Nothin' Much
Jun. 11th, 2009 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthWhile sitting on the train, I realized that I haven't posted an update in almost a month! I don't know what it is about this year, but it's really flying.
The reason for the lack of posts is that there hasn't been a lot going on. Ever since I had the flu in May (did I post about that? I can't remember, and can't check now cause I'm on my cell phone, not at home) I've been having all kinds of problems with my energy level - I just feel kinda tired more or less all of the time. My suspician is that this has less to do with the flu and more to do with the fact that I haven't been to the gym since then, compounded by the consistently cloudy weather and the fact that for a variety of reasons - some work and some fun - my schedule has included a lot of nights of less than 8 hours sleep, which I really need. Of course, when I wake up feeling drowsy, I don't want to go to the gym! Damn self-fulfilling blah blah.
Work has been inconsistently very busy - like, this week I've had two 11 hour days (well, I've had one already and today is the other). Actually, I'd prefer to clump my meetings like today, when I have four, but instead most end up one to a day, which is annoyingly inefficient especially when that one is way out in the Bronx at 9 am. Then again, today proves I need to reevaluate my travel timing - this is getting written because I'm more than a half-hour early.
Other than my usual museum going and such, the only thing I've really done was the trip out to Chicago and Bloomington for the wedding. Overall, despite very little sleep, I'd say this trip was an overwhelming success. I didn't have many goals, but I managed ti accomplish all but one of them (on my last day there, Sunday, I had hoped to be touristy in Chicago and hang out with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
buzzermccain but I had finally reached the "too tired to think straight" point and had to beg out). I even got some work done while I was there - but mostly I hung out with friends, did my best to help out, and watched tons of Supernatural.
At the risk of babbling too much on this topic, I feel it necessary to note that I can't think of anything since Harry Potter that has grabbed my attention (media, this is-Changeling and similar things don't count) like Supernatural has. I've spent a little time trying to figure out what it is about this that has me acting like an obsessed fangirl (ie, knowing I'd have no time today to watch it, I still decided to snag 10 minutes of viewing on the next episode while I devoured a bowl of cereal at 6:30 this morning). I realized that really, it should have been obvious. It's a show featuring two hot guys who have interesting personalities who pretty much ever episode get thrown into life-threatening situations, get there butts kicked, and yet always mange to win - though often not without immense angst and personal emotional trauma. This could be a textbook definition of the types of characters I find most appealing (See: previous character obsessions: Black, Sirius; al'Thor, Rand).
I'm kind of glad this happened now, though - I've been really thinking a lot about this kind of thing from the pov of a writer, namely: what makes a story compelling, and how can I replicate that? I've now done no writing other than for work since early November last year, but I still really want to finish Golden Age and then to seriously tackle a mystery set in the Civil War (the details of this book have been slowly coming together in my head, though it still lacks a detective protaganist, which is a problem) as well as finishing or at least continuing to play around with the stubs of Mastermind and Alan Saynsberry (alansaynsberry). While I was in IN (and a little bit on Tues when she was in town) swan_tower and I had an intermitten week-long conversation about a bunch of writing related topics which really focused my thoughts on a bunch of these topics - she's got a lot experienxe already, and it really helps me to try to put things into words, and since then (since I got back from the trip) I've been gearing up to start writing again, but it's hard cause I'm pretty busy with work - I work best in general in the morning, and I just haven't had time in the morning to do any writing - I think swan_tower was right though in suggesting that I not worry about writing any thing specific or a pre-determined amount - that if I want to start working on one of the Civil War books then I could just start exploring it with writing - I've still got so many questions to answer that I need to just explore some of them through writing.
If any one reading this has got something they really like that they've spent a bunch of time thinking about what they found appealing about it, I'd love to hear some of that - because I'm gonna be putting a bunch of time and effort into dissecting some of my favorite works and figuring out what makes them tick.
Beside all that, I've got nothing much to say. I've been working, watching baseball, working, watching Supernatural, drawing, working, cuddling with the dog, reading (I finally finished the Shelby Foote trilogy and am now working my way through a really awesome collection of William T. Sherman's war-time letters), and thinking. Once I get back to the gym, I'll pretty much have all of my balls in the air again, and that will make me happy.
Oh, and summer travel plans - I realized that I hadn't yet shared my summer schedule with people. I'm hoping to take some other short trips but given how much work I have (tons of deadlines for Aug 31) it probably won't happen. Here's the plan:
June 22nd (Tues) or so - June 27th or so (Sun): Origins
August 12th or so (Weds) - Aug 16th (Sun): Gencon
Sept 1 - Sept 22nd: Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam)
I've got some hopes for the fall, but nothing will be set until I get my work schedule more fixed.
Well, I managed to write a whole lot considering nothing much is happening. Imagine if there was stuff going on!
The reason for the lack of posts is that there hasn't been a lot going on. Ever since I had the flu in May (did I post about that? I can't remember, and can't check now cause I'm on my cell phone, not at home) I've been having all kinds of problems with my energy level - I just feel kinda tired more or less all of the time. My suspician is that this has less to do with the flu and more to do with the fact that I haven't been to the gym since then, compounded by the consistently cloudy weather and the fact that for a variety of reasons - some work and some fun - my schedule has included a lot of nights of less than 8 hours sleep, which I really need. Of course, when I wake up feeling drowsy, I don't want to go to the gym! Damn self-fulfilling blah blah.
Work has been inconsistently very busy - like, this week I've had two 11 hour days (well, I've had one already and today is the other). Actually, I'd prefer to clump my meetings like today, when I have four, but instead most end up one to a day, which is annoyingly inefficient especially when that one is way out in the Bronx at 9 am. Then again, today proves I need to reevaluate my travel timing - this is getting written because I'm more than a half-hour early.
Other than my usual museum going and such, the only thing I've really done was the trip out to Chicago and Bloomington for the wedding. Overall, despite very little sleep, I'd say this trip was an overwhelming success. I didn't have many goals, but I managed ti accomplish all but one of them (on my last day there, Sunday, I had hoped to be touristy in Chicago and hang out with
buzzermccain but I had finally reached the "too tired to think straight" point and had to beg out). I even got some work done while I was there - but mostly I hung out with friends, did my best to help out, and watched tons of Supernatural.At the risk of babbling too much on this topic, I feel it necessary to note that I can't think of anything since Harry Potter that has grabbed my attention (media, this is-Changeling and similar things don't count) like Supernatural has. I've spent a little time trying to figure out what it is about this that has me acting like an obsessed fangirl (ie, knowing I'd have no time today to watch it, I still decided to snag 10 minutes of viewing on the next episode while I devoured a bowl of cereal at 6:30 this morning). I realized that really, it should have been obvious. It's a show featuring two hot guys who have interesting personalities who pretty much ever episode get thrown into life-threatening situations, get there butts kicked, and yet always mange to win - though often not without immense angst and personal emotional trauma. This could be a textbook definition of the types of characters I find most appealing (See: previous character obsessions: Black, Sirius; al'Thor, Rand).
I'm kind of glad this happened now, though - I've been really thinking a lot about this kind of thing from the pov of a writer, namely: what makes a story compelling, and how can I replicate that? I've now done no writing other than for work since early November last year, but I still really want to finish Golden Age and then to seriously tackle a mystery set in the Civil War (the details of this book have been slowly coming together in my head, though it still lacks a detective protaganist, which is a problem) as well as finishing or at least continuing to play around with the stubs of Mastermind and Alan Saynsberry (
alansaynsberry). While I was in IN (and a little bit on Tues when she was in town) swan_tower and I had an intermitten week-long conversation about a bunch of writing related topics which really focused my thoughts on a bunch of these topics - she's got a lot experienxe already, and it really helps me to try to put things into words, and since then (since I got back from the trip) I've been gearing up to start writing again, but it's hard cause I'm pretty busy with work - I work best in general in the morning, and I just haven't had time in the morning to do any writing - I think swan_tower was right though in suggesting that I not worry about writing any thing specific or a pre-determined amount - that if I want to start working on one of the Civil War books then I could just start exploring it with writing - I've still got so many questions to answer that I need to just explore some of them through writing. If any one reading this has got something they really like that they've spent a bunch of time thinking about what they found appealing about it, I'd love to hear some of that - because I'm gonna be putting a bunch of time and effort into dissecting some of my favorite works and figuring out what makes them tick.
Beside all that, I've got nothing much to say. I've been working, watching baseball, working, watching Supernatural, drawing, working, cuddling with the dog, reading (I finally finished the Shelby Foote trilogy and am now working my way through a really awesome collection of William T. Sherman's war-time letters), and thinking. Once I get back to the gym, I'll pretty much have all of my balls in the air again, and that will make me happy.
Oh, and summer travel plans - I realized that I hadn't yet shared my summer schedule with people. I'm hoping to take some other short trips but given how much work I have (tons of deadlines for Aug 31) it probably won't happen. Here's the plan:
June 22nd (Tues) or so - June 27th or so (Sun): Origins
August 12th or so (Weds) - Aug 16th (Sun): Gencon
Sept 1 - Sept 22nd: Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam)
I've got some hopes for the fall, but nothing will be set until I get my work schedule more fixed.
Well, I managed to write a whole lot considering nothing much is happening. Imagine if there was stuff going on!
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