Time Off (Sort Of)

Update 42 21-27 March 2022

Well, this is supposed to be the first week where I am totally off from the book and writing in general. But that isn’t quite true.

I did step away from writing sessions and I have spent the bulk of the week pursuing other matters. It does feel like a mini vacation. But I couldn’t detach myself fully.

I still need to think of a format for these posts without writing numbers and progress dominating the topic….??

One Slip

Let’s get the writing slips out of the way.

At the beginning of the week, I sat down on my days off and tried to think what to do with the new free time. I immediately opened up my notebook and started to think of the next story. I had borrowed names for some of my main characters and I felt they needed to be changed and I also had a few plot points and scenes listed but I had no arcs to the story.

Like, what the hell it was all about.

I started to work on that for a bit. Mapping out a bunch of the possible conflicts and then I got bogged down trying to align the timeline between the various books in the series. That’s where I stopped and I forced myself to put away the notebook. Outlining isn’t supposed to start until April. (Not that the dates and deadlines I give myself are anything more than basic planning. They’re just made up to give myself a sense of control and pattern).

For the rest of the week I gave myself other distractions.

Side Work, Hobbies, and Fun

I took the time to get a jump on some painting commissions and should be finishing up that work later this morning or shortly after this post goes live on Monday.

I also dusted off my mini-SNES and plugged it into the TV. I tried to play an old platformer and was so rusty that I found it frustrating. Ergo, I switched up to my comfort zone and started playing Mario RPG. This is my first time ever playing it and I have had a lot of fun with it. It is cute and pretty linear for a RPG, but it is not without its charms.

I’m about 30-40% through the game already… I’m totally guessing at that percentage. The game has you collecting 7 star fragments and I have 3 already so, that’s what I’m basing my progress on.

I still haven’t done much in the way of art. But my reading time has also picked up.

I’m going to use my writing time today and Monday to paint, then build a new model kit.

Gaming

Besides the Mario RPG my role-playing sessions have been rather bumpy of late. My Tuesday game hasn’t met for two weeks but the Saturday game has been going well. We rotated back to my all-artificer game for the last two weeks. A bunch of bumbling English noble mad scientists sticking their noises into happenings in fantasy Egypt. We’ve somehow stumbled into a religious war between a Cult of Apep (Apothis) and the rest of the country’s religions.

We’ve managed to shoot, smash, and explode our way through everything with dry humor and my man-servants lugging around a portable bar behind us.

It has been a lot of fun (though I admit that over the many games my servants and the bar have faded to the background).

The next two games are back in Barovia with my Paladin Gravedigger character. That game has had an interesting start, as by pure chance we discovered the single town in the whole place that is actually pleasant and nice.

To add to my fun, this week is also the scheduled monthly CoS game. I get to hang out with a handful of horror writers and play in the far more dour and miserable version of Barovia. Though I face the sadness of having to tell them that I won’t be making my vacation this year.

Finding Things to Talk About

I admit, without the writing as the core of these posts I’m floundering about what to talk about. I could review some stories, complain about movies, talk about podcasts/games/shows I love. There are things I COULD do, but I don’t know if I SHOULD do.

I could talk about beta readers? I’ve always had bad luck with them. I only have one person who will faithfully a manuscript from beginning to end. Though I will admit I have only ever handed him a manuscript in sections. I currently have my thesis novel being read by a close friend. He’s apparently commenting on every single paragraph as it took him hours to just get through the first 5 chapters.

Despite my stressing that I merely wanted his overall thoughts he is going full red pen on me. Sigh. Depending on how long it takes him to get through at this slow pace I might have his feedback for next week to talk about, otherwise, it will be sometime in April.

Speaking of April, I do plan to get the outlining and character sketches all done for the next book during the month. I have a lot going on that month, Catholic Easter, Orthodox Easter (I celebrate with my friend and his family, it’s a long story but it’s a tradition), and my birthday. In all cases, Sunday is my main writing day and that’s about two Sundays spent on holidays. I might even be late with these blogs. We’ll see what happens.

Toku and an Outro

I’ve always been a huge fan of Tokusatsu (Japanese for “Special Effects” and a genre of film/tv). I’m currently taking a plunge back in time and watching the very first Sentai series, Himitsu Sentai Goranger. That is a hell of a lot of fun, and I’m torn about whether I should jump and watch the current shows that everyone is talking about, or even last year’s shows so that I can at least be current. But my completionist brain makes me want to go from the beginning forward (despite that I’ve seen all of the middle).

Anyway, I have to get in gear and go out. I have to pick up that model I mentioned at the beginning of this blog and see some friends. Hopefully you’ll only have to put up with one more short post before I get back on track and these blogs concentrate on writing again.

Thank you for reading and have a great day.