clevermanka (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clevermanka) wrote2019-06-28 08:23 am
clevermanka) wrote2019-06-28 08:23 am
Friday Update
Yesterday lasted forever and it was mostly terrible.
I had a great time driving to Kansas City for a Costco trip with a friend. It's always a pleasure to make the trip with someone who doesn't want to spend half an hour in the electronics section and then stroll around the rest of the store looking for deals/impulse purchases. I like getting in and out as fast as I can, especially since it's a forty-minute drive just to get there. We left Lawrence a bit after 11a and were home just after 1p so that was great.
When I got home, though, I was so tired I could barely force myself to put away the perishables and stuff my face just enough to avoid nap-thwarting hunger (thank dogs I'd had the foresight to buy a rotisserie chicken). For as tired as I was, it took a stupid amount of time to fall asleep, and I was only out for about half an hour. When I woke up I didn't feel much (if any) better and it took me a while to get up. All in all I spent nearly three hours in bed and the most it gave me was the ability to walk without stumbling.
Then I got hit with an anxiety/sad bat around 8p and didn't fall asleep until after 1a. Part of that was caused by FB showing me this picture from 2012 and I just...y'all, that me is so far away I can't even see it from here (I keep my online identity far removed from my legal name just FYI so please don't ever reference anything about Clever Manka if we're connected there).
I'm trying not to rely on ~substances~ to help me sleep, but the only way I've been able to get more than three consecutive hours is when I drug myself and that's...expensive (not to mention annoying) when your tolerance is as high as mine.
So yeah, I'd say I still have cortisol and fatigue issues. sigh I'm taking it easy today. Damn it.
The good news is I was right about the airbrush problem! I just couldn't fix it because it was literally too small for me to see (stupid aging eyes). When I proposed my theory about the coupler being detached and reconnected wrong,mckitterick took it apart and immediately found an o-ring that was doubled-over. He flattened that out, reattached the hose and voilà controlled air again! Perhaps if I am very good and quiet this morning I'll have the stamina to resume the sketchbook spread I started on Wednesday.
I've only got two weeks to make three badges for Con*Strict and if I don't get started on the actual projects instead of just practice work by Sunday, they're not gonna get done in time. So that's a little stressful but on the other hand it means I get to seesplix and write_out and meet ride_4ever in two weeks so it balances out as a win.
Shit, I'm leaving for Vegas two weeks from today. That just sunk in. eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
In writing news, I know how I want to start the next Guardian fic (a short-ish Porn With Feels about first times) but am feeling daunted about the longer idea I have rattling around--a ghost story AU that's a fusion with an old (like 1939 old) romance novel called Tryst (one of my favorite books ever and seriously cries out to be mashed up with Guardian). Does anyone have suggestions for a newbie writer about outlines and such, including any free software suggestions?
It's ironic that I live with someone who literally teaches fiction-writing for a living but he's swamped with his actual paying customers right now. He'll be available to me again after next week but I know our brains are very very different from each other so it's possible that his techniques won't work well for me and it's good to have multiple options.
Remember when I said I wasn't gonna watch this show?
ETA: holy crap my screenshot of a tweet that I posted on Tumblr apparently took off overnight.
I had a great time driving to Kansas City for a Costco trip with a friend. It's always a pleasure to make the trip with someone who doesn't want to spend half an hour in the electronics section and then stroll around the rest of the store looking for deals/impulse purchases. I like getting in and out as fast as I can, especially since it's a forty-minute drive just to get there. We left Lawrence a bit after 11a and were home just after 1p so that was great.
When I got home, though, I was so tired I could barely force myself to put away the perishables and stuff my face just enough to avoid nap-thwarting hunger (thank dogs I'd had the foresight to buy a rotisserie chicken). For as tired as I was, it took a stupid amount of time to fall asleep, and I was only out for about half an hour. When I woke up I didn't feel much (if any) better and it took me a while to get up. All in all I spent nearly three hours in bed and the most it gave me was the ability to walk without stumbling.
Then I got hit with an anxiety/sad bat around 8p and didn't fall asleep until after 1a. Part of that was caused by FB showing me this picture from 2012 and I just...y'all, that me is so far away I can't even see it from here (I keep my online identity far removed from my legal name just FYI so please don't ever reference anything about Clever Manka if we're connected there).
I'm trying not to rely on ~substances~ to help me sleep, but the only way I've been able to get more than three consecutive hours is when I drug myself and that's...expensive (not to mention annoying) when your tolerance is as high as mine.
So yeah, I'd say I still have cortisol and fatigue issues. sigh I'm taking it easy today. Damn it.
The good news is I was right about the airbrush problem! I just couldn't fix it because it was literally too small for me to see (stupid aging eyes). When I proposed my theory about the coupler being detached and reconnected wrong,
mckitterick took it apart and immediately found an o-ring that was doubled-over. He flattened that out, reattached the hose and voilà controlled air again! Perhaps if I am very good and quiet this morning I'll have the stamina to resume the sketchbook spread I started on Wednesday. I've only got two weeks to make three badges for Con*Strict and if I don't get started on the actual projects instead of just practice work by Sunday, they're not gonna get done in time. So that's a little stressful but on the other hand it means I get to see
splix and write_out and meet ride_4ever in two weeks so it balances out as a win. Shit, I'm leaving for Vegas two weeks from today. That just sunk in. eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
In writing news, I know how I want to start the next Guardian fic (a short-ish Porn With Feels about first times) but am feeling daunted about the longer idea I have rattling around--a ghost story AU that's a fusion with an old (like 1939 old) romance novel called Tryst (one of my favorite books ever and seriously cries out to be mashed up with Guardian). Does anyone have suggestions for a newbie writer about outlines and such, including any free software suggestions?
It's ironic that I live with someone who literally teaches fiction-writing for a living but he's swamped with his actual paying customers right now. He'll be available to me again after next week but I know our brains are very very different from each other so it's possible that his techniques won't work well for me and it's good to have multiple options.
Remember when I said I wasn't gonna watch this show?
ETA: holy crap my screenshot of a tweet that I posted on Tumblr apparently took off overnight.
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a short-ish Porn With Feels about first times
Yay!
but am feeling daunted about the longer idea I have rattling around
Yay! I mean, not the 'daunted' part, but that kind of comes with the territory. *g*
I don't really have good tips for free outline software - I've been mentioning Scrivener a lot which has been helping me VERY much with the Endless WIP, but I had to pony up for that after the trial period. But I do think you can emulate outliners like that with a Word doc. My "outline" in Scrivener basically looks like a table with multiple columns, and while the functionality of the program makes life easier, it's not technically necessary.
I'm kind of an outlining n00b so take ALL of this with a grain of salt and as 'I'm just narrating what currently works for me but it has not been tested to completion in the wild yet'. I actually first did the outline for part 2 of the story in a Word table. Or rather, I first did it on a piece of paper, and then typed it up in a Word table, and then I pasted it into the Outliner in Scrivener, where I then started adding more details. (For part 3, I'll work straight in there, I'm just also learning the program as I go!)
So, yeah, if I suddenly didn't have a proper writing program anymore, I'd probably go for Word tables. For the columns, mostly.
I'd be curious what advice your writing teacher guy gives you, once he has more time!
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The little con I'm going to in July (Con*Strict) is mostly fic writers, so I'm hoping to get advice there, too, and will definitely pass it along. In the meantime, my dude has a writing tips tag on Tumblr if you wanna dig through...all that (it's a lot).
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*hugs you gently*
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But plain old Word can do it too.
The romance novel community has a lot of resources about outlining, timing of story beats, etc. This particular YouTuber helped me a lot getting ready for last year's NaNoWriMo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5sDZMHZ3bj2beqvvQDfdWAFjOeOuZhXI
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