Officially, I have neither gained or lost weight. Unofficially, I’m pretty sure I’m down at least a pound, pound and a half. However, as today is quite possibly the first day of my period, I’m hella swollen and retaining water.
*le sigh*
I keep hoping for this damned thing to be over. Especially since the last three weeks have been pretty hellacious in terms of hormones. Eventually, it will pass. I’m sure of it. Just don’t know when…
I walked an average of 8.7k steps per day last week. Only had one day above 10K. Not bad for how the week went.
Last week, I wrote a little over 11K. I also finished a novel and started a new one. I wrote 47K for the month of August. Not the best, but not the worst. My goal is 50K per month. I’m really behind for the year. But that’s just how 2020 is going to go.
The new novel is very cool. I had been writing a lot of modern mystery. In a world that wasn’t 2020, I would have started the second or third novel in one of those series.
However, I can’t write anything set in the present day at this point. I would end up having to write something that was alternate timeline or something so I wouldn’t have to write about the plague, etc.
So I decided to start something completely new. A space opera series. Science fiction, not science fantasy. I spent the weekend coming up with aliens, technology, and plots.
I learned two things about my process this weekend.
At first, I came up with act one and act two of the first novel, and then got stuck on act three.
I tend to write into the dark. I don’t outline or plot. However, writer brain was insistent that I figure out what act three was of the first novel was before I could do anything else.
Once I figured out what act three was, I figured out WHY I had needed to know it.
Writer brain basically wanted to know if this was a series or a trilogy. Because I would approach the pacing of book one differently if it was a trilogy, versus a five book series.
The other thing I figured out was that I work from setting. While on this one I needed to know more plot, once I had that, I dove straight into setting, that is, the aliens, the technology level, the corruption level, how things work.
I had initially thought that this was strange, until I compared it to how I start an epic fantasy trilogy. Namely, I start out with the creation myths. How did they get there. And I also think a lot about the world, the environment, and how that shapes the characters.
What I was doing in terms of SF was no different. And I actually got to write out the creation myth of one of the more religious characters. So it’s been great fun.
I am intentionally writing “light” as it were. Sure, there are some serious parts and some serious implications for what’s going on. But over all, the tone is going to be light. That’s what I need to write at the present time. Light and fluffy.
Plus, I made my main character Hungarian. I figure this is an excellent way for me to work in some of my language learning. And it’s way fun. Makes me giggle.
This week, we start tearing apart the roof of the barn. Will be rebuilding that over the next couple of weeks. What new projects are you starting?