bjornwilde

And I don't seem to have any creative writing that's pulling me in...behind a cut to save your f-list feed.

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Working form home to flatten the curve and my first day was educational. I am too used to being alone in my cube and being able to focus on my tasks. Being at home, I am not left alone. :D

I think a lot of my agitation today came from trying to get things all set up with the new working machines, software installs and getting all the setting my way, and I kept getting interrupted, both by fam and birds, and by coworkers on Skype. I also had some trouble with the network drives not working too fast over the internet, which is it's own thing I'll just have to get used to. Too much of my computer experience is having things down within 5 seconds.

I think tomorrow will be less stressful.

I have a new idea for a story I'm outlining. It's sort of a fantasy version of Guardians of the Galaxy or Firefly. Don't have much beyond characters, setting, and a few basic ideas of plot. Describing it as GotG or FIrefly did kind of spark some ideas though, so maybe the midden heed is a brewin'. At this point I've a psionic goblin who's a scavenger, a halfling Indiana Jones who wants investigate dead civilizations, and a lich that got tired of her tomb and wants to see how things have changed over the past eon or so. The setting is the astral plane a few centuries after there was a huge war among the various pantheons of gods; the remains of which are what the goblin salvages.

And now I have new ideas for that Alustin as a student fic and will be rewriting it again. I think I need to outline/brainstorm. :D

And got some of the new ideas out. Liking it more and I think it's more in tune with the older Alustin.

Alustin knew his worth and always had, any evidence to the contrary aside. Of course, there were times when he had nothing but his faith in himself to rally against the world. That belief in himself had always served him well though, and so he clung to it. It guided him when others would have taken advantage of him, like his elder siblings, the stuck up other students at Skyhold whose offers of friendship he knew were nothing more than a means to build themselves up at his expense.

Which honestly was good for him, but did leave him without a table to eat at during meals, nor a companion to share the time with.

Looking over the dining area he spotted a few empty areas, some with individuals or small groups of people, but something held him back. He wasn't sure what, just a feeling. He decided to wander towards the area he knew had the strongest illumination, even if it didn't have the broadest nor brightest light, and found only a single table with any space. It was a small table with only four seats, one of which was taken by a gorgon who almost seemed folded in on herself.

Alustin cleared his throat and smiled when she looked up, only as far as his chest he noticed, but he was careful to keep his teeth hidden, remembering that teeth were a sign of aggression to the gorgons. "May I share your table?"

She merely nodded to his question, though almost thinking better of it showed him the live rat she was about to eat.

"I am certain your eating habits will not be a problem for me." He took a seat opposite her and noticed she still had not met his eyes, instead looking down at the table. Was she shy? He tried a few more questions, but never getting an answer, decided to eat quietly. He also avoided looking at her face, wondering if it were a gorgon custom of some sort."

Posting so I can find the link and reread it often.

One Free Trick: How to Use the Writing Skills You Have to Learn the Ones You Don't by Arkady Martine

Good writing today, though I was really dragging my fee to do it. I'm taking a detour from my story to write a short story with two new characters from the book whom I've fallen in love with. 1343 words to it so far, and I might publish it somewhere as I think they're adorable.

If necromancy is a reality, but no laws exist against it, what legal action can happen to a necromancer who raises a spirit? Would there be a difference between a spirit vs some manner of dead body, e.g. a skeleton or zombie? Would there be a difference if the spirit was willing and gave consent to the raising? Would any legal action be criminal or civic in nature? If civic in nature, and assuming the family are the ones taking legal action, would it alter the case if the raised spirit gave consent? Who owns a dead body?

I don't think this is something for the book at present, but I kind of like the idea of a necromancer facing unique legal troubles.

In a similar vein, if a ritualist attempts to summon a demon for bad things, but is prevented from doing so by the good guys, would the cops have anything to arrest the ritualist? Like...if there was sufficient evidence, would that be akin to an attempted terrorist attack?

Health is heading towards very good places. I've been hitting a lot of yoga or yoga inspired mashup type group classes at the YMCA, which I am paying a family membership for. I'm already noticing a lot less knee and back pain, and my flexibility has vastly improved. I'm even noticing it's much easier for me to walk now. Like, before I always felt stiff but now I'm back to being the easy walking person I was ages ago. Seriously, I used to be able to walk from the Lower Haight to Northbeach in 45 minutes when I lived in SF, and now I'm heading back to that level of walking ability.

So will come the cardio.

I still am not a fan of downward dog, and likely never will be. I just don't do well with my head pointing down. It is getting easier though. I'm also a fan of warrior poses. Don't know why, they just feel right.

Writing has been progressing, although it's been 10 days since I've actually written anything. Lots of internal planning I need to get down. I would like my writing brain to stop changing the project though. Latest thing is to spin this world so that the First Peoples of the Americas have a lot more political clout, if not sovereignty. I think I have the basics of how, i.e. what happened differently to make this happen, but I am not sure I want to go there. Don't get me wrong, this is a very interesting idea to me and I love the idea of most of the people in my fictional San Francisco being much more ethnically diverse than is often shown. My current list of characters even supports this: (three white people, three African Americans, two Latina/Asians...okay, two of the white people are supporting characters, but still I am not being as diverse as I assumed.

Anyway, getting back on subject, I like the idea of this California not being run by people of white European dissent, but at the same time I am not qualified to portray or create a possible culture that develops from a Native Tribe or amalgam of several. I could just state this as fact and not go into details, which could work, but it goes deeper than that. Like, even city and street names would need to change cause why would they have Spanish names if the missions never happened or were overthrown? What would the city government be like? What would the technology be like? Or music? Would the city even look anything like the SF I know?

This all seems too big for a first novel.

ETA: And I think I've decided to include First Peoples in positions of power, like a police detective or college professor, and just imply by default that the native folk of the Americas are still around and in positions of authority and power.

You can over plan, if your insecurity with writing uses planning to keep you from writing. Yes, having an outline and notes is a good thing, but they don't make a story.

Also, edit spelling errors when you are done for the day, not as you work along. Keep the flow of words going. In fact, I seem to type faster and better if I don't look at the page at all.

1,150 words and a completed scene to my rough draft. \o/

Also, I'm starting to come up with ways of making this not only a modern fantasy (for some reason I've decided I don't like urban fantasy) but into a second world type of modern fantasy. Like, what if Native America tribes still had sovereignty and were essentially their own confederacy that stoped the Western Expansion? Like, if the USA was basically as it existed in 1812 and the Native Tribe rebelled and fought off Mexico during the midcentury. This would require lots of research and I think I'd rather wait until I get a rough draft out first, but I like the idea. Challenge would be what would the world be like then?

New project is now 1,600 words and I have more characters. To date there is only one white character and when my brain starts to think I need more, I stop and think, but the answer remains, Nah. The white guy has a reason for being a white guy, and I did consider if I shouldn't make him her instead, but he stays as is.

Pretty happy with the characters as they're developing, but I need to work on my female lead's voice more, as well as her story.

I've also been working on a 90s-tastic playlist for the project and getting some good stuff.