A Very Busy Week
Writer’s Journal 3 21-27 June 2021
Well, this has been a week.
A lot going on in my life and getting everything together.
I will admit to only having one write session all week (usually I shoot for three or four). But as much as it was only one session, it was a hell of a session as you’ll see in the next segment.
Writing/ Word Goals
I normally aim for 3 sessions and at least 6000 words a week when I want to feel like I’m moving forward. In my last update I mentioned that I had nuked and restarted the whole novel. Only saving about 14000 words from the original 32000.
Well in my single session I managed to rewrite two whole chapters and hammered out an impressive 6,019 words. In the last two weeks I have crept back to 26,529 words in the manuscript and I only have to revise two chapters and rewrite one before I’m back on new material and moving forward.
But now you’re all asking why I couldn’t get in those other two writing sessions and break 10,000 words for the week.
Well, it’s a mix of good news and bad news.
Start with the Bad
Let’s start with the bad and then we can end with the good.
First off, workshopping hiccups. Between nuking my original outline and working faster than my partner (who also had to deal with children both returning from college and going off to college) there was a period where I had overloaded them. So, my partner is sitting on three chapters to read and give feedback, and 2 of those chapters were deleted in the new revamp.
So, I wanted to give him a chance to catch up on those and also get his own writing back in gear. The simple answer was I slowed down.
Medical issues. These past few weeks have been stressful to say the least. As much as this is my “journal” and I talk fairly openly on here. I don’t reveal every detail of my life. This is the internet and you just don’t do that. Suffice, a family member has been dealing with a cancer diagnosis (a very close family member) and my whole household has been worried. Now, as bad as this is, we finally just last week got good news. Insurance is covering the treatments and the prognosis is good.
Then My Medical Concerns
Personally, I also have medical issues that have been plaguing me for a while. Like most people during the pandemic, I allowed myself to put on too much weight, not that I was thin before the pandemic. But I have problems with my back. I’m missing part of a disc in my lower back and the rest of my spine has been slowly deteriorating. It appears I might have slipped or ruptured a disc higher in my back and nerve damage is making sleeping and moving difficult.
I’m just going through testing and trying to workout and lose weight to take the pressure off my spine, but the problem is going to impact me for the rest of the year. Add on top of that financial worries and car troubles, and you can see that the last few weeks have been a handful.
But Let’s End on the Good
But it is not all gloom and doom.
I’ve been working on a podcast for the last two months, and we have 6 podcasts ready to roll out. And lo, last Wednesday the first podcast went live! You will see links in the side bar, but just in case you’re reading this on your phone here are the links:
This past week we were going to do a special episode where we each told a story from the POV of one of our D&D characters. It was going to be my first foray into a little voice acting. But my neighbors decided to cut down a tree during my recording time, so we rescheduled to this week.
Either way, I wrote the script and loved it. I workshopped a couple chapters and shorts for my friends, and one of professors gave me email to a student and they asked me for a bunch of advice for writing and that was a lovely conversation.
In gaming news one of my longest running, and highest-level D&D 5e games came to a close in epic fashion. And we started putting together a new world and story. The DM decided to have an impromptu brain storming session and everyone got to take a hand in picking and molding what we were playing and how the world would look.
I’m super excited to start this new game.
Also, after a week delay, we got in our Curse of Strahd game, so this Thursday I should have a new journal entry go live, though I might wait until next week as again, material is running thin.
This Week’s goals
I’m going to try to hit my 6000-word goal. But I’m also trying to get my car into the shop and I need to hound a company that owes me money.
I might go out and record my story in the studio instead of in my house.
And either this Thursday or next Thursday will see the next COS journal.
I’m thinking I might want to do a journal for the new character in the new Saturday game? Since that game is weekly, that means I can gather more material a LOT quicker than my once-a-month Strahd game. It really just comes down to whether or not you readers enjoy the gaming posts?
It’s something I can think over for the next couple weeks.
And I just remembered that my co-worker is going on his yearly vacation in about 2 weeks, so I might have even less hours to write and do all of this extra stuff.
Books, Comics, Movies, OH My!
Here is where I would talk about comics and movies and such that I’ve been watching/reading/etc. But I don’t know how you folks have been enjoying/not enjoying them.
I’d hate to think that you skipped over this bit.
The last 2 weeks of comics have been pretty great. And my store recently took in two great collections so we’ve had a ton of key books hitting the walls and glass case. It has been real exciting watching books fly off the shelves and having people so excited.
I’m still reading my way through the very old 60’s and 70s era Doctor Strange stories and some of my favorite current comics are Guardians of the Galaxy, Venom, Once & Future, Amazing Spiderman, Immortal Hulk… well I mean I read almost forty comics a month, maybe more if I actually counted them. But I’m really looking forward Moonknight getting another story (but hope that it is not Mr Midnight or oddball like the Lemire run. I’m still an original run and Hutson as my favorites). There is also going to be a Defenders limited series and the new Hulk and Venom both have me excited as well. Comics in general are just fantastic.
Anyway… I’ve gone on long enough today. Please give my podcast a listen and maybe make a comment or start a conversation.
