78 Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keys

Journal 16-22 Jan. 2023

After… 3? Months finally set down at the new desk and hammered out the keys. Felt good to get writing again, but seriously do NOT take that much time off any creative work.

I forgot so many details.

What does this character look like again and what were they wearing? Who has what type of sword or gear? Have we had this conversation already in the novel?

I am a planner, but I only plan the route and some of the key scenes. But everything between those scenes and all of the dialogue is pantsed. It’s all free-formed.

It was a hard time getting it all going again.

I found I had to go back and reread whole chapters of the book to reinforce my memories and get back on track. But that all side I finished a chapter and started another and the words are just flowing. The clack of the keys are so satisfying.

Words:

I haven’t posted a word count since October. That is a very long time.

But here we go. I went back into the book, rethought how I wanted to finish the chapter and I just started writing again. The first do was good, the second was even better.

That all said I found that for some reason I check my social media about 4x more when I’m writing. It is hilarious. Over the last 2 months I have barely looked at Facebook, and I do skim through Twitter several times a day. But while I was writing I found that every time I paused to think through a scene, or plan some dialogue, my hand would reach for the phone.

I spent more time on Facebook this past week then I have in the previous 12 weeks. Crazy.

But I’m digressing. Word Count is what we’re here for.

I knocked out 5,635 words this week. Brining the novel to 117,022 total words. I will also admit that I edited some of the chapters I went back to reread. So, I probably cut a hundred or so words out of the novel while rereading.

What’s Happening:

Both chapters are in the same, B-Story Pov, as that group travels through mountains and then into mining tunnels under the mountains. I made it to the point of introducing the last new character to the novel and stopped off right before a lot of action is about to happen.

I had a couple of my other writer friends offer this advice. Stop your writing each session with something interesting about to happen. A lot of action, a crazy twist, a big reveal. Whatever makes you excited to write. So, I guess that would be genre related. But whatever you truly enjoy writing or look forward to writing. Try to stop before you reach it.

That way you really want to get back to writing for your next session.

It is literally like ending a chapter on a cliffhanger to make your reader really want to turn the page and read “just one more chapter before bed.”

It’s been working for me. Then again, I find that after I get over my procrastination and actually sit down to write I just want to do it all the time. I love the clack of the keys so much.

Other problems

While the writing is going very well, my desktop computer appears to be unrecoverable. It is dead.

But my computer guy did tell me that they were able to get a large chunk of material off the hard drive. So, I am excited that I should get all my query letters and other materials back soon. Still, little upset that I won’t have a desktop on my desk and I still have to move the laptop everywhere. And Yes, I do know that a laptop is meant to be moved everywhere. But I loved it when I had both my laptop and desktop running and all of my writing was going through a shared drive. Ergo, I could write at my desk, grab my laptop bag, head out somewhere, and open the laptop and start writing again from where I left off.

First world problems I know.

Hobby, Fun, Other Stuff

Well, the whole TTRPG community is still in an uproar. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff is certainly damning, but you expect large corporations to be total POSes so I’m not surprised by greed and stupidity from companies.

I do find the uproar among the so-called “community” to be more mixed. I personally don’t believe in a cohesive or whole community in TTRPGs. I have never been able to stomach forums, discords, or groups for long. There are a lot of shitty people in our “community” and they have loud voices. And even if people aren’t being complete assholes, they still have strong opinions on their games. Those opinions can often lead to fighting, etc.

I had more I thought about saying but I think I will stop there. There is a lot going on bugging the hell out of me. I’d rather just keep playing my games and having fun with my friends.

Saturday Game

Speaking of which, my Saturday game is getting back on track. I used to play 2 weeks of one game and then 2 weeks of another on Saturday nights, but the last three months have been dedicated to a single campaign. Now the alternate DM has gotten himself back on track and we’re starting up the 2 by 2 again.

Last night I had to make up a character and I was lost for thought. The session was impromptu as the game that night got canceled but we all still wanted to meet. So, instead of having the normal game we all just made-up characters on the spot for the other game.

We had the choice between a serious or spoof Spelljammer game. We chose the funny game. And for about a minute I was about to create a smuggler who was based on Han Solo and Bucky O’Hare. A rabbit scoundrel.

But I play a LOT of rogues and everyone was telling me to play something I had never played in 5e. So, I wanted to make a sorcerer.

Bucky O’Hare went to the way side but I now have a water genasi sorcerer with most of the humor coming from his family.

Other Games

The rest of my game nights are going well, as we all ignore the OGL uproar and keep playing the game we love.

I still haven’t gotten back to SMT3 and this week Persona 3 and 4 dropped on the digital store so I need to go get those. Yeah, I think I need better time management.

HA ha. I say that in probably 30-40 of these posts. It never gets better. All dream and no plan.

You know I think that’s enough for this week. I have extra days at work this week, so my writing will suffer and I’ve already spent hours today writing this blog and the background for the character I mentioned above… and I still need to get in a write session. So, off to write those action sequences now.

Bye.

Thank you for reading.