Progress

No writing took place during lunch yesterday.  There is an unfortunate danger to productivity while writing at your work desk over lunch hour.  In that people may in fact call you regarding work related problems.  This was what happened yesterday.  After my meal I spent twenty minutes on the phone going over what can and can’t be done with an Access database.  Then walking them through changing to queries.  Fortunately that shouldn’t be the case today.  As far as I know.

I did manage to get to writing last night though and I’ve reached the POV switch.  Chapter two is, by and large, a very rough draft and there are parts that need to be expanded on, edited, and cut.  But I’m happy with it so far.  The remainder of the chapter will be, as I described last night, “Crazy followed by gunfire followed by more crazy followed by car chase followed by crazy followed by explosions.”  Looking forward to all the crazy bits.  Terrible things will be seen during the course of the chapter though not real.  Well at least not in a physical sense.

Feeling like a zombie

This week has been what I will call a complete and utter write off in regards to progress on the novel.  Due, in no small part, to little sleep taking place.  There is just something about five hours of sleep (thanks to earlier than usual mornings due to Kristine’s job) that shuts my brain down.  I opened the novel each day at noon.  And stared at it.  I know where it needs to go, and in fact came up with a way to replace a future plot point with something more subtle.  But I couldn’t think of the words.  I literally couldn’t will my mind to describe the scene in any way other than very generic terms.  And that just doesn’t fly for the style I’m working on.  Thankfully the early mornings will be a non-issue next week.  I might get back on track tomorrow but I’ll need to see how I feel.

Speaking of feeling I have been in much better health than I was a month ago.  I attribute this entirely to cutting out fast food from my diet and actually doing some exercise.  I have more energy (when not completely exhausted due to sleep) and haven’t felt nearly as sick as I’ve been in the past.  Also less phlegmy.  That is a wonderful word.  Phlegm.  Not so much fun to deal with but definitely a fun word to say.  I’ve been taking my 3DS along with me to work to keep track of my steps to and from the office.  And will be taking it along with me when we go out for walks later in the evening.  Right now I’m probably averaging around 6000 steps a day.  The plan is to get that up to 10000.

A weekend of relaxation

This weekend, at it’s very best, was a write off in regards to the novel.  To many side projects and tasks needed to be done before anything could be completed.  Not to mention a lot of shopping that needed to be taken care of.  I’m not entirely sure what it is about Superstore, but every time we go in to get about sixty dollars worth of groceries we come out with at least a $150 bill.  Needless to say I go out of my way to avoid the place.  On the plus side I have a new coffee maker of my own, a tin of Tim Horton’s ground coffee, and an unquenchable thirst for the black gold.  For the first time in well over a year I had a cup of actual coffee, instant coffee sure as hell doesn’t count, with my breakfast; it was glorious.  Angels may have been singing in the background, but I can’t be sure because I was too busy savoring the moment.

Kristine is off an about tonight, leaving me to fend for myself.  Which isn’t a problem considering we did a lot of cooking yesterday and froze several servings of chilli for the week.  I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do to occupy my time, though writing will definitely be happening; I’m too close to finishing chapter two for me to take a longer break than two days.  With any luck I’ll have the first POV done over lunch today and maybe a good start on the second half of the chapter.  The second half is much more action oriented: standoffs, fire fights, and a chase.  With bits of horror sprinkled as visions keep coming back to the character.  Lots of fun for all involved.

Plans for the day

I’m fully expecting to get nothing written until later tonight.  Novel wise.  There is, of course, this thing written.  The loss of the lunch hour is due entirely to agreeing to lunch with my sister.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  Sometimes you just need to get out.  I’m not enthusiastic about walking to the meeting thanks to the rain we are currently experiencing.  Walking to and waiting for the bus in pouring rain did little to dampen my mood though.  Today is, regardless of the weather’s attempts, a good day.  And I’ll be damned if anything will take that away from me.

Part of the good mood is due to finally having an idea for the next Cthulhu adventure.  As I have said before my Cthulhu runs are… unorthodox and hilarious given the subject matter.  I’m intrigued to find out what band of rag-tag pop culture icons will be taking a trip down to Innsmouth.  Oh deep ones.  I think the group will be stopping the locals from waking Dagon, or at least attempting to.  I fully expect hilarity to ensue.  Though I think I need to plan things out a bit more than I normally would.  We will be short one player who likes to go off on his own tangents.  During the Christmas with Krampus adventure he had fifteen minute aside with a priest.  Things were… revealed.

I’m also in a good mood because the first POV section of chapter two will be coming to a close shortly.  This is definitely a rough draft of the chapter.  In future revisions I’ll want to focus more on the architecture of the ruin being described.  Let my mind go to town on eldritch horrors.  The statue that I’ve envisioned is a disturbing amalgamation of Hekate and Azathoth.  I also decided to allude to the ending a bit with the relic recovered from the ruin.  It will only be a single line of text describing an image on it.  But that image will make sense in the end.  Hints and speculation galore there.

I’m not entirely sure when I’ll get a chance to write tonight though.  I’m still hoping for my regular time, but that may or may not change as Kristine’s friend will be coming over for supper.  This actually marks almost two straight weeks of working on the novel every day.  I’ve managed to keep two of my resolutions from the new year so far.  Just need to work on the photography one and I’ll actually be three for three.

Yesterday: Not Enough Coffee

In all honesty, I had a post written up yesterday.  I could have sworn that I hit Publish.  Perhaps it was all a fever dream because that post was sitting in my list as a draft only.  Oh well.  It’s up and about at the moment.  Hooray.

The novel continues at what I would call a twisted ankle pace.  It most definitely doesn’t deserve to be considered break neck.  Yesterday was nearly a wash completely, due in no small part to my sleep schedule getting beaten with a lead pipe.  Not much can be done about that.  However, I did get a… bit written yesterday.  My lunch hour was a mixture of me writing a few sentences, throwing my hands ups, surfing the internet, then mentally bitch-slapping myself to get back to writing.  Rise and repeat ad nauseam.  The evening wasn’t much better, I never really found my groove but the extra-large Tim Horton’s coffee helped me focus a bit.

Today was a bit better, productivity wise, over the lunch hour.  Actually being able to think added quite a bit to the actual act of writing.  I’ve nearly exhausted what I have left of a previous revision, and at this point I’ve throughly come to the conclusion that the ideas were good.  Just the writing was terrible.  I can live with that, I’ll hold onto that notebook to the ends of the earth.  If only to remind myself that I was terrible once and am not so terrible now.  The weekend seems…. optimistic to finish the chapter, but if I can spare maybe four hours I might be able to get it finished.  Depends, I suppose, on how much I can get written tonight and tomorrow.  The Avengers is going to throw a wrench into that too I think.

There is another new page up at the top, Weigh In.  I shall use it to chronicle my new eating and work out experience in order to keep my ass on track.  Why?  Why not.  If anything I’m going to need a sarcastic outlet to make fun of myself.