Still reading. I have read through the first house party scene. I recall a writing tip saying to never have house party scenes in your story. I actually have two and the first one is especially long.
But having reread it now, I still like it, though it could stand some trimming.
I am continuing to read through the existing draft. Exciting! (Well, in parts.)
As noted at the start of this, there will be days when I do nothing.
Today is one of those days. I went out birding and my entire evening (it is 10:21 p.m. as I type this) was filled with strata-related nonsense, so no time to do anything but ponder.
I have pondered. A little.
Decision made: I’ll be using NEO for this rewrite, We’ll see how it goes!
My initial plan is this:
After this, I begin writing on the story itself.
As mentioned yesterday, I’m going to attempt to finish my novel Road Closed, which sits at around 83,000 words, 20 or so chapters and is an unfinished mess.
Every day I will update what I’ve done, even if it’s nothing. The initial updates will be a bit more than nothing, but mostly about planning and organization, two things I can be very bad at.
It’s going to be fun.
My first task is to choose what tool to write with. As I haven’t written fiction in quite a while, I don’t have a go-to piece of software, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few options:
I’ve imported the book into NEO and it looks pretty good for an 83,00 word mess! But that’s about all I’ve done so far.
Tomorrow…more. Presumably.
The (another) is because I have actually already finished one, The Ferry, which started as a long short story then got turned into a novel one NaNoWriMo1The complete and utter self-destruction of that organization still boggles my mind to this day (2009, I believe). It really needed to a rewrite or two, but I never got around to it and I feel if I’m going to try completing another novel, I should pick one of my many unfinished ones that has more good stuff already in it, thus requiring less good stuff be added.
And that novel is Road Closed, which I’ve talked about here before. A lot.
The last time I mentioned it was November 17, 2024–about two years ago, and I said this:
The unfinished novel is my own, Road Closed (the title will almost certainly be changed to something else, should the novel ever be finished). The prologue outlines the tragic summer and drink-to-forget beginnings of young Christian Warren, setting the stage for the five-year jump ahead as the story begins proper.
But the rest of the book–which is currently sitting at around 70,000+ words, is a bit of a mess. And it’s not the mess where you can just keep writing, then go back and fix the messy bits later. It needs serious surgery. But I kind of want to try, because that prologue still delights me today.
It actually sits at just under 84,000 words, but otherwise the quote is accurate. It needs serious surgery, but so did I this year, and I came through OK, so why can’t my story? A couple of cool scars will look even better on it.
So here’s my commitment in public. I’ll report back, possibly in tears, at some point.
I wrote 38 posts this month (counting this one) and yet I feel like I’ve somehow failed Blaugust because most of my posts were:
These are all “easy” posts for me and unless you’re really into (me) running, the running posts aren’t even that interesting (though one running post did get me an email–which delighted me!)
Still, I’m glad to have participated. A year from now, I don’t know if I’ll be blogging here in WordPress or somewhere else, but I’ll still be blogging and I’ll do Blaugust again. And I might remember to use the tag more often, too.
Now I need to read through some more of the Blaugust posts from others.
I have some thoughts on why, but nothing particularly cogent or organized yet. I feel like my brain is processing stuff and is keeping me in something of a holding pattern while it churns things through. Or maybe that’s just an excuse.
In any case, a haiku:
Ideas absent
My brain is off on its own
Patiently I wait
And I only found out, by chance, today!
Dorothy Parker was a poet and writer who died back in 1967. Her acerbic wit lives on through her many biting quotes. One of them is this:
I hate writing, I love having written.
You can see a wide selection of her quotes, including the one above, here: https://www.dorothyparker.org/quotes.html
I have a quote by journalist James Fallows at the top right of my blog which reads:
In my experience, what anyone serious about writing likes is having written.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Fallows came up with this on his own, unaware of Parker’s original quote, and the tone is different–appropriately, Parker’s version is more direct and cutting.
I’m unsure if I should keep the Fallows quote, switch to the Parker one or maybe put something else completely different in that upper right corner. Maybe I’ll put my own quote there. Or a cat. I will ponder.
Yes, sort of! It’s called the Details block and I never looked at it until just now.
Will I go back and change all the shortcode spoilers? This is not a spoiler: No.
Yes, this blog still works for posting things that are not running or birding related.
The lack of posts (other than for the topics mentioned above) has made me think, which happens occasionally. Why am I not posting much? Is it a general sense of contentment that leaves me so fulfilled that I don’t have any inclination to post about concerns, complaints or conundrums here?
As the kids would say, lol no.
I think it’s a few things:
I think about writing a lot. This is actually a good sign, as it usually means I’m on the verge of getting back into the habit.
And now, typing cat:
In my travails of trying to get a dual boot system going on my new PC with Windows 11/Some Linux Distro, one of the things I need to prepare for is the possibility that a particular Linux distro will overwrite the Windows MBR (Master Boot Record), which can prevent Windows from loading.
I have a few command line instructions available on my older PC to fix this if it happens, but to get to the commands I need to switch input on my monitor, swap keyboard cables (no KVM) and it’s a general nuisance.
The easier solution was to write the commands down in a paper notebook, all old-timey style, and keep it nearby on the desk, ready to be consulted. Fortunately, my handwriting (or printing, rather) is still quite tidy and readable. All good and I have followed the instructions several times (cursed Linux distros).
And now that I’ve done this, I realize I have the notebook itch again. It’s that feeling I get when I walk down the stationery aisle of a store or walk into an actual dedicated stationery store, like The Letterbox back in my hometown of Duncan (interestingly, The Letterbox is, not surprisingly, long gone, but just a few stores over from where it used to be is an office supply store, so its spirit lives on nearby). Stationery, but also pens, paper, typewriter ribbons (kids, ask your parents), notepads, fountain pens (kids, ask your parents–again!– also, fountain pens and lefties don’t go together well, but I didn’t care) all of this stuff has delighted me since I started writing back as a wee one and still does today, even as nearly all of my writing is done via keyboard.
But now that the notebook itch is back, I’m on the hunt for a new notebook to keep on my desk. The one I have (for free, from the UBC Sauder School of Business) is nice, but it doesn’t lay flat, and it looks like Muji has some that do. I am on the hunt. I’m going analog, baby.
(For some things. I’m not ready to abandon all of civilization quite yet.)