Because You're Not You When You Aren't Writing

Honestly? I got nothing.

I managed to finish my chapter on Saturday. Finished at about 4300 words. Unintentionally called it a week by not even bothering to write on Sunday. I probably could have, too. Quarthix and his fiance were over to character create for my upcoming first attempt at DMing a D&D campaign. One would THINK that would mean I'd be busy. However, I STILL don't know the game well enough to help answer questions without looking at the books myself. I could flip to exactly where in the book they can find the answer, but I don't know off the top of my head. So hubby was the one mostly helping those two build characters while building one himself.

Me?

I sat in the same room and watched the movie "John Carter" on TBS. So productive.

Anyway, my point is that Sunday was a bit of a writing wash, as was the rest of the week.

Between frantic cleaning and other such chores, doctors appointments, added work shifts, nursing my sick husband, filing taxes FINALLY, exercising - yup, just started that back up again; good timing - and an impromptu 4hr visit with Spink on Monday, I have no clue where this week went.

I attempted to write on Tuesday. Spent two separate hours on it. However, I had hit the point where I no longer had the posts from the forum pre-set for me to write. I also didn't realize that while my spreadsheet of the forum threads was extensive, it wasn't close to complete. So, I spent those two hours filling out more of the spreadsheet, and reading the posts.

I had written the last chapter to set up the next thing Hubby and I role played: Chayse helping Lia learn to control her transformation so she didn't burn through clothing. I hadn't read that segment in years. Had I done so I might have skipped over that entire closing segment of the chapter, because the training, while important for Lia's character, is very short and not the most entertaining.

So I'm trying to see if there are other such short, not entertaining enough for its own chapter, but crucial character development bits that I could mush together into one chapter. I THINK I have a few figured out, I just need to finish mapping everything. I'm stumped as to when I'll get any writing time this week, though.

Today I'll be at work until about 5pm, and so in theory I can probably get started today. Monday's are normally my big writing day since I'm usually off. This Monday, however, had the impromptu get-together with Spink, along with the exercising, frantic cleaning, laundry - in which I ended up spending the entire isolated time chatting with an old friend instead of writing - and some husband nursing.

Tomorrow would be my other big writing day most weeks. Hubby would go off to Friday Night Magic, a weekly gaming event in which gaming stores host tournaments for Magic: The Gathering. Since I don't play Magic, I use those quiet hours alone at home to write.

However, Hubby's fairly sick, and so I doubt he's going anywhere. He wouldn't be going to FNM this week anyway since he's not a fan of the style of play they're showcasing this week; there are multiple "versions" of Magic that get rotated through the schedule. Since Quarthix and his fiance aren't really into this week's FNM as well, there's a strong possibility we're turning tomorrow night into a Movie Night. Spink and her fiance may join in as well.

Otherwise, Spink and her man are possibly crashing my place for THEIR character creation for the D&D campaign. A campaign I still don't have a plot or adventure for. So I need to work on that in time for Sunday.

Saturday is another possibility for writing since I only work until noon. I'll still need to figure out the D&D campaign for Sunday, though, and I don't want to fall too far behind on my chores again. Not after the frantic cleaning I've done this past week. I'm really hoping to fit writing in on Saturday regardless. This not writing thing is just stressing me out.

Sunday would be my last-ditch effort to write. Hubby would be at work on the overnight. I would have difficulties going back to sleep, but I wouldn't want to stay out of bed to do things like clean. That way I can just pass out if sleep finally hits me.

It normally doesn't though. At least not for two or three hours. Sometimes as many as five. It's a decent writing chunk.

Not getting that this week though. This week has been such a crap-shoot for writing! They're down a guy at work, and since I'd be awake at 3am anyway to drop Hubby off at work, they are having me come in and help on the overnight shift. There goes the last of my quiet down-time.

Once that shift is over Hubby and I are going to crash, wake up, play D&D with Quarthix and his fiance, she's going to go to work, Quarthix might linger for a bit to hang, and once he finally leaves who knows if I'll still be alert enough to write. I could try.....

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comics
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I just can't get my head on straight with this writing thing. Everything else in my life seems to need immediate attention this week, and so writing gets pushed to the side. I wouldn't even be able to get my Book of the Month done if I hadn't started reading on my work breaks. I could go back to writing during them instead, since Hubby helped fix my netbook for travel. But I barely have enough time to boot up my computer, wrap my head around what I want to type, and get it on the screen before my break is done. Reading is simple. Flip open the book and go. Plus, I have a free hand to still eat and drink on my breaks when I'm holding a book. Not so much when I'm trying to type.

It's a good arrangement: read on work breaks. Makes sure that I read nearly every day, and helps me get through the reading challenge. I just wish I could equally find the time to write. This past week I've been either in the middle of something important, middle of eating - because I lost track of time, or still at work when my daily writing hour alarm went off. Even when I have time scheduled I STILL can't seem to find the time to write.

It's a downward spiral. I get frantically busy and can't write. So I'm cranky the next day because I didn't write. I get so cranky that I can't think straight, and end up not getting writing done a second day. Then I get REALLY cranky about missing two days in a row, which usually bums me out so much I don't even ATTEMPT on the third day. At this point I'm pissed at myself for not being productive at all during the week, which only makes my new-found writing depression worse. I get pissed that my chain of "no zero" days is shattered. I'm cranky in everything I do throughout the day because I'm doing that instead of writing. It's just bad.

Further proof that I'm supposed to be a writer? Reactions like this! When I'm a worse person when I don't write, and a happier person when I do. THAT'S how I know I'm supposed to write.

Anyway, enough complaining about how unproductive I've been this week. I actually have a couple hours left before work today, and so I'm going to try yet again to get SOMETHING on paper.

In the meantime, here's last week's chapter:

"More Than Meets the Eye"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

Running, Running, Running

Alright, so, even for a few weeks, and only for a scheduled hour, I still can't manage to write every day. Not even for something as puny as 500 words. It's a bit pathetic, actually. Even when I'm done with work later in the day, you'd think being out of the store by 3 would give me enough time to do everything else that I need done with an hour to spare to write.

You'd be surprised, apparently.

I keep letting Life get in the way, and it's annoying me. Really annoying me. But of course, once I set my mind to something as simplistic as "No one talk to me between 4 and 5pm because I'm writing," that's when I'm not even in my house during that hour. I guess it makes sense. As soon as I went "I'm moving my updates to Thursdays since I have them off all the time," that's when I started consistently working them.

Once again I'm debating switching my writing updates. Perhaps Mondays since I have them off. Maybe I'll even change my availability so that I never again work Mondays. Then again.... I need money, and that would be a dumb move if they need me on Mondays in the future. Which will most likely happen as soon as I move my blog update days to them.

I did manage to hit my 3500 words a week goal, though. Barely. I wrote about 1200 words on Monday in order to finish up the previous chapter - which I believe I already commented on last week - and then I finished up this week's chapter at about 2000 words. In one sitting. It was a semi-long sitting.

I was so mad that it kept me until Friday to write anything - besides this blog - and so I just sat in silence, and wrote. Next thing I know, I have the chapter done. It's short, compared to my other writings, but it seemed to have a natural stopping point that I listened to.

Saturday I edited, polished, and added a few more words to both improve the chapter, and get me the remaining 300 words I needed for my weekly goal.

I haven't had any sort of comments on really any of the chapters in The Second Generation Begins, and so I'm a bit nervous about how this chapter is/will be received. It's basically a retelling of the earlier chapter "Rescues and Robots," but through Lia's Point of View. I was debating breezing over this solo-role play that I did on the board, but I feel like it really showcases Lia's character, and the bond growing between her and Chayse. So, I rolled with it. It's tiny, and so I hope it works and isn't too boring.

"Giant Robots of Death"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I'm now working on the chapter I originally thought I was going to write when I started "Giant Robots of Death," but with the natural stopping point I had at the end there, I just couldn't continue on to the next scene.

So, now we have Lia tracking down Chayse. It was weird trying to figure out whose POV I was going to use for this chapter. Whose chapter was it? In the end I went with Chayse. I had two Lia chapters in a row already, and the lead-in to the chapter included a conversation between Chayse and Gambit that Lia wouldn't have been around to hear anyway. I could have had her hear it when she found Chayse, but it would have been hard to stop her from interrupting it.

Also, my husband isn't nearly as descriptive as I am. He writes enough that you know what's going on, but he doesn't add in things to showcase personal ticks a character would have. For instance: Lia, when nervous, bites her lip and plays with orange streaks she keeps dyed in her hair; Willow, when feeling particularly mischievous gives herself a Cheshire Cat illusion of ears, twitching cat tail, and large grin; Trish, when bored, plays with fire the way that someone might play with a lighter: snaps her fingers to create a flame, snuffs it, snaps to create another one, snuffs it, etc.

Does the reader need to know these ticks? Not really, no. Especially when the reader is simply another player on the board. Hubby's lack of elaboration keeps play moving. We know enough to set the scene and interact. That's all that matters.

For novelization, however, we need a touch more. Otherwise Chayse is this blank canvas that allows every individual reader the ability to paint him completely unique to their own imagination. It's not a bad tactic; a lot of books are starting to purposely be vague in character description specifically for that point.

It's not me, though. I have a set image in my head, and I feel it's my job to try to portray it so that everyone can see the same image I do. Again, personal preference.

Which is another reason why I try to get into Chayse's head whenever possible. I've talked with Hubby enough to more-or-less know what goes on in there - same with Devon - and so, if I can't at least figure out exterior ticks that will showcase his state of mind, I can literally go into it to show the reader what's up.

I can have another character note Lia's lip biting while playing with her hair, and the readers should know that she's nervous or self-conscious. Chayse hides this feeling - for the most part - because he feels he needs to be the rock for the other students. In which case, if he's nervous or unsure about something, I have to dive into that cranium to let the readers know that.

Anyway, those are all my reasons behind the POV switch to Chayse in the upcoming chapter.

It's going moderately well in the writing schedule front. I wrote about 1600 words on Monday; a good start. I'm about half-way through the scene. I also just picked up on how much Lia used to tease and call Chayse nicknames. When I originally wrote Lia, I was definitely channeling Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series. The way she picked on him, and called him things like Seaweed Brain. Lia did the same exact thing to Chayse.

Picking on people and giving them nicknames has evolved into an exclusively Willow thing, and no one calls Chayse "Cajun" anymore either. I like the change up. It definitely fits Willow's personality more. It will be interesting to explain that transition, though. Also, maybe it's about time Lia starts calling Chayse "Swamp Brain" again whenever he's being particularly stupid.

Tuesday got away from me, but I did read off what I wrote so far for the chapter while I was at my writing group. There wasn't really much by way of comments on the story itself - not that I would really alter anything since this is all just conversion from the roleplay - but we did get into a semi-long discussion about X-Men in general once I was done.

Yesterday also got away from me. By the time I was done with work, and dinner, I was back out the door to drive about 45minutes to a movie theater - because I live in nowheresville with a one-screen theater that isn't showing Deadpool - in order for me, Hubby, and two of our friends to FINALLY do our Valentine's Day double-date. I wasn't feeling well at ALL on V'day, Hubby was exhausted from the overnight shift, and one member of the other couple also wanted to just stay in, due to how insanely cold it got randomly over the weekend.

Anyway, my point is that between work, dinner, drive down to the mall, watching the movie, and the drive home from the mall, I had maybe an hour total to just sit at home and chill. I SHOULD have used it to write, but I needed a mental wind-down, and so it was spent catching up on Facebook, emails, and DeviantArt uploads by artists I follow.

Sadly, I also have no hope for getting any fiction writing done today. Due to my slacking yesterday, my "first thing in the morning writing" that I COULD be using for fiction is instead being utilized to write this post. Then it's work. Then it's come home, change, grab something to eat real quick while clipping coupons that I've been avoiding all week. Then back out to the store with Hubby to grocery shop for the week, then over to the fabric store to FINALLY get more to maybe ACTUALLY finish that darn blanket for my nephew, then off to Walmart to pick up a small array of things we need, and then FINALLY back home again. Grab some more grub, unwind for a bit, and then MAYBE get writing done. It's possible, but doubtful.

Maybe if we also include a run to the laundromat today. I could bring my headphones - which I always seem to forget - and write while doing laundry. If not, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow, and I'll get a lot of writing done again. Between laundry and Hubby being away for his weekly Magic thing, I'll have plenty of downtime to utilize.

I have high hopes of completing this chapter on schedule. I might even get the 3500 words a week yet again. I have no hopes of ever writing 500 words daily again until I can get the world to follow me with getting on schedule.

Silly, Life, just work with me, here!

One last fun little note to shout out. I don't recall if I mentioned this last year, due to me trying to keep my private life out of this blog if it didn't directly affect my writing one way or another, but my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a very aggressive strain of cancer. It was a rough go, but the woman is.... is there a word for "Scrappy" on steroids? Anyway, she'd a fighter that's too stubborn to die before she gets more time with her grandbabies - and sees the ones that I'll produce, I'm sure - and managed to do what apparently only 11% can.

This Tuesday she found out that she is officially cancer free! She also discovered that she somehow fractured a rib on each side.... but she's cancer free!

Facebook sticker Hacker Girl
by Birdman Inc

Alright, now that I have that out of my system, I should probably get ready for work. I'll catch you next week, with hopefully a better daily writing record....

Can We Fast Forward to Next Week?

This has been a very fast week, and a massive productivity crapshoot.

I wasn't able to finish the X-Future: The Second Generation Begins chapter before the end of Sunday due to a whole bunch of chaos last week. So, I started this week attempting to finish the darn thing, edit it, and get it published. It was a difficult battle in doing so.

Mainly because at some point on Sunday I busted the charger cable for my netbook. Still don't know how or when. It was working fine earlier in the day, and then it just stopped working for me when I moved from the bedroom to the living room. Hubby was able to get it at JUUUUUUST the right angle for it to still work, but it had to be at exactly that angle. Then it was over to our friends' house for the Super Bowl, and once more Hubby had to set up the charger at the proper angle for it to work.

Then Monday came around. I made the mistake of shifting which outlet my laptop was plugged into after Hubby was at work. I couldn't get the charger to work any longer, but I had a full battery. However, between everything I needed to do, the battery drained faster than I anticipated. Before I knew it, I was done with the writing, but not the edits of the chapter. However, my laptop was blinking that it only had 10percent battery left. I struggled with the charger for a good half-hour or so. The laptop was now frantically beeping that it only had about 5percent battery life left, so I caved in and turned the dang thing off.

Between attempting to get the laptop to bring up a menu it's supposed to after hitting FN+ESC - which it refused to do - and scanning everywhere else on the computer, I finally gave up. I took the battery pack out - since it was turned off anyway - to finally find the model number so I could buy a new charger online. Problem was, the only one on Amazon that listed my laptop's specific model number also had a 1star review saying that it didn't work for said specific model - there were about a dozen listed that it was supposedly compatible with - even though it claimed it would. Nervous that I was buying something I wouldn't use, I bit the bullet and bought the cord anyway since there were no other options that I could find in my frantic panic.

I got the cable in the mail yesterday, it works fine - stupid 1star reviewer - but it's about half the length of my original cable, so now I'm stuck working on my laptop only about 2ft from an outlet. Thankfully, Hubby bought me that new battery a few months back, so I can unplug once it's fully charged so it's not as big of an issue. But if I want to finish up something when the laptop is dying, off to my little outlet corner I must go.

Anyway, so it's Monday, my laptop is dead, and I still have to finish with my writing hour and posting the chapter. I decide to go on to Hubby's laptop to do so; thanking myself for writing everything in Google Docs so that I don't need my specific laptop to finish.

Problem is, I didn't want to screw up Hubby's Chrome settings, so I logged in under Incognito Mode. Except, Google Docs won't work unless I log in. Thinking "I'm in incognito, it will be fine" I went ahead and logged in to Google Docs, which logged me in to Google+, which then reset all of Hubby's Chrome presets to mine. Weirdly enough, even though we never went onto my computer under Hubby's account, when I revived my laptop yesterday my Chrome had all of his presets. Weirdest part is that Hubby's laptop claims it's set up under his Google+ account, and my netbook says it's logged in under mine. So, why do I have Hubby's presets and bookmarks, and he has mine? We have yet to figure this out, and so we're slowly rebuilding all of our bookmarks and the like. It's quite frustrating. So much so that I didn't want to bother looking at my computer at all yesterday.

So, mark that as a Zero-Day for writing.

Back to Monday. So, I'm on Hubby's laptop. Logged in on Google Docs. Finished the chapter, edited it, and published on DeviantArt and FanFiction. I was even proud of the fact that I didn't even get my full hour of writing in, but I still managed about 1200 words!

If you'd like to check out the chapter. You can find it here:

"Could Be Twins"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

I wanted to go straight into the next chapter. It should be significantly shorter since it's mostly written out via role play, there's not much I'll need to alter, and there isn't any new room I need to describe. I thought that maybe this would be the week where I could get the X-Future chapter done, as well as get another writing prompt set up for my meeting this upcoming Tuesday.

Instead, I have yet to even START the chapter. Stupid computer.

By the time I gave up attempting to revive my computer, and found a cable I could order to charge it again, I barely had any time left before Hubby was done with work. He came home, we celebrated the Lunar New Year - yeah, because wearing all that red was really bringing me good luck; thanks Year of the Monkey - and then he played some more Skyrim while I finished posted my chapter. I just didn't have the energy to get started on the next chapter after that whole headache. Especially since the actual chapters are in Google Docs, but the list of posts I was converting are all on my private laptop. I'd have to manually sift through all of the X-Future posts all over again to try to gather up what I needed. I wasn't ready to do that with everything else going on already.

Tuesday was a real bummer. I had to be in work an hour before my shift to drop Hubby off, and I had to stick around an hour after my shift for Hubby to clock out. I could have gotten so much writing done, but nope. Computer was out of commission. At least I got some reading done.

Same with yesterday. I had another three hours or so bookending my shift after dropping off Hubby and waiting for him to clock out. Once again, I didn't have my computer to write on, so I read. I guess that's a plus at least.

I had decided to start up "Life, The Universe, And Everything" by Douglas Adams. It's the third installment in the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series. I wasn't sure what book category I wanted to read next, and so I figured I'd go back to Hitchhikers - it's a small enough book that I can easily carry it in my purse - for the challenge. I wanted to go with "A book you abandoned" but I couldn't recall which one that was. Part of me feels fairly certain that I finished "Life, the Universe, and Everything" and that I abandoned the next book "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." However, Hubby doesn't remember me finishing "Life..." and so, I don't want to start up "So Long..." if I never finished "Life..." But what if I did finish "Life..."? Is this a waste of reading time? I read too slowly for me to be able to get this and another book done within a short month, especially when I missed the first week of it!

Well, then I rationalized that even if I did finish "Life..." I can still mark it off as one of two books: "A book I've read at least once before" or "A book published before I was born". And if it turns out that I was right, and I didn't finish this book the first go, I can use it as I originally intended: the abandoned book.

I think it was the abandoned book, because it's already starting to annoy me. While the first two books were fantastic and hilarious - and I have chuckled at this one too - there's something about the situations Arthur finds himself in that seem a bit too over-the-top compared to the earlier novels. I'm pushing though it, though. I think another hiccup is that in the first two books, Arthur is out in the galaxy, experiencing new worlds and cultures. I'm just as new to these worlds as the protagonist. I'm learning with him. "Life..."? Well, there's a whole section dealing with cricket and general English culture that makes sense to those that live in Adams' native country, but for a foreigner like me, I'm confused as to what is going on. On top of that, since Adams' assumed most of his audience knows exactly what is going on, he felt he didn't need to explain anything. Which confuses me more. If it were an alien thing that he's pitching at the readers, he'd know we had no clue, and so he'd explain things. Cricket? Nah. People know what's up.

I mean, I did play a game or two of cricket in college - thank you, eccentric Communications professor - but I don't recall much of anything. So, my brain is about as fried as Arthur's at this point in the book.

I'm hoping to get past the overboard opening of this book and power on through it, and enjoy it enough to want to read the remaining three books in the series.

I'm just batting 1000 with these series books. First, the Kane Chronicles were sort of lackluster for me, and now Hitchhikers.... I need more Percy Jackson....

Alright, I know I've been sort of all over the place with this post, and honestly, I don't have the time to bother going back and editing it to be more linear. So, let's recap, shall we?

Monday: Tried writing. Laptop died. I had a freak out for about an hour. Finished writing, editing, and publishing the chapter via Hubby's laptop. Celebrated Lunar New Year.

Tuesday: Laptop still down due to no charger. Fat Tuesday/Doughnut Day/Faschnact Day/Mardi Gras. Ate a lot of doughnuts. Spent all morning, and the early part of the afternoon at work without access to a computer to write. Tried reading instead. Got home and frantically cleaned. Two co-workers showed up a few hours later in order to build their new X-Future characters. Had a grand-old-time, but didn't have the ability to steal Hubby's laptop for writing. Zero Day.

Wednesday: Another day where I spent the majority of it at work, but with no access to a computer in order to write. Read instead. Attempted to get home, only for the soft metal of my car key to bend in the lock. Had to have the in-laws drive us home in order to get the spare. Had a headache of a time to make more spare copies in case this happens again. Don't actually make it home until after 6pm. Ate dinner, got frustrated at life, read some more. Passed out at 8:45pm. Zero Day.

Thursday: Got up early to write this post. Something is up, though, and I've been having stomach issues all morning. Hopefully it won't cause me to go a third day in a row without writing something fictional. I have to do grocery shopping, and laundry today. I'm hoping to write while doing laundry at least. This week hasn't been going well for me.

And now I'm off to get ready for work. I'm really REALLY hoping for a turn-around today, and the rest of the week.... With any hope, I'll still have a new chapter for everyone next week. I'm just sorry for anyone who had been following my writing prompts anthology since I've been slacking on that.

The Challenges Continue

Well, I'm doing moderately worse this week, but at least I have stuff to show you from the conclusion of last week.

The "writing for an hour and getting at least 500 words" daily goal seems to really be working for me. That is, when I get to writing.

Yup. Got a few Zero Days under my belt.

Still, as of right now I'm still holding on to my New Years Resolution of "no more than three in any given week". Well, holding on since I started the challenge. We're ignoring January existed.

Last week I did fantastically with the daily writing hour. Every day, 4pm to 5pm. Then I was stuck at work during my writing hour last Thursday. I managed to get two hours of writing in while working on the blog post, but I was too drained to write anything creative. One Zero Day. Friday I was just mentally shut down. I tried to write, but three hours later I still only had about 300 words. It wasn't a Zero Day because I accomplished SOMETHING; made the effort. Still, I was now behind about 700 words in my creative writing. Luckily, Wednesday's writing frenzy more-or-less covered those two days.

Saturday I was home alone most of the day, so I was able to finally finish the rest of the chapter I was working on for X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. I still had one more day left in the week, and so for Sunday's writing hour I cranked out the writing prompt story for this Tuesday's writing group. I honestly had no clue where I was going with that story. That was pure channeling. I just placed my fingers on the keyboard and let them do their thing. Still, I like what resulted from that.

If you were interested, you can see both new bits of writing I managed this week below.

"The Second Generation Begins:
Getting Into (Pseudo) Trouble"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

"Own Little City"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

After a mostly successful week, you'd think I'd be riding the momentum into another one, right? Yeah, me too.

Monday ended up being cleaning and errands day, followed by celebrating Shadow's birthday. I ended up not having the hour - or even fifteen minutes - to spare so I could work on the start of the next chapter. If you don't count last Thursday because I was at least writing this blog, Monday was my first official Zero Day since I started this challenge. Quickly followed by a second one.

Ironic that I ended up not doing any writing on the day I go to my writing group. I got home from work, had a few hours before Hubby needed to be home, had every intention of writing, and then Shadow asked me to call. Thinking it was a quick catch-up on what we were discussing the night before, I complied. Next thing I know, I only have a half-hour before Hubby would be done with work, and I was still in my own work clothes. I rushed around to get a quick shower, and then out the door I went.

Got home a few minutes after my daily writing hour started, but both Hubby and I - who neglected lunch due to the phone call - were starved. Once dinner was done and a few more neglected chores were taken care of, it was time for me to get to the writing group meeting. I honestly can't recall what kept me from writing when I got home, though. I know I hid in my room for the next hour in an attempt to still keep my daily writing. I'm pretty sure I spent the entire time instead chatting with Cyhyr online. I was trying to get her to poke her husband Ronoxym into doing one of three things:

1. Send me his prose. At the beginning of the year, when I was setting up my challenges with everyone, I sent Ron the challenge to complete one piece of prose per month. It could be a one-shot, a chapter, a scene, even a section of dialogue. I didn't care how large or small the prose was, I just wanted to see him complete SOMETHING every month. Last I chatted with him, Ron said he was ready to send me something by the end of January, and yet....
2. Send me his challenge. Since I sent him the above challenge, along with a few other writing stipulations to try to help him focus, Ron wanted to send me a year-long challenge in response. According to him, he has one already in mind for me, but it was too long and complex to try to send to me while on his phone. He was supposed to send it to me once he got to a computer, but it's a month later and still no challenge. Probably for the best considering how behind I am on my current challenges.
3. WORK ON PLEASE, LET ME EXPLAIN. Any form of "work." Write more, edit what I sent him, fix the outline, edit the middle section that has been waiting for almost a YEAR to be polished and published. I'd take anything....
   

Apparently, Ron wasn't really focused on writing at all last month; too busy trying to find alternative means of getting money - legally, I feel the need to add. It's a noble alternative to recreational writing, but the way he's going about attempting to get more money....

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comics

Anyway, as Cy and I were talking, we decided that she would pick up the slack for her household. If Ron wasn't going to write, she would. She discussed how hard it was for her to have the mental energy to put anything down on paper nowadays. So I introduced her to the glories of "No Zero Days." She agreed that this was much more manageable - aside from her "Day of Rest" on Mondays, which are just utter chaos for her - and we decided on the simple challenge of "one sentence a day."

That's it. Just to say it wasn't a "Zero Day" and to help chip the story away a little bit at a time. Even one sentence will slowly get the story written. Much better than no sentences, and the story stays in your head forever. Who knows, these one-sentence-a-day writing briefs may lead to an exciting scene where she ends up spilling 2000 words onto the screen. The point is that she's writing.

Sure, losing 10lbs a week is exciting, but losing 1lb a week will still get you to a healthy weight. Maybe not as fast, but at a pace you can comfortably stick with, and that might lead you to maintaining that weight better than the fast-loser. Writing can be the same way. If you're frantically writing 1700 words a day, like you would during NaNo, you may get that novel done in a month. But who could keep up that pace and crank out a story every other month - one for writing, one for editing? More than likely, that kind of writing would burn you out, have you give up on writing for a while to recharge, and end up only getting one or two stories out a year anyway. So, why not spend the whole year writing that novel - still the NaNo 50,000 words - 137 words at a time? A simple 137 words, that's less than the number that's in this paragraph! Sure, it's a bit more than "one sentence a day", but not by much. And you can stick with this every day easily. End result will be roughly the same as that frantic NaNo-minded writer.

Now, that's not to say that people CAN'T write 2000 words a day. Some even knock out 10,000 words! It's all just a matter of how your brain is wired, and what your life situation is like. A person who sits in their ideal writing location for eight hours straight can most likely write 10,000 words easily. A person who barely has 15 minutes to sit down? Not as easy. Still, writing even that one sentence a day is important. It's telling yourself - and the world around you - that writing is important to you. You're not going to let it slip onto the back burner any longer. You are going to at least give it as much time and effort as you would brushing your teeth every day!

So, I say, if you're a writer as well, and are struggling to find time, even if you can't follow Ali Luke's advice to carve out 15minutes a day, you can follow Cyhyr's challenge and just write one sentence. Go ahead. Prove to yourself that writing is important enough that you won't let another day go by without doing SOMETHING writing related.

And now enough of that.
*Steps off soap box*

Back to my own writing; which I neglected for two days, even after that rousing speech above.

Yesterday I was determined. I took some time at work to go through my files, and organized what I wanted the next X-Future chapter to be. I hid away in my room for a little bit. Later in the day I did so again. I needed to get back on track. I needed more than 500 words. I needed the 1000 that I missed the first two days of the week. It kept me about three hours, off and on, but I did it. I got up to 1600 words. I have no clue how much of that I'll be keeping though.

The next chapter in TSGB is going to be focused on Lia watching footage of her mom's training in the X-Men War Room. It's an impressive room that will be brought up a few more times in the future. Thing is, I think it will only come up once or twice more before I break off for the 2yr time skip. In other words, the majority of the War Room use will be in the NEXT X-Future book I write. Which will also mean redescribing it for people who didn't read TSGB. Still, I wanted to paint the room. Painting the room is what took 1600 words.

I mean, I had Lia do some actions while she walked around the room in a self-guided tour of the sub-sub-basement she had never been in before. It's not ENTIRELY description of a room, but still, 1600 words seems like a LOT. I'll have to see what I can whittle it down to. In the meantime, it's there as establishment.

I can also relax a bit, knowing that I can comfortably go back to my daily writing hour from here on out, and still have my chapter done - in theory; we'll see how long it gets.

I can also relax a bit because I don't have writing group for two weeks, and Phfylburt has officially pulled my weekly challenges from him, at least until I'm done with the Writers’ Huddle challenge. It was a smart move. I thought I could conquer it all - the writing challenge, Phfyl's weekly challenges, and the bi-weekly writing group prompts - with the new daily writing regimen. I should have known better. Should have known that each TSGB chapter would take just about all 3500 words I aim for each week.

I tend to do this though. Spread myself too thin by taking on too much once I'm excited about a project. I mean, I do this ALL. THE. TIME. So, I'm thankful that Phfyl noticed my true ability, and pulled his challenge in the meantime.

Now, to get cracking on the actual, TRUE action of the next TSGB chapter....