Fallout

The frightening assaults of pandemic terror have vastly increased our vulnerability. At the outset, hope and humor were able to alleviate the sabotage of our living together, until bit by bit, the raging roars and the thundering crashes of the death toll called the shots. The ground zero of our mental structure must inevitably make us remold another thinking pattern.
― Erik Pevernagie

The world needs huge positive energy to fight against the negative forces. Go to the center of your inner begin and generate that positive energy for the welfare of the humanity.
― Amit Ray

It is the poets, artists, and musicians that will carry us through the pandemic attacks into a new reality. They are the ones who tell us how to navigate, breathe, feel, think, enjoy, and fully live our lives. (“Because the world had corona”)
― Erik Pevernagie

There were three of us manning the display booth at the fair yesterday morning, and we were talking about how much we hated technology and how much we resented it being forced upon us. I believe what prompted this was how the city of Toronto is changing their parking meters to ones that you have to use your phone to access.

Anyway, this segued into a discussion about the pandemic, and about how the world has changed – how so much was taken away from us that we’ll never get back. So then I started thinking about how the pandemic changed things, especially when it came to writing and writers.

The first issue we had to deal with was the isolation. I know many writers who are in the habit of using coffee shops for their office. Even when you’re not being social at a café, you’re surrounded by voices, the sounds of people interacting, and the energy of others. Suddenly, this was taken away. They were, in effect, cut off from the world.

Worries and fears became a form of procrastination. Doubts formed. Real world events made fiction seem rather pointless. When the world around us has changed so drastically, who can muster the energy to worry about the lives of fictional people? If you weren’t careful, things could start seeming pointless.

For some, however, the pandemic with its lockdown didn’t really change anything. Writing is already a solitary endeavor. When real life becomes too overwhelming, we can take out our imaginary friends to play with. And the lack of being able to travel left more time to focus on the writing.

The pandemic was an event of historical, epic proportions. History will remind us of the challenges we faced and the losses we suffered. But it also taught us perseverance. We did not give up but triumphed over adversity.

It allowed us to be more in touch with nature as we stayed away from social gatherings. People planted gardens and went out for walks. Some learned to stay in touch using technology, like Zoom.

While some took advantage of their lockdown time and accomplished great things, or at least made good use of their time, others . . . did not. I have to admit, I did not handle the pandemic well. I found it a little overwhelming and, like many others, I tended to withdraw into myself rather than deal with it.

Like it or not, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. The pandemic changed the world in ways we’re still discovering. Things will never be the same.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week is . . . hopeful.

While I still have not got that new leaf turned over, neither have I stomped it right into the ground. The week started out fairly slow, but then seemed to gain momentum as it progressed.

Remember how I used to start out my weeks strong and then they’d peter right out? Well, I seem to be doing the opposite now. But it wasn’t entirely my fault. Yes, I did take Monday off and spent the day reading, but I regretted it the following day when I had my dental appointment and really didn’t feel like doing anything while I recovered.

I rallied on Wednesday and put in a very satisfactory day’s work. Ditto for Thursday. Friday was okay, but it’s usually a short day for writing anyway. It might have been a better week if I hadn’t blown off Monday, but all in all it wasn’t a bad week at all.

Thankfully, the weather has turned more fall-like. The days are still sunny, but not so hot. And the nights are cool enough to sleep comfortably. Yep, it’s my favorite time of the year!

NEW WORDS:
2600+734+405+920=4,659
UP: 207 – words

I have to confess, other than Friday’s serial installment, I was late with every one of my blog posts last week. Not late as in getting them up late, they all showed up on time, but late as in late getting them written. And that includes Monday’s post.

Why was Friday different? Because as I said, my week got better as it went along, and I spent more time in my office. I even watered my plants so their dying wouldn’t distract me. LOL

I’ve been using the original short story I wrote as a kind of outline for Winter’s Child, and I have to say it makes a big difference. I can’t believe how smoothly this serial story is going (*knock on wood*). I’m starting to think there might be something to this plotting business after all. ;-)

I’m still spending too much time just farting around on the computer, and I didn’t really need to spend an entire day reading, but then again, maybe I did. I don’t need to be productive all of the time. I deserve a little downtime once in awhile, don’t I?

Goals For Next Week:
Try to get the blog posts done a little earlier; find some other writing to work on.

EDITING:
Last week – 32 pages
Total pages – 149 pages

Once again I did a little bit of editing at a time, fitting it between other stuff, and it paid off. The first run through is done. After this I’ll have to switch to keeping track of my time instead of my pages. Not quite sure how I’ll do this – there used to be a really cool application called TraxTime, But it hasn’t been supported for 10 or more years, and I haven’t been able to find anything like it. I might have to do it the old-fashioned way and use my watch, recording my start and stop times and doing the math.

The good news is, Elemental Spirit isn’t is as bad of shape as I thought. The bad news is, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Especially in the first half. I need to figure out the prophecy and what’s going on with the Illezie. The good news is that the second half just needs to be fleshed out with more detail. And yeah, character lists with details will definitely help to make my characters more three-dimensional.

Goal For Next Week:
Pick a notebook for character sketches and ideas. Figure out how I’m going to time myself.

POETRY:
I picked a somewhat longer form to do for last week, however, I blew off Monday and was forced to find a shorter form to do Tuesday. It’s funny how distracting pain can be. And how muddled your thinking becomes when you take something for it.

But while I was looking through my list of unused forms, I pulled out a few to be working on when I get the chance, just so I’ll have a few done ahead of time. You never know when there might be a poetry emergency. And I’ve left the files for these forms right on my desk top so I can’t miss them. br>
I made no progress on updating my big book o’ poems. Maybe I’ll write myself a note and stick it to my desk. Something like: Don’t forget to start printing out poems! Think it’ll work? It probably couldn’t hurt.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new form to share; work on the extra forms. Print poems to update big book o’ poems.

CRAFTING:
I finished my second square on my zentangle sampler, and I have the box ready for the third. I haven’t quite settled on the stitches for that one, but it will be several different ones, not just a single stitch like the last square. Maybe something with angles instead of curves.

Tuesday was a regular meeting with the stitchery guild. There was a large turn-out, which was nice to see, although I kind of like the smaller group that meets at the library just as much. It was mentioned that we were once again putting out a display at the fair in the next town, and volunteers were needed to help set up, tear down, and man the table during fair hours. A sheet was passed around, and it was kind of sad to see how few people were willing to spend a couple of hours doing their part.

I went and helped set up, and volunteered to man the table for a couple of hours both Saturday and today. And I’ll be going over later today and to help tear down again. And yes, I was actually able to get some stitching done during my shifts.

I like wearing skirts. That’s my favourite part about the summer – sundresses and skirts. And just because the weather is cooling off I see no reason to give up my skirts. Somewhere in my fabric stash I have two pieces of a very fine corduroy that had been purchased with skirts in mind. I just have to find them.

Goal For Next Week:
Work on my zentangle; pick a pattern and material to make a new skirt (or two).

WHAT I’M READING:
Still making progress on Trashlands by Alison Stine, although my reading slowed down a bit last week.

I finished Bearly a Chance, by Krystal Shannon, Dragon’s Captive, by Cassie Alexander, and Tiger's Gambit, by Minette Moreau. Now I’m between books again.

However, I updated my Goodreads (finally!) and I am 6 books past my goal for the year. My goal was to read 50 books for the year, and I’ve read 56.

Goal For Next Week:
Try and even out the reading between the tree books and the Kindle.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I’m taking one more shot at turning over a new leaf, because you can only turn over a leaf so many times before it becomes mulch. But if that happens, I’ll just come up with a new plan.

This week I have a coffee date on Monday, a stitch-in at the library on Tuesday, and Thursday I play chauffeur to the hubby who needs a ride to and from the hospital for his five-year post cancer colonoscopy. And there might be a trip to Costco squeezed in there at some point, but that’s only a possibility.

Winter’s Child may not end up as long as I would have liked, but I still really like the way it’s turning out. I’ll have to see if there’s another one of my failed short stories I could try this with. Who knows, I could end up with a volume of short stories, as opposed to my volumes of flash stories.

The editing went well last week, and as much as I hate to leave the hard copy behind, it’s time to start making changes to the electronic version. But first, there’s still handwritten parts to be done. Like the Akash prophecy, the hierarchy and role of the Illezie, and the character sketches. I’m starting to feel like I’ve only got the tip of the editing iceberg under my belt. Time to dive deep this week.

I’ve been putting off updating my big book o’ poems the same way I was doing with the editing. Time to suck it up and just do it, maybe break it down into manageable parts. I can go through the poems first and make sure they all have a date on them, then print them out. I might get it done this week, chances are good it’ll take more than a week. But I gotta start somewhere.

Now that I’m making progress on my zentangle again, I need to figure out just how big a tote bag I want to make. Do I want to have six squares on the side, or nine? Nine would bean I have to cut another piece of material to make the other side, and then sew it together, I couldn’t just fold it in half. Although the benefit there is that I could make a reinforced bottom for it. And do I want to do zentangle on both sides, or do I want to do an applique on the other side?

I did nothing towards a Christmas craft list last week, and I’m pretty sure I won’t get it done either. Nor did I check out that new crafting kit I’ve got. Maybe I need to make a separate list of craft related things I want to do this week.

Part of my turning over a new leaf is supposed to be getting regular exercise, and I have to admit I’ve been very slack in that department the last few weeks, and I’m beginning to feel it. It’s strange though, I’m getting up at pretty much the same time as I was, so I’ve got lots of time to get my workout in, I just . . . don’t.

I don’t know what it is. Maybe because it’s so extra dark in the mornings now. If that’s the case, I need to get over it, because it’s not going to be getting bright again until next spring. Time for some tough love, I guess. No reading on the Kindle unless I’m on the bike. *sigh*

I should print out this section of the wordage report and post it on my desk. Just to remind myself of my goals for the week.

Think it’ll help?