Making Time for Summer Writing by Jess Houser

Vacations. Family time. Water activities. Yard work.

Summer is exciting no matter what you’re doing. How does that change for a writer, though? Do you write more? Less? Are you too busy, or do you set aside more time?

Summertime vs. the School Year

During the school year, I write in the evenings after my kids are in bed for the night. I start with journaling (ridding myself of my emotional barricades), and then I break into my novel or short story. This is all only true if I’m not completely exhausted from the school day...

When summer starts, my kids go to bed a little later, which changes my writing time. Before they join the world of dreams, however, my I dedicate time to my other hobbies: crocheting, quilting, reading, etc. (These are usually battling the most during the school year, so it’s nice to have more time for all of them.)
To really shake things up, we added a new puppy to our lives at the end of the school year. Puppies need a lot of attention, so she’s going to be keeping us busy for quite some time. That, and she likes to eat my pen, so I can’t write around her, yet.

Athena Skye — Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix, 5 years old.

Inara Gwen — Anatolian Shepherd, 8 weeks old.

Summer Writing Goals

Back in 2014, I started my first novel. It has slowly progressed over the last few years into my third draft. I’m currently working on the third round of revisions for this YA paranormal mystery written in the epistolary style.
While trying to solve the disappearance of her best friend, a teenaged track star comes face-to-face with death as her recurring nightmare finds its way out of her dreams and into real life.

I keep a journal for revising with sticky tabs that correlate to the changes I’ve made in the printed draft.

My major writing goals this summer are dedicated to my novel:

• finish the third round of revisions
• finish the fourth draft (needs major rewrites)
• get the fourth draft out to beta readers
• Other than that, I bought a book recently that was recommended by our local writing group (Save the Cat). I’ve already finished it (an excellent read!), and I plan to apply some of the advice to my novel and any of my future writing.

I highly recommend this book! It’s a great resource for novel structure.



About me…
Jess Houser (pen name J.J. Burry)
writing teacher for middle school (sometimes high school) in Texas
two sons: Billy (9 years old) and Mikhael (5 years old)
husband: Josh (married since July 13, 2008 — 11 years this summer!)
two pups (pictured above)
several hobbies (mentioned above.
Find me: 
Blog: Immortal Words of a Mortal Writer
Twitter: @JJ_Burry
Facebook: J.J. Burry
Facebook: Immortal Crochet