First Cold of the Season
Journal 68 19-25 Sept 2022
Last week it was the ‘fingers of autumn’ and this week I have been hammered by the fist. The allergies of last week gave way to full blown runny-nosed cold this week. So, yeah be ready for a pitiful word count and not much else to report.
The week began with the yearly trip to the orchard for apples and cider, and believe me the apple pies are the highlight of this week.
But let’s not start off negative. I managed a couple good things this week in between naps.
Monday Morning…
On Monday I got up and started to write with my usual gusto, hammering out a meager 780 words before I remembered it was also the day I promised to go to the orchard. I went outside to a flat tire and my throat itching… not from allergies but from the cold that was fully here.
I fully intended to return from the orchard and get back to work. But alas, between the worries about the tire, the sickness, and my mind being somewhat fuddled I did not write again that day.
Matter of fact, as I sit here writing this blog, I can barely remember what those 800 words were even about. I think I moved my B group further up the pass and toward a fortress and the actual action scene I thought I would be rocking this week.
It was right into bed after the trip to the orchard, but I did work on something else.
Mapping
I’ve drawn dozens of maps of my world… mostly as a kid in my teens. There is a blog where I talk about the various iterations of the world and how it evolved. At the end of that blog, I talk about how in the 5th and 6th iterations I started to work more on real world physics.
Over the last three novels I have mapped out only slim portions of the world and avoided trying to make a map of the entire globe. This has led to nothing lining up to each other and nations shrinking or growing to crazy proportions.
Here’s where we talk about something important to actually writing. Using research to procrastinate. I have discovered this urge… this need… to check distances and scales constantly. My fantasy country that is based on Egypt? Well, how large is the real-world Egypt? How long is the Nile, etc… and how do we fantasy this up. How wide is the ocean? How fast can a 14th century sailboat travel?
These things bother me and get into my head and make writing stop for hours if not days.
Since I was sick and in bed, I pulled out graph paper and the old art board and I decided to finally make a map that had an equator. I sat down and mapped out the basics of 28,000 miles in a world that is 150% the size of earth.
Darklon 6.0
I added in a new continent, just to be a jerk to myself and create even more story that was unplanned.
But that’s another digression.
My thesis novel takes place in the left side of the map in the area marked Ashlands.
The First Invasion book is in Aegyptus.
And the Second Invasion book starts in both Argalem and Daeria but moves into an area so small you can’t see it on the map, though it does exist on there if you’re really sharp eyed.
Now teasers/spoilers…
Third… Dusk.
Fourth… Elfhome and the Fae Realm.
Fifth… Martyr.
Sick Work…
So, the map has continued for the week. But I also pulled out my notebooks and worked on paladin orders, mythology of creation, the history and culture of a dead country, the line of its royalty, the origin elder races, the origins of the gods, the kingdoms of the dwarves, and even more stuff.
Of course, all of this is hand written in a series of notebooks. Pages are filling up, just kind of out of order and all over the place. Just as I’ve always done. I have friends who type up all of their notes. But personally, I feel like if I need to get out the laptop and turn it on, or sit at my desktop that I just won’t go to that effort.
But give me a notebook and a pen and I’ll jot things randomly all day.
And yeah, when I don’t get a lot of time at the keyboard, I take solace with my notes and other work. Writing isn’t always in the novel but in the background, the outline, the history, the character development, etc.
Other Happenings
Sept. is also a lot of birthdays and getting ready for the holidays.
But this is my time of year. My obsession with watching horror movies everyday becomes regular as we get closer to Halloween, so I can laugh at amateurs. Though I do have the problem that I can never find anything new to watch, as I’ve already watched everything earlier in the year.
Speaking of watching, I finished Kamen Rider Saber… it should have been cooler but it didn’t hold my attention as much. I think too many riders, too many form changes, too much going on. I barely paid attention and it goes on the list of ones I might have to rewatch because my memories of it have already faded.
I did start Kamen Rider Revice and the first two episodes of that were great. Just one main character, interesting family/support dynamic, funny demon/sidekick, and fairly cool suit design. I’m even liking the color palette. I do have the concern that the character is going to have about twenty different forms/ suit changes. I like upgrades, but too many forms and changes can be a little annoying. It was cool in OOOs but they’ve been doing it a lot in the last few shows.
But perhaps I’m digressing off story telling and writing too far.
Let’s wrap it here, this week is already looking like it will not have a lot of movement on the manuscript.
Thank you for reading, come back again.
