Jill here.

It’s been a wild few weeks for me! And I must confess that I did not reach my goals for The Patternmage. 🙁 I did not finish the draft by the end of April, so I could not send it to my agent. It’s still hanging out on my computer, waiting it’s turn for my undivided attention. “What happened?” you ask. Well, let me tell you.

First there was the Kickstarter adventure. We finished strong, raising $9,041 for the audio book project! I will keep you posted on the progress and get my narrators on here sometime to talk about being narrators. Right now everything is on hold while we wait for Kickstarter to process payments and backers to complete reward surveys. Once all that is done, I will need to place a massive book order and sew some pillows. My husband has been collecting boxes for me from his work. My house looks… odd. There are empty boxes piled everywhere!

I started grad school. I’m three days in now, and I’m exhausted! I only have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, but it’s all day, and I walk quite a bit more than I’m used to. So my lazy writer’s body is getting in some much needed exercise, which is great. My classes are wonderful. I’m learning a lot, and I really like how my professors are teaching us in the same ways they want us to teach our students. This is lots of dialogue and groups working together and group assignments. It’s fun, but tiring. I was assigned my student teacher placement for this fall. I’m so excited. I’ll be co-teaching a 4th grade class next year, starting two days a week in the fall and working up to five days near the end of next spring. The school is somewhat close to my house, so I’m really grateful to be close enough to home that I can still be taxi mom and not live in my car full-time.

I am still substitute teaching. There are only eleven days left in the school year that I am free to sub, so I will try to get some of those days so I’ll have a wee bit of income to help out this summer when I won’t be working. It sure seems like all the teachers are healthy and working strong these days, though, which is good, but it means less work for me. (Which is maybe also good for my sanity.)

I have not been writing. I don’t remember the last time I worked on The Patternmage. It was in April. That I know. I was busy at the end of April with the Kickstarter campaign, then I have also been working on another writing project that I can’t quite announce just yet. It is, if all works out, a paid project, so that means it gets to take cuts in front of The Patternmage. I’m in cahoots with an author friend to take a weekend retreat to get some writing done, but I’m not yet sure if or when that will work out.

It honestly seems like there should be more to say, but I think that’s all. It’s amazing what losing two full days a week will do to your schedule. Last week I was busy every single day and it was so tiring! Welcome to the real world, Jill, right? Ha ha. It’s been a while since I worked full time, so this full-time busyness is likely good for me as I work up toward being a full-time teacher. Anyway, that is the Jill Report thus far.

So, what is a writer to do when all of her goals do not go as planned? Here is what I’m going to do:

1. Give myself lots of grace. I’m purposely not using the word “fail.” Yes, I did not meet my goal. But that doesn’t mean I still can’t succeed. I will succeed. It’s just going to happen later than I originally wanted. And while I’m disappointed, I’m honestly not surprised. I had A LOT going on. Life was busy and full and fun. And my book didn’t get finished. Yet. So I’m not going to cry or rage or mope or criticize myself. I’m going to shrug my shoulders, give a little smile, and say, “I’ll get there eventually.” Because I will.

2. I’m going to wait and see. Today I took the day off of subbing. I stayed home to rest because I WAS EXHAUSTED. And as I rested, a voice niggled in the back on my head. “Psst! Hey, Jill. You should work on The Patternmage.” Well, I ignored that voice because I took this day to REST. And to do some housekeeping (literally and figuratively). And to take my daughter to the DMV to get her permit. (HOW IS SHE THAT OLD! GAH!!)

All that to say, as busy as life is at the moment, I’m not going to force this book into my already overwhelming schedule. That is the main reason I didn’t try and get a book contract right away after I finished the Kinsman Chronicles. Writing under the pace of constant deadlines about did me in. That’s why I decided to go old school and write a full book without a contract this time. So I will have to wait and see what opens up in my schedule. If a Saturday comes along and I have (shockingly) no homework and no other commitments, I will definitely pull out The Patternmage and plunk away. But I might have to wait until August to finish it since there are three weeks between summer term and fall term that I don’t have school! I do have a trip to Alaska and a writing conference, though, so we shall wait and see.

3. I’m going to read in the genre. Slowly, mind you, as I won’t have a ton of free reading time, but I hope that reading in the genre will help keep my creative brain ruminating in a similar storyworld so that when I do get a day to work on The Patternmage, it won’t take me all day to find the story again. It still might. But I’m going to try this and see what happens.

So that is what I’m going to do, now that my plans for finishing The Patternmage have changed. I’m curious, what do you do when your plans don’t go the way you hoped? I need advice! Share in the comments.

And if your plans have been thwarted by life, take heart! I know how you feel, and I’m rooting for you!

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms, and the author of several young adult fantasy novels including the Blood of Kings trilogy. She loves teaching about writing. She blogs at goteenwriters.com and also posts writing videos on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. She grew up in Alaska without running water or electricity and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids. Find Jill online at jillwilliamson.com or on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.