer drama and a multi-generational professional wrestling story, I’d be open to hearing about it. Apparently Amazon doesn’t have a genre for such a thing.
Writing Quote(s) of the Week
Decided to go with two of them this week. The first one from Papa Ernest seems to fit my current mood.
The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.
Ernest Hemingway
While the second one from this man with the amusingly black gold heart gets something of the reason why I feel at home writing.
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.
Roald Dahl
Where You Can Find My Books
For direct links to purchase my books in paperback and ebook form, including The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning and The Holy Fool, click on the links in the Substack sidebar or the links on my Substack author page. Or, you can go to this page on my WordPress site, Liegois Media.
You can also get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:
Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines
Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella.
The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.
All these are great independent bookstores, but I’m always looking for some new places to place my books (especially now in eastern Iowa), so feel free to hit me up in the comments if anyone has a suggestion.
Final Thoughts
It’s been tough trying to write anything this week, so I’m a bit impressed and willing to give myself a single pat on the back for putting this thing together this week.
Next week will be Poetry Night, so I’ll try to put together a couple of poems, or maybe one new one and one classic one. I’ll have to see, and I’ll see you then.
-30-
While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.
For a writing blog, you are getting oodles of personal info and material this week. Sorry? That’s pretty much all I had to write about this week, so sorry if it’s not your bag. ↩︎
Not to mention my emotional equilibrium, but such is life in Moscow. With all the snow, it does look like Moscow, except when the weather gets ultra cold, the kids tend to stay inside and play on the Internet and with their gaming systems, and not wander outside to play hockey on homemade ice rinks like they did in Moscow during the old Soviet days. ↩︎
Look up the North London derby and you might figure it out. And it’s not a reference to the San Antonio Spurs. ↩︎
I would be open to some advice on this. But not the random dudes and ladies DM’ing me on Instagram. Usually, those are scams. ↩︎
