A BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Hello there! I’m Tess, a writer of dark urban fantasy stories, 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 as I write the first draft of my third book--and to see whether that log has any entertainment value. You could think of it like a captain’s log...but it’s almost definitely less exciting. Hope you enjoy!
11/10/2019
1326
Decent Sunday, all things considered. I wasn’t sure I’d pull a second big word count day, but here we are. Probably not gonna reach for another 5K week this week though, because I do have some cleaning/editing/re-working to do so I can make my finale work. And, of course, I’m having the usual complete-existential-break-down worrying about whether I should just go back and change everything because everything I’ve written so far is terrible and my finale will be terrible and I should probably just quit now.
It’ll pass. And then it’ll come again. And then it’ll pass again. On and on until world’s end.
11/12/2019
I’m not recording a word count for today, mainly because my actual word count does not accurately represent the work I did. I spent today editing/re-writing a pivotal scene in a pivotal way, and though the work was intensive and involved the writing of many new words...it also involved the deleting of many words, which Scrivener subtracts from your recorded total. And that’s okay. I knew I’d have to re-write this scene sooner or later, and that would mean a low-count day. So, that day is today.
Don’t want to bring anybody down, but I do want to be candid, so...dealing with some depression today. Not world-ending, but...just a little shitty. That’s all. I feel like it’s important to remember that everything comes and goes, including low moods.
Getting in our outside time…even though it’s kinda raining.
11/14/2019
1047
I finished up the re-write today, and I gotta say, I think it’s great. A millions times an improvement over my first pass at it. It’s crazy what an affect changing a few little things can have. I basically started by re-arranging the scene, and the rest of the changes flowed naturally from there--but they genuinely amp up the tension and release of the scene, and it just makes everything so much more impactful and emotionally resonant--or, at least, so I hope. Maybe it won’t translate for anybody in the world but me. Who knows?
Actually got a word count out of it today, too. And I did a touch of cleanup on an additional scene, and set up a part of another one. I can feel it all coming together at last! THE SHAPE OF MY DREAMS IS MADE MANIFEST.
Why, yes, sometimes I do imagine myself as a Frankenstein-esque mad scientist, working to bend the world to my will. Why do you ask?
Winter is coming! Not pictured: winter in Seattle.
11/16/2019
537
Ehhhh it’s fine. It’s fine. This is fine. No, really, it’s fine. Not the number count I wanted for the week, but...that’s what happens when you lose a day to revisions sometimes. Plus, I didn’t get ANY word count on Friday, because I went with my roommate to the gym for 2 hours instead. So, no word count, but DAMN my body felt good about that. Naturally, I followed it up with pizza, because YOU GOTTA LIVE SOMETIMES.
Today, had a friend over to watch the documentary “The Queens,” which follows drag queens Jynx Monsoon, Sharon Needles, Katya, and Alaska Thunderfuck. Overall, it was a pretty good documentary...although I don’t entirely understand why it focused solely on white drag queens, when traditionally the drag scene is actually pretty racially diverse (edit: and the 80s ballroom drag scene was predominantly powered by POC, etc.) Still, it was a fun watch. I love me some Katya. She’s the exact kind of human dump truck who’s finally lost contact with reality who really speaks for ME, ya know?
Sad, sad weekly total: 2,910
Damn, if I’d written 90 more words, I coulda cracked 3K. Ah well. With the surplus from last week, we’re still keeping an average of 4K a week, so not too bad.
11/17/2019
1042
So, Thanksgiving is in a week, and the partner and I went shopping down in Pike’s Place today to bring some treats back to Saint Louis for my mommy. It was a...shockingly quick and easy experience, apart from some rough moments on the bus ride down...which made me insist we Lyft back. There’s only so much public drunkenness from rude strangers that I can take in one day.
Also, ate part of a donut after having almost no sugar all week thanks to my current inflammation-conscious diet. And I was so overwhelmed by it that I gave the rest of it to my roommate...and went into a 15-minute coma. Guys, I don’t think sugar is good for us.
Then I went and wrote 1000 words. We’re almost in the end-zone here. Well...if I’m right about what “end-zone” means. Sports are dumb.
-Tess
Hey, thanks for reading! If you’re new here, and you’d like to hear updates on my writing, including these blog posts and my ongoing novel series, The Choronzon Chronicles, the click below to sign up for my email list!
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.
This is technically a preview of next week. Because I didn’t have enough pics for this week again!