mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2021-04-03 08:18 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2021-04-03 08:18 pm
Miscellany from the week...
Been making so many catch-up posts, I haven't had much to say about this week!
~
The toad makes noise! My mom's friend (who played middlewoman for the toad transfer) mentioned that he "sings". I've never heard a fire-bellied toad "sing" before. But a few nights ago, we heard... barking. Like a small dog, sort of, but close? And it was coming from Broccoli Cheddar Bomb von Souffle's habitat! He stopped after a little bit, but then I looked up some youtube videos, and that was definitely what we heard!
~
Covid vaccines opened up for the general public in Colorado yesterday. I've got four pharmacy pages open on my phone, and I've been refreshing all of them every time I get on my phone for something. Nothing available yet, though I'll keep looking. If nothing else, I'm sure the demand will cool down after the mad crush of the first week or two.
~
I finished reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. I absolutely loved it. It really was very comforting and warm and fluffy and hopeful, which was very much the kind of thing I needed. It's sweet and funny and gave me the escapist fantasy imaginative vibes that reading gave me as a child, which was a wonderful feeling to have again.
~
I decided to join Camp NaNoWriMo for this month. (The "Camp" months, April and July, are a lower-pressure, more self-directed version of the November event.) You can set your own goal for camp, and it can be either writing or editing. My goal is to get 25000 words of All Strange Wonders edited/rewritten. That works out to about 834 words per day.
So far, I'm kicking ass! I got through chapter 3, for a total of over 3500 words in the last two days, more than double my goal pace! I certainly won't keep that pace up - those were my days off, and I didn't have much else pressing to do.
Also, I've reached the point that requires the most rewriting, and I'm still figuring out exactly what I want to do. There are scenes and details and subplots I'm trying to work in all through, but this is the part that I have to change the most.
The problem is largely one of pacing - I have something happen in chapter 4 that really needs to have more time pass for the characters before it happens, otherwise I think the resolution to that scene feels unearned, and it hampers their continuing development.
My solution is to have some other tasks for my main character to go do, which allows me to have time pass utilizing more than just a "several weeks passed..." type transition. I *hope* it doesn't come across as filler, as the bits I'm planning to add will have some slight foreshadowing, and give me a chance to develop the relationship between the mc and one of the other characters slightly.
But it still feels a *little* bit like I have a whole puzzle, and am just not quite getting the pieces to fit together right. I feel like they're close, but I'm waiting for something to fall into place that just isn't quite lined up yet. Hopefully I get a flash of brilliance.
~
Yesterday the weather was lovely, so we went to the dog park. After a good 9 months or so, Cy still remembers what "dog park" means! He also has a good memory - more than an hour after we teased him with the "do you want to go to the... dog park?!", including several stops for brief errands, he was still squeaking about it. Also, saying the magic "dog park" words remains the only thing that can always goad him into barking, and he will bark for the whole car ride.
He ran around playing fetch, and even played with a couple dogs. He did the agility equipment - three jumps, tunnel, even the teeter totter - with very little pushing from us.
Of course, as usual, he tore his feet up. :/ He *always* seems to do that, and despite trying to monitor them, and leaving as soon as he started to act even slightly gimpy, he had blisters develop later. Usually after a few trips his pads toughen back up, but for now I know they hurt, so I feel bad we didn't leave a little earlier.
We took him to a dog wash, too, so he's nice and soft and smells good, at least, ha.
Pre-bath, midway through the afternoon of dog parking.
~
The toad makes noise! My mom's friend (who played middlewoman for the toad transfer) mentioned that he "sings". I've never heard a fire-bellied toad "sing" before. But a few nights ago, we heard... barking. Like a small dog, sort of, but close? And it was coming from Broccoli Cheddar Bomb von Souffle's habitat! He stopped after a little bit, but then I looked up some youtube videos, and that was definitely what we heard!
~
Covid vaccines opened up for the general public in Colorado yesterday. I've got four pharmacy pages open on my phone, and I've been refreshing all of them every time I get on my phone for something. Nothing available yet, though I'll keep looking. If nothing else, I'm sure the demand will cool down after the mad crush of the first week or two.
~
I finished reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. I absolutely loved it. It really was very comforting and warm and fluffy and hopeful, which was very much the kind of thing I needed. It's sweet and funny and gave me the escapist fantasy imaginative vibes that reading gave me as a child, which was a wonderful feeling to have again.
~
I decided to join Camp NaNoWriMo for this month. (The "Camp" months, April and July, are a lower-pressure, more self-directed version of the November event.) You can set your own goal for camp, and it can be either writing or editing. My goal is to get 25000 words of All Strange Wonders edited/rewritten. That works out to about 834 words per day.
So far, I'm kicking ass! I got through chapter 3, for a total of over 3500 words in the last two days, more than double my goal pace! I certainly won't keep that pace up - those were my days off, and I didn't have much else pressing to do.
Also, I've reached the point that requires the most rewriting, and I'm still figuring out exactly what I want to do. There are scenes and details and subplots I'm trying to work in all through, but this is the part that I have to change the most.
The problem is largely one of pacing - I have something happen in chapter 4 that really needs to have more time pass for the characters before it happens, otherwise I think the resolution to that scene feels unearned, and it hampers their continuing development.
My solution is to have some other tasks for my main character to go do, which allows me to have time pass utilizing more than just a "several weeks passed..." type transition. I *hope* it doesn't come across as filler, as the bits I'm planning to add will have some slight foreshadowing, and give me a chance to develop the relationship between the mc and one of the other characters slightly.
But it still feels a *little* bit like I have a whole puzzle, and am just not quite getting the pieces to fit together right. I feel like they're close, but I'm waiting for something to fall into place that just isn't quite lined up yet. Hopefully I get a flash of brilliance.
~
Yesterday the weather was lovely, so we went to the dog park. After a good 9 months or so, Cy still remembers what "dog park" means! He also has a good memory - more than an hour after we teased him with the "do you want to go to the... dog park?!", including several stops for brief errands, he was still squeaking about it. Also, saying the magic "dog park" words remains the only thing that can always goad him into barking, and he will bark for the whole car ride.
He ran around playing fetch, and even played with a couple dogs. He did the agility equipment - three jumps, tunnel, even the teeter totter - with very little pushing from us.
Of course, as usual, he tore his feet up. :/ He *always* seems to do that, and despite trying to monitor them, and leaving as soon as he started to act even slightly gimpy, he had blisters develop later. Usually after a few trips his pads toughen back up, but for now I know they hurt, so I feel bad we didn't leave a little earlier.
We took him to a dog wash, too, so he's nice and soft and smells good, at least, ha.
Pre-bath, midway through the afternoon of dog parking.