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!
9/22/2019
561
Today, sadly, was driving back day. (Driving back from a mini-vacation, if you’re skipping posts.) It was also the day that we went out to explore Fort Worden, which was pretty neat. Pics below. And then we ended things with a traditionally huge brunch at one of the most oddball cafes in existence. It was great.
Definitely haunted.
Is a thing scarier empty, or full of military personnel?
My graciously willing model.
I assume this is where the military used to perform the necessary rituals to keep Cthulhu at bay.
9/23/2019
178
Severe abdominal pain takes her out of the running for several days.
Had a bit of a harsh come-down from my vacation. Isn’t that always the way? I took an extra day off, with the intention of getting some more writing done...and then this horrific abdominal pain struck. I think it was actually stress induced, despite happening right after vacation. I’d been pretty stressed out before the family emergency, so when that happened...my poor little nerves decided it was time for a whole lot of constipation. Which I’m guessing wasn’t helped by our bread-heavy weekend.
I spent the first half of the week recovering. Then I spent the second half of the week giving myself a break. The thing is, I’d gotten to an emotionally difficult chunk to write anyway, and I knew that I needed to be completely ready before I could actually write it. So, I took a little time.
Sometimes you just gotta.
9/29/2019
1206
Comes back swinging! Alas, the hardest part of falling off the wagon is climbing back on. But I think I may have done it today. I want to get back to writing at least 4K words a week, so getting past 1K for today is a good start. Overall, it was a pretty good day. I spent a lot of time during my break last week thinking about how I want the next part of the story to go, and thinking about why some of it had felt so difficult to write. Granted, some of the difficulty was just overall stress. But some of it was more than that.
And I think I pretty much worked it out with myself. Acknowledged my fears and set them aside, and came up with a structure for how to handle the next few beats. Started up today feeling refreshed and ready, like 1200 words ain’t no thang.
10/1/2019
885
Got a decent workout in. I hadn’t done pole (dance) in about two weeks, so I had to start the careful process of reminding my muscles what they can do and steadying their strength again. I really wish I had the time to dedicate to pole that I was able to do a few years ago, when I geared up for my one and only performance, but alas, my life is different now. You can’t really have a full time job AND write and market for over 20 hrs a week AND occasionally enjoy yourself AND train 14-16 hrs a week on the pole. I’ve made my choices.
That being said, I manage to mostly maintain in pole. For the most part, my effort is expended toward making sure I always get some cardio every day--or almost every day--and making sure that I get some upper body strength building at least twice a week, preferably 3 times. Some weeks are better than others, but on average, that’s what I manage.
So, did some cardio, did some pole. Started a re-watch of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. I kinda wanna do an essay on it, so I guess I’m just going to start building a list of the essays I want to write...and maybe try to figure out when I actually have the time to write them.
10/3/2019
760
Didn’t write on Wednesday, but I did get two blog posts lined up and ready to go live on consecutive days. I think I need to start posting two a week for a little while. I have a sneaking suspicion that the autopost feature ends up making the algorithm bury the posts, but...I’m kinda more interested in holding myself accountable to regular posts than I am in engagement right now.
Watched some more of The Haunting of Hill House while I did my workout today. My arms felt much more up to the task of poling than they did on Tuesday, so I think I can rest assured that taking more than a week off didn’t backslide me too much. That’s good.
Unfortunately, I ended up getting sucked into the show and watching way too many episodes, so I didn’t start writing until kinda late. Ahhhh well. Over 700 still isn’t terrible.
10/4/2019
471
Man, I love a Friday that surpasses 300. And after not quite hitting what I’d hoped yesterday, it feels especially good to partially make up for it today. Plus, I got in some pretty decent cardio, and I did all my laundry and threw on a makeup look! Feeling productive and successful and fashion all at once.
Watched Hocus Pocus with the buds, which felt like a pretty good way to kick off Halloween month. Time for a picture of my Halloween shrine!!
Halloweeeeeeeeeeen!
-Tess
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