Tag: Schedules

She’s got wonderful eyes and a risqué mouth.

Sara Mazariegos

Tomorrow is Juneteenth. I’m off for it for the first time since it was added as a Federal holiday. I’m excited to be off, but I also feel guilty about it. I suppose that’s the general idea. We’re meant to reflect on what this country did and continues to do to Black people. I’m going to spend the day reading and writing, and Luis and I will go have a nice dinner at a nearby Tex Mex place. I think more businesses need to give it as a holiday so it receives its full respect. I’ve noticed it’s optional a lot of the time, hence this being my first year having it off. If Luis didn’t have to work, I would’ve suggested going to a local Black-owned business for dinner, but he has to work.

The Metro has been a nightmare this week. Every day has had some kind of signal problem, some kind of track work. This morning, I was half an hour late to work because there was a track issue two stops away from the office. They made everyone get out of my train and wait for the next one. Thankfully, my coworkers were nice about it. But I was so frustrated and worried about how long it was going to take, because it was stop-and-go all morning.

It’s been pretty calm at work, though. Which isn’t the norm for Wednesday, so something crazy is probably going to happen.

Next weekend, we’re going to celebrate Luis’s mom’s birthday with yet another party. (She’s had like three parties now.) We’re going to a brewery that, for once!, has coffee and pizza instead of just having beer. I’m excited about that. Also, my parents are going to be there, which I didn’t know about until they told us on Father’s Day. We’ll see them again on the 4th of July and then again on the 22nd when we go to see Weird Al. July is going to be pretty packed.

Then there’s nothing on the schedule for August. We need to make August plans STAT. Luis’s birthday is in August, so that’ll of course be something. But a few years ago we literally went to Paris and London. This year, ehh…. we can’t do that. But I’m sure it’ll still be nice.

I’ve been doing a lot of beta reading. I currently have three I’m getting through. Some writers are definitely more patient than others. I’m a slow reader, but I also give the stories more attention than I bet a lot of other readers do. Case in point, I got some early feedback on my novel from one of them that was like, “I like the corporate rivalry.” I feel like you can say that without even reading my story; it’s in the brief description. But I don’t want to be mean. Some people are more comfortable giving feedback than others, and some people don’t want to be negative or whatever. It’s fine. I do my best to read like I’m helping the writer, because I am. I’ve volunteered my time to help them make their story better.

With that in mind, I better go keep reading.

Sometimes I forget, wasn’t always this way.

Sara Mazariegos

I’m wearing a green hoodie that I got from the men’s department at Kohl’s or something back in November. At first, I didn’t remember the circumstances of why I got this hoodie, I just knew it was because I was out with Luis and it was cold and I couldn’t just borrow his hoodie for the whole evening. He reminded me of a lot of the details of that outing; it was the day we went to Georgetown and saw Anora. We ate at a place I love called Curry & Pie. I wore a pretty top and didn’t think about layers because I wanted people to be able to see my pretty top.

It’s crazy to me that I don’t remember many of the details. I often go back through my Google Calendar and play memory games of “Oh yeah, we did this.” I think a lot of people don’t remember a lot of what they’ve done each day, especially as you get older… Especially when you’ve gone through so much recent upheaval.

The week we saw Anora, we took Boo to the vet to get her biopsy on her ear. The week before that was the election. And kind of everything after has been a lot to process, so it makes sense I can’t fully remember the story of a piece of clothing. I’m grateful for the reminder though. It was a good day, despite the chill.

Anyway, I can’t believe it’s only April. This year has started to drag, but maybe it’s a good sign. Things are slowing down, becoming more reasonable. At least from a personal standpoint. Tomorrow, I am off from work because my new boss decided to give everyone Good Friday off. I am onboard with that.

Writingwise, things are plugging along. I took a few days off from writing recently because I was dealing with new job transformations and schedule adjustments — getting home at 6:30 instead of 5:15 and going from a five-minute bus ride to an hour-long Metro ride is a pretty big change — but my routine is starting to fall into line again. I’m at 13,000 words today, soon to be at 13,500 when I write later this evening. I’m looking forward to reading it back when it’s finished and seeing how this new writing mode has worked out. I think I’m definitely staying present in the scenes more, so at the very least my scenes should be more gratifying to read. I’m certainly not rushing this draft.

Until next time,

I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time.

Sara Mazariegos

Have you ever had such an intense dream/nightmare that you’ve woken up with a headache? That happened to me last week, and it was quite frightening. I’ve been thinking about it ever since; the funny thing is, I can’t remember much of the dream itself, just the intense emotion and headache.

In writing news, my systematic approach to editing is going well, if I do say so myself. I’m only reading three (or so) chapters a day; making changes and neatening things up as I go. Once again, I’m finding the editing and revising stage to be eye-opening and a fun challenge for myself. Am I a rare breed of writer who actually likes editing??

I also think I’ve matured as a writer as I’ve gained experience and listened to weekly* The Shit No One Tells You About Writing episodes. I have no idea how people with full-time jobs can attend conferences and writers retreats. I’m an eager listener/reader of their advice when they return with it, though! Surely that counts for something.

Once the story is in Luis’s hands — digitally, actually — I plan to start plotting out my new story idea and maybe even start writing it. I hope to be a little more chill when drafting this time. The NaNoWriMo style of writing (ie. making sure to write roughly 2k words a day) is handy for getting the novel done in a shorter amount of time, but there’s no reason to rush the writing process, especially because all of it takes time!

Luis will be happier if I’m not writing for hours and hours every day, too. I can’t write at 5 AM like certain authors, or late at night. I’m solidly an afternoon creative, and having a job makes that… a challenge. So my goal with my next novel is to be finished writing the first draft by December? That seems loose enough.


*Nearly weekly, anyway. I do have a life that sometimes gets in the way. 😉

Let’s take the whole day off.

Sara Mazariegos


I’m the type of person who schedules things. I have a Google Calendar for my personal plans. It contains everything from what we’re having for dinner tonight to our weekend activities to the novels I want to work on. It helps keep me on track, even if I only put “Write 2K” on a date. I think it might partially be guilt if I don’t do what it says, but I’ll take it. 😅

Aside from Calendar, I also utilize Pacemaker to keep my word count on track. I plan to write a NaNoWriMo+ novel this year since I don’t have plans to travel in November. The + means it will go past November because it will be longer than 50K words (unless I fail.) I’m going to tackle an old story I didn’t truly finish back in 2010, back when NaNoWriMo was the only time of year I really sat down and wrote stories. I got the story to 50K, but then just… stopped writing it.

I’m going to finish it and make it better this year! That’s one of my plans anyway.

So, my slate for the year is finishing/revising two romance novels and finishing/revising a young adult fantasy.

I’m ambitious. But it’s good to have goals.