The end of another summer (IWSG)

September 7, 2016

Why does the name of the ninth month of the year have its roots in "sept" or "seven"?

Authors ask themselves questions like that all the time. It's our curse, and our blessing. We who write become repositories of vast amounts of useless information. We get curious and go look up why the ninth month of the year is known by September. It won't save the world and we won't lose ten pounds, but we still have a need to know once the question forms.

It turns out September comes from the Latin septem, or seven. The Roman calendar had only ten months and, you guessed it, Septem was the seventh month. Mystery solved. (Until the curious ask when the calendar changed. In 45 BC, okay?)

Be it the seventh month, or the ninth, September has historically been a busy TCOB (taking care of business) writing month for me. Summer may be ending, but I'm beginning. September is my month of planning. And yes, planning counts as writing time in my world.

Part of that is due to what goes on at the day job. There, too, we are planning. I'm obsessed with budgets and calendars in September, and I think the mindset carries over. I keep a list of title ideas and in September I check the list and see what is possible.

I set up folders for those titles that speak to me. I write character bios and story blurbs. I look for inspirational photos. This year, the inspirational photo search will be more focused. I'll be looking for cover stock. And as I piece together the ideas, the most important thing is happening. Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my brain, the story is starting to cook.

The best stories I've written, and the easiest ones to write, are the stories I've allowed to have a proper simmering time.

This does NOT mean I'm going to let the stories cook forever. I need to be more diligent than ever to keep my head in the game and keep writing. As freeing as the lack of a publisher deadline is, it's in my best interest to try to set one for myself and attempt to meet it. Nonetheless, 2016 will go down in the annals as one weird-ass writing year, and not at all what I planned in 2015. 

Not. At. All. 

And while this is the Insecure Writer's Support Group, I'm secure enough to know writing isn't a science. Sometimes going with the flow of your life is the best option. Or the only option. I think writers on the whole get too caught up in the desire to "write something every day" they put a lot of undue pressure on themselves. I didn't learn that over night, but I learned it, and it's made my writing life easier. 

So that's what you'll find me doing this September. Planning and going with the flow of my life. Enjoying the last days of summer and looking forward to the magic month of October. 

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks


In the mood for a mystery/private investigator/FBI agent story? Check out the Amethyst Cove series. Ian and Rick are waiting.