Swingin’ Into September the ‘Write’ Way

The noticeably cooler air. Students heading back to school. Cozy fall sweaters paired with boots. Nature gearing up for its annual parade of color. For me, the arrival of September not only means the appearance of fall, my favorite season, but it also means hitting the homestretch when it comes to my writing. It’s when I turn my attention to my list of writing goals for a final check on my progress before year’s end.

Seeing an increase in writing income is always a welcome sight and is an ongoing goal for the serious writer. My account’s loving it and I’m looking forward to seeing what the final total will be.

Another goal was to try at least one other genre and my choice was script writing. I enjoyed writing and editing scripts for an online radio drama for a number of years and wanted to try another area. I participated in April’s annual script writing challenge, Script Frenzy, which was a great opportunity to work on a film script. I didn’t get to the 100 pages---only made it to 56---and I'm still working on it. My script writing goal coincides with my current work as a member of the production crew on a film with a local Christian arts nonprofit, and it’s been interesting to be an active part of the filmmaking process.

A dream goal fulfilled this year was doing a wonderful writing retreat; those experiences entitled ‘Writing, Resting & Reflecting’, appeared as a post here on the Muffin. An added bonus was expanding this post into an essay, 'To Retreat, Perchance to Dream', and having it featured in Catapult Magazine’s ‘Retreat’ issue back in July. I’m now a contributor for the online arts journal. To totally get off the grid to spend significant time writing was both rewarding and enriching, and I plan to make this particular goal a mainstay of my annual list.

Not doing too bad with my goals this time. I’m swingin’ into September the ‘write’ way and the rest of the year’s looking good. Can’t wait to see how it’s all going to end.