Write Every Day, September Day #9

[auroracloud]

How come is the weekend over again? Not fair. I've been semi-productive today; I cleaned up here a bit, with the help of some podcasts to listen to (I'm so much more likely to do something practical at home if I can at least use the time to listen to a short story / some Doctor Who geek talk / an audio drama), and I even vacuumed, which I haven't done in way too long. I cooked dinner and baked rolls - though dinner was one of the easiest foods I know how to make, baked roots with Finnish squeaky cheese (apparently they call it that in the US and it's either that or the Finnish name, which I promise you can't pronounce; check the Wikipedia entry I linked). It's super yummy, especially now that local vegetables are in season, but I managed to leave the roots a bit undone... Need to fix that before I eat the rest of it. At least the rolls turned out good!

After dinner I felt totally wiped out and just sat down to watch the Classic Who serial The Enemy of the World, which by the way is utterly brilliant so far. I only saw bits of it during the Twitch marathon, because timing (I think I watched most of what I did in the morning while having breakfast before work). I was very impressed already then, so I've been looking forward into seeing the full thing. Oh, and I want Victoria's outfit in that story. I also want her outfit from the Ice Warriors & the Abominable Snowman. It's funny, 60s Who makes me want to cosplay more than any of the New Who I've seen, because nearly every companion (definitely including Jamie!) wears things I totally want to wear, too. I've never wanted to cosplay anything before, but now I keep listing all the styles and outfits from this that I want to get. And not necessarily even to cosplay, just to have something nice to wear that I know is secretly a Doctor Who reference. Should do a separate post about that.

After two episodes I had to stop it in order to work out a bit, though. My upper back and shoulders don't like me currently, I haven't exercised enough...

Okay, enough rambling. I like putting a bit of non-writing stuff into these posts and then it gets away from me, sorry! I had some writing-related thing I wanted to put to y'all, but don't remember it now.

Today's Writing

So far I've worked a tiny bit on the original scene I started yesterday, and a bit more on one of the fics I started this week. I also looked at Femslash Exchange prompts to get treat ideas, and well, I have treat ideas now. I need to remember to start the canon review for my assignment, though, darn it! I'll still try to work on something a bit before I go to bed. Trying to do all those household things has meant I haven't been properly sitting down to write, and now I ought to go to sleep soon...

Tally


Day 1: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (9 so far)

Day 2: alexseanchai, brightandravenous, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan,shopfront, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (11 so far)

Day 3: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan, rosefox, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (10 so far)

Day 4: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, rosefox, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (12 so far)

Day 5: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (11 so far)

Day 6: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 7: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (9 so far)

Day 8: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

If I missed you or you wrote but didn't check in yet, let me know! And you can join in any time.

Comments

[shopfront]

Got off the Eurostar, raced home, frantically did one last paranoid read through/polish of my AUex fics, and now I'm going to collapse. Not many words, but at least a few here and there in edits. I am so curious about your squeaky cheese though! It sounds cute, which I am sure is a very unintended side effect of calling it squeaky :P

[auroracloud]

Paranoid read-throughs and edits just before the reveals sound familiar. :-D Hope you feel better rested now!

We don't call it squeaky cheese, the Americans do. :-D (I don't know why. I assume Finnish immigrants taught that. Actually, I would imagine it's mostly used by Finnish-Americans trying to explain to other people what they're eating, because usually only Finns care about Finnish things.) Well, actually, one of my friends at least calls it pretty much exactly that (only in Finnish) so it's probably more prevalent than I know. But it is squeaky when you chew it, so they've got that one right. :-D

[sylvanwitch]

Like you, I'm feeling virtuous for having done some cleaning today. I have more to do, but I'm not sure how much I'll get through. I'm starting to lose motivation, and I'd really like to curl up and read.

I can definitely relate to not ever having wanted to cosplay before you saw those episodes. That's the way I feel about Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Every single episode, I say, "Ooh, I like that coat/jacket/blouse/hat, etc." And I have actually bought a few pieces (within my budget, as opposed to the show's!) that are reminiscent. It makes me feel good to wear them and to know that I'm paying homage to Miss Fisher, even if no one else knows that. :-)

I did my writing before I began the day's cleaning, and I wrote 1389, which made me happy, particularly as there'd been a scene that I felt just didn't work, being a too abrupt transition into sexytimes for the two main characters, and the words I wrote today take care of that, establishing an actual dialogue and relationship between the two before they get naked together. *grins*

[auroracloud]

We are the domestic queens, clearly. Let's bask in our glory!

Ooh yes, the outfits in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries are gorgeous. I keep fantasizing about that lovely red felt cloche hat Phryne wears in several stories. I'd definitely like some of them as well. Though the 60s Doctor Who companion-esque things might be easier to find in affordable prices.

Congrats on managing that much writing before your cleaning! And especially for managing to establish dialogue and relationship before sexy times, that is important. :-)

[trobadora]

It was an alibi sentence day for me, alas. Still very tired. Not how I wanted the weekend to go!

[auroracloud]

Sorry to hear you're tired, hope you get your energy back soon!

[cornerofmadness]

OMG that cheese looks amazing. (Now I want to taste it in the reindeer milk form).

Yeah the weekend escaped me too but at least I got the exams written and 590 words on the solarpunk thing.

[auroracloud]

... I don't think I even knew there was a reindeer milk form. Heck, I don't think I've ever tasted reindeer milk, though reindeer meat is yummy (even if I otherwise rarely eat red meat). Ah, the things you learn! Interestingly, it's only in the English edition, not in the Finnish one. But the cow milk version is definitely good as well. My grandma used to make them, it's the sort of thing people made in country houses.

Yay for both exams being written and getting more done on the solarpunk thing!

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks.

Interesting. Well I like trying new things (one day I'd like to try making my own cheese) so I'd be open to any variety. The sad part of living in the middle of nowhere is I don't usually have big markets

[ysilme]

I totally hear you about the motivational audiobook/podcast listening! :o) For me, it's audiobooks; I've somewhat given up on podcasts as those that interest me are mostly either in American English, which I found difficult to understand in this medium, also because people seem to talk much faster when doing a podcast versus reading aloud. I'm listening to a lot while doing kitchen stuff, particularly canning, and while knitting and sometimes while doing laundry, and make my way through all of Tolkien's stuff that's available. Currently it's the Silmarillion again, with my favourite part, the Ainulindale. This one I even prefer to listen to in German, as it's been translated very well and read by the incomparable Achim Höppner, one of the best voices ever. He also did the German dubbing for Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings, so it's also a bit like having Gandalf telling me the story. ^^
Squeaky cheese sounds funny! I wonder if it's in any way similar to Halloumi, a Greek/Cypriot goat/sheep milk cheese which is familiar hereabouts for barbecue or frying, and makes distinct squeaky noises which is why I call it that to myself.
And not necessarily even to cosplay, just to have something nice to wear that I know is secretly a Doctor Who reference
Yay to that as well, I can totally relate! Well, not with Doctor Who as I'm unfamiliar with the classic series, and not into that style either, but the general idea.
For my tally, only meagre 23 words for me, and mostly alibi words. First I was editing most of the short WIP I got back from the beta, and, being too tired to tackle posting it, I started editing yet another of my drawer fics. It's one I've started to translate into English, so it was mostly polishing, hence he sparse word count; usually I'm rather rewriting when doing these kinds of edits. I believe I'm also starting to harvest the fruits of all that drawer fic writing and editing: lately, my beta files come back with little to no stuff to correct, mostly it's some awkward phrasing with parts I really struggled with, or when I'm totally unfamiliar with the typical terms and expressions.

[auroracloud]

Congrats on managing to write even if it was only a little. I do think editing totally counts as writing, though! Otherwise we'd never get things properly finished. And that's great that your drawer fic writing is yielding such benefits and your stories come back with a lot fewer comments. Making progress is awesome!

Listening to audio books would definitely also work - and I've lately been wondering if I should give a try to one of these audiobook subscription services and see what I can get out of those, because it would be nicer to immerse myself in something longer. Only I listen to quite a few podcasts and have a bunch of Big Finish audio dramas (Doctor Who and Torchwood stories) I'd like to listen to. When it comes to American English in podcasts, I understand what you mean - I definitely have to be picky about what I listen to, because many talk so darn fast, and while I can understand it fine, it gets really exhausting for the brain after a while. But some North American accents I also find just plain unpleasant to listen to, and there are a bunch of things I've not been able to listen to because I can't stand the accent or the inflection of the speech and it's too grating for me. I've gotten somewhat used to many American English accents, though, by listening to enough of them, and some I find quite clear and pleasant. (I can't tell which areas or anything, except that Canadians tend to sound fine to my ears.) I think many of us Europeans have been more used to British English, and also many of our own languages sound quite different from American English. With me it probably helps that our foreign-language media (TV and films etc.) is practically never dubbed (only children's stuff is) so I've been exposed to a lot of North American speech. But lately I've been very UK focused in my watching.

Yes, the squeaky cheese (!) is actually a bit similar in texture to halloumi, yeah. It's very common here as well. The taste is different, and way less salty, but the dense texture is kind of similar, though our "squeaky cheese" comes in thinner, very broad, round slabs - our proper name for it translates as "bread cheese" because it's a similar shape to various flat or flat-ish round breads we make.

[auroracloud]

And no offense meant to North Americans, of course, in what I say about the accents - liking or not liking particular accents is just a question of the type of sounds I'm used to because of where I live and which languages I speak and what kind of English I learned first and hear the most often; it's a kind of a visceral reaction I can't help easily, but I become more used to different accents the more I listen to them. Speaking really fast can be a problem for comprehension, though!

[carenejeans]

That cheese sounds good, and the American name for it is silly. 8-)

I did the usual work on the nonfiction project, and what an old boss of mine called "noodling" on the creepy bookshop idea. I did a bubble diagram, an idea-generating tool that works for me, and came up with a few ideas.

[auroracloud]

Noodling on stories is totally a thing! :-) I had to look up bubble diagram - it seems like it's a form of mind map, right? I don't use diagrams and charts a lot myself, because I'm not very visual, but sometimes some basic mind map / diagram is useful for seeing what I've got without having to write real sentences or worry too much about sense-making.

I know some Finns who call it something equivalent, but I don't know if the North Americans got that name from Finnish immigrants or came up with it themselves. It's yummy, though. And despite having eaten it all my life (my family is all from the parts of the country where they most traditionally make it), I've only recently realized you can use it in dishes and put it in the oven and all, because in my family it's more often used as a snack / a coffee table treat. So now I'm cooking it all I can - it also makes for a good substitute to paneer in Indian/Nepalese style dishes. Mmm, I should maybe make some palak paneer with it soon...

[carenejeans]

I've been calling them bubble diagrams, but that's actually something different!

What I was doing is called "clustering." You start by writing a word or a phrase in the center of a page, draw a circle around it, and sort of free-associate from there, writing new words, circling them, and drawing arrows from each circle to the new one. It comes from Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Rico. This blog gives a good description of it (with some prompts). I tend to use more specific words or phrases for the first circle, like a story idea or even a title. For instance, I used "creepy bookshop." From there I wrote "books" and "owner," which became branches for ideas -- is it the owner that's creepy? Or the books? Both? The building itself is cursed? etc. All of this in a word or a phrase in little circles, or bubbles, as I was thinking of them, with arrows going everywhere. 8-)

Sometimes I use them for free-association, sometimes for something more like an outline. It depends on if I'm in a idea-gathering or an organizing mood...

Isn't it funny how a familiar food you've eaten all your life suddenly bursts with possibilities? So exciting! I need to write about my recent adventures with... beans! 8-)

[auroracloud]

Thank you for the link! That does sound like a useful technique, especially when you're in the stage of planning, playing around with ideas (or characters, worldbuilding) etc. It could be worth trying with my possible-novel as well. I've done a bit of a similar thing on occasion, but it's been a bit too structured, not as conductive to free association as it could be.

Need to check out that blog as well, and maybe the book, it's always nice to run into new writing-related blogs or books!

Yes, it's fun when you suddenly realize new possibilities to food you've known all your life. Yay beans!