A BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Hello there! I’m Tess, and you’re about to read an experiment of mine. The experiment is to see how long I can keep a decent log of my writing life, and to see whether that log has any entertainment value. It’s sort of like a captain’s log, but almost definitely less exciting. Hope you enjoy!
8/31/2019
Other Words: 1550
So, this weekend is my time to recuperate and relax. I decided I wouldn’t pressure myself to write, at least on Saturday. My partner and I went to a lovely and indulgent brunch this morning, followed by a brief, cute walk, followed by a return home and a majority of the rest of the day spent chatting and watching Jenny Nicholson videos and Star Trek.
We both got restless eventually, so I went up to the roof and enjoyed the tail end of some watered-down coffee while I watched the sunset, and I read a little bit in Hiroshima by John Hersey, which I re-bought to do some research for a new story-world idea I have. I ended up feeling inspired enough to put some words down, so I created a new Scrivener doc and jotted down a character sheet and the beginnings of an outline.
It felt pretty freeing to work on something else, and to get back to broader story-points for a little bit. I’m pretty excited about this story-world concept, but I suspect this first story won’t be the first thing that I release for it. I mostly want to write this one first because it’s what chronologically should come first, and I think it will give me a pretty good idea of what the internal mythology should be, so I can write my other stories for it in a pre-existing world, and work within those restraints instead of making them up as I go along.
I’m interested in exploring a different side to urban fantasy, and that’s kind of the main inspiration for this story-world. I wanted to tell a story that breaks away from the traditional action-hero-type story that Logan and the Choronzon Chronicles fall into. Much as I love that type of story, I just kinda want to push myself into exploring something different. In particular, I wanted to do a kind of opposites-attract buddy comedy about two women who eventually become best friends and start to make art together. Odd-couple dynamic, but distinctly female and younger, and about artist types. I’m thinking one book to chronicle their time together in college, which will basically encompass the process of them getting thrown together, discovering that they both have certain abilities, and their different attitudes toward that, and reluctantly becoming friends. And then a sequel about the couple of years after college, as they attempt to swim through the morass of their early 20s, with that added twist of their *abilities* getting in the way.
But the story I worked on today is a kind of prequel to that, indirect as it is. It’s about how the world changed, what caused *special abilities* to come into the world, and the experiences of the first few people who got those abilities. I rather like it so far.
I’m not asleep yet, so I may spend some time in the Choronzon world tonight, too. I nearly feel entirely in the mood to do so.
Final normal word count: 654
Coffee martini and beigneeeeets.
9/1/2019
918
Sunday of the 3-day weekend. Spent most of my morning lazing about, watching videos, meditating, playing around with my makeup and wigs, dancing to Lizzo. Pretty fun, relaxing day. Got a late start on the writing, but it went moderately well.
9/2/2019
1095
Final day of the 3-day weekend. Man, I just wish every day could be like this, equal time for work and play. Feels like I’m coming back to life. And I’m just doing my best not to think about going back to work.
Another late start to the work, but the work don’t seem to mind.
9/3/2019
No words today. Buffy trivia contest instead! I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the questions were actually pretty damn hard. We got second place, which actually came with a sweet prize. I’ll insert a picture here:
The prize: Giles candle, Grr Argh monster, evil Willow. The rest of this picture is just my Halloween shrine.
Also, did a decent workout beforehand. Hey, this mental health thing is kinda nice sometimes.
9/4/2019
An admin day. Fixed some website stuff, got a new round of blogs furnished with pictures and posted, and scheduled a FB post about it for the following day. Also spent some time doing catch-up elsewhere, including the log journal here.
Have also committed to making sure I exercise every day this week, no matter what. Success so far, and we’re already at Wednesday.
9/5/2019
972
Committed to a pretty serious cardio + pole workout today, which I completed while watching the end of the 6th season of Buffy. (Well, up until the end. Got 1 episode left to go for this particular re-watch.) And all I can say is...Bored Nowtm. {If you haven’t seen it, a) for shame! and b) this is a reference and c) look at the last picture!}
And still I cranked out 900 words. Good day. I’m thirsty.
9/6/2019
196
Friday with friends at the Sin Bin. My partner made Thai-flavored veggie meatballs while I cranked out a workout, took a shower, and got in a few words. I tell you what, it’s fucking sweet what you can accomplish when someone else does the cooking for you. You couldn’t pay me to live as a woman in the 1950s, but I think I see what men liked about it so much. White straight cis men, anyway.
-Tess
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Alternately, if you’ve never heard of The Choronzon Chronicles before, but you think you might check it out, you can find the first book right here: Shadow Summoner.