WRITING JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2017

WEEK FIVE

NOV 27-30

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November 27 Monday:

Writing was sluggish today! It was worth it though. Instead of buckling down and cranking out the words, I had to complete my routine Monday posts for Patreon first. Then I began writing but found myself… not. I wasn’t even wasting time on Twitter. In fact I barely looked at social media today. However, I was not moving things along for whatever reason.

I opened my word count window and felt so BLEHHHHHH. Why wasn’t it moving? I should have more! I ended up walking away from the desk three times while “writing.” I took two half-hour breaks to take the cats outside on the balcony because the weather was lovely (a little windy once in a while but not as bad as last week). Then I took Gus out for an hour walk through the yard and the woods and we had fun.

Eventually I reached 1500 words for the day and was less than a thousand from 50k. I thought, no problem, I can leave that until the morning and then it’ll be finished. After taking an actual break for catching up with news and Twitter, I decided to see if I could push through and get it finished. I did.

I had been planning on doing a yoga asana practice today, but I never got to it. I did some normal morning stretches, but that was all. As soon as I validated my word count, I got on the floor and enjoyed several breaths in a wide-knee child’s pose.

I’ll be updating more as I continue to work on Bear Roots. It’s a strange story, but one I hope people enjoy.Â

November 30 Thursday:

I’ve continued to write a little bit each day since reaching 50k. I spend most of two of those days doing research about hunting laws. You’d think I’d be an expert by now. I even dialed the phone! And spoke to a HUMAN! And had to leave her my number for her to look up an answer and call back! Which I then answered and spoke to again! It was horrifying.

But the funny thing, is there was no big surprise about asking questions about legal this and that. The law applying to one thing is supposed to apply to this other thing, but it’s not quite stated the right way so it’s “iffy,” her word not mine.

I will admit that all the scenes where I have to talk about hunting (which is the premise of the book) are hard. I’m trying to have characters who reflect the feelings I had in different moments in time from: humans are apex predators so that’s just life; to well if the animals are going to starve, it’s really more humane to kill them; to hey maybe we should be environmentally conscious and stop destroying their habitats to build malls that will sit empty. Seriously, in NJ you can go through any corporate park and find more than half of the buildings empty. There are huge buildings and parking lots just sitting there vacant. However, I’m not a PETA nutjob, but some of their information is useful; you have to be able to cherry pick which stuff though. I see a difference in hunting for food vs for trophies. And overpopulation and devastating herd diseases vs rich white people who go up in helicopters and shoot at animals trying to run for cover.

Gus has also continued to be a demanding little bugger. Yesterday he got a long walk for over an hour. Today, I tried to keep it short and take him out early into the cold morning. He definitely did not want to come back inside. It makes it hard to accomplish a writing session or a yoga session unless he’s asleep.

YOGA FOR WRITERS SERIES:

Asanas post with videos for neck, wrist and shoulders; sun salutations and hamstrings; sciatica pain relief and hip flexors.
Sadhana: how writing/creating can be part considered part of your daily spiritual commitment.
Non-Asana Yoga: Ahimsa, Saucha, Tapas, and Karma Yoga

Amber Unmasked

NaNoWriMo2017: week five COMPLETION!