ROW80 Round 7: 9th Update

I've been sick for most of this week, but luckily have at least managed to get some work done. I've marked all but 3 of the 15 tests from last week's class and should hopefully finish the rest tomorrow (and then I can look forward to getting 50-odd reports to mark on the weekend... *sigh*). I spent most of today just watching DVDs as I still don't feel too well (lack of sleep from coughing has left me with a general tired/headache/dizzy 'blehness'), though I did catch up on most of my admin stuff for uni. I'm hoping to be up-to-date with everything by tomorrow evening, because I'll be at uni all day Friday and won't have time to work on much after that.

I had been aiming at 500 words per day recently, but I think I'll have to drop that back to two or three days a week, especially with the load of marking coming up. I didn't get much done on Dark and Silent Waters, aside from a few hundred words of brainstorming stuff, but I did add about 1,000 words to my other WiP. So I did some writing, at least.

I also transferred my ROW80 blog to a new blog, as you can see. I figured that my proper WordPress blog has my name in it, and if/when I manage to get something published and someone searches my name looking for my writing or art, I'd rather that blog come up first than this one (not that there's anything wrong with this one, but outside of ROW80ers, no one is going to be interested in me rambling about writing and academia and Rex and not having enough chocolate lol). So I decided to make this one a bit more nonsensical :) (I know I need to fix up the header a bit, I made this one using a dodgy online Photo editor)

Nothing I do is good enough for Judgemental Dog:

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ROW80 Round 7: 8th Update

Since the last check-in, I've managed to write at least 500 words for my novel every day except Saturday (only managed about 200 because I was under the weather). I also only got about 3 tests marked, but I guess that was better than nothing; I really would have preferred just to sleep through the whole weekend.

My progress has been somewhat slowed by me coming down with a cold. Since I hurt my back while helping Rex get around a few weeks ago, I haven't slept well. And when I don't sleep well, it screws with my immune system, and then I get sick. I knew it was coming :) Still, my students are doing class presentations this week, meaning I don't have to do much talking; if I had to get sick during semester, I picked the perfect time. I know it's just a mild cold, but I swear it's draining all my energy... This must be what it's like to have man-flu :D I still have another 12 tests or so that I need to get done before the middle of this week. Friday is the assignment due date for my other subject, so I want to get the tests out of my way before those come rolling in.

This week will be mostly consumed by test/assignment marking, but I also want to find time to do at least one painting or drawing. And I'm hoping to continue my 500 words a day streak. I also need to brainstorm some ideas for my PhD topic; applications don't close til October but I need to have at least a semi-decent idea for my research proposal if I'm to have any chance at getting a scholarship.

A little hypocrisy from Judgemental Dog?

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P.S. His Judgemental Holiness appears to have fully recovered from his bout of vestibular disease. He hasn't had any dizziness or staggering for two days, and we took him for a walk down by the river on Saturday morning and he had a ball running through the long grass, chasing rabbits and paddling in the creek. We're still battling his bowel disease, but it's so nice to see him wagging his tail again :)

ROW80 Round 7: 7th Update

This week has been a bit better than last week, with Rex finally feeling a little more like himself. He is still fairly quiet, especially since we've just put him back on his full dose of medication for his bowel disease now that the vestibular disease has mostly passed. Dad and I took him outside today for a little play, and though he got tired sooner than he usually does, he had a good time running around, chasing us and catching his ball, with only a few falls (and he was always up and ready to go again straight away).

I managed to write 1,500 words on Dark and Silent Waters yesterday, and another 500 so far today. The next couple of weeks will probably be a lot less productive, since both subjects I teach have assignments due, so I'll be spending most of my time marking. Still, at least I've made some progress :)

Also, someone shared a link to this post on Twitter, and I thought it was quite handy since I'm writing fantasy. Though no one has magic in my novel except for the antagonist (and, for a while, the protagonist), it was still a helpful exercise to go through and answer some of these questions; some of which had obvious answers, and some I had to think about quite carefully. The questionnaire has also planted the seeds for a few other plot points, so that can only be a good thing. I'm also going to fill out the same questionnaire for my previous WiP, Exile, so that when I return to it, I'll have a clearer idea about how the magic is structured. It also reminded me of the utter car wreck that was my first novel manuscript from when I was 13 or so (it was hand written in an A5 exercise book, filling up about 2/3rds of the 320 pages). Every major character had a different magical ability, and there was no consistency to what their magic did, what limitations it had, how they could use it etc. And the sad thing was, that wasn't even the worst thing wrong with that novel haha

Judgemental Dog has decided to reassert his authority:

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ROW80 Round 7: 6th Update

Even though I had so many ideas flying around in my head, I have done very little writing since the last check-in. Mainly because I've either been looking after Rex or worrying about Rex. He had to go back to the vet on Thursday evening because, although his eyes had mostly returned to normal, he was still refusing to eat or drink, and could not walk without tripping and staggering. The vet gave him some antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injections in case it was an inner ear infection, but it seems more likely that he's got vestibular disease. There's no known cause for it and there's no cure, but it is something that generally resolves on its own, though it can take a few days to a couple of weeks. We were really worried that it was something a lot more serious and that we might have to make the decision dreaded by all pet owners, but in this case, we were lucky.

He started drinking on his own late Friday night, and he started getting his appetite back on Saturday night (the whole roast chicken I bought for him may have helped; that dog doesn't know how spoiled he is), so that was a big relief. He's even managed to have a little wander around his back yard a few times. He still staggers occasionally and he's not yet back to his normal bouncy self, but at least it seems that the worst has passed. Which is good not just for him, but for me; getting woken up every hour or so during the night to check on him and comfort him when he started whining or crashing into stuff and having to half-carry him every time he needed to go outside has left me pretty tired. Plus he managed to canon straight into my dodgy knee on one occasion, which did not improve my mood in the slightest.

So, writing progress this week was next to nil. I've probably done less than 300 words since Wednesday. I decided on Saturday not to worry about it too much, though, since I was just too physically and emotionally exhausted to do anything. So I sat on my bum and watched TV with my Dad instead, getting through several episodes of Once Upon a Time that we had recorded. I have been picking at an old WiP I have on the side. It's the one I always seem to end up working on when I get stuck with Dark and Silent Waters. I've probably got more words for this than for DASW but since most of it is just random scene ideas, 90% of it will probably end up being obsolete; it was mainly just a way to get the ideas out of my head.

I haven't had time to do any painting or drawing, or even look at art supplies, which is probably a good thing since all my spare money has been eaten by vet bills. I'd be willing to bet that, thanks to Rex, we've been single-handedly funding the vet's next Mercedes or whatever.

And I still need to think of a topic for my Ph.D... It will most likely be something in the area of eBook interaction/interface methods, but beyond that I have no idea.

As always, Judgemental Dog provides some sound advice:

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ROW80 Round 7: 5th Update

Surprisingly enough, I've managed to write 500 words every day since the last check-in. Most of it has gone towards one chapter in the middle of Dark and Silent Waters. Also surprisingly, the words mostly came easily; it's a fairly dark scene, and when I planned it in my outline, I wondered how I'd fare when it actually came to writing it. I think the chapter still needs some work - could do with some tightening in some places - but I'm quite pleased that I've at least got the bones of the scene down.

I've also been kicking around a few ideas for a sequel (or at least, a book in the same series/style) for Belvedere, the illustrated children's book I did for my non-IT elective for Honours last year. I loved writing the story and doing the backgrounds and character illustrations was a lot of run, but having to do it to such a tight deadline (less than 12 weeks) along with other academic deadlines made the whole experience a lot more stressful than it should have been. It also meant that some things got rushed, and though I am proud of the book I created last year, there are some aspects of it that I feel were rushed and that I could have done better if I'd had more time. If and when I do another children's book, I'll have more time to refine it. Not just the story, but the artwork as well; the illustration style for Belvedere was quite simple, with basic backgrounds of acrylic paint and various fabrics and cardboards, and characters hand drawn and then coloured and textured in Photoshop. In my next children's book, I'd like to go with a more traditional illustration method, using coloured pencils and/or watercolour paints. Then again, having two related books in the same 'world' with completely different artwork styles might be a bit jarring... Ah well, more possibilities to ponder :)

To end with a bit of bad news; Rex went to the vet today to be sedated, so he could have his paw X-Rayed and his teeth cleaned, and also got a check over to see how his bowel disease is going. Unfortunately it is no better, so he now has to have his medication twice a day, instead of just twice a week; the higher dose may make him feel sick for the next week or two. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rex has had a bad reaction either to the anaesthetic or to having his ears cleaned out, and now appears to have vertigo; he's staggering around dizzily with his head tilted to the right and his eyes are constantly flicking back and forth. The vet said he should come good within the next 24 hours, but if he's no better tomorrow, he'll have to go back to get looked at. Now he's just home sleeping on his bed, so we're hoping he gets better on his own overnight. We're keeping a close eye on him, talking to him and patting him, but I'm sure he'd appreciate any virtual cuddles or tummy rubs folks might want to send his way. I hate seeing him so miserable :(

I'm sure if Judgemental Dog were feeling better, he'd be proud of me...

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ROW80 Round 7: 4th Update

So far I've been keeping up with uni work, though it still seems like the semester is going really quickly (almost up to week 4 already; eep!). I also knocked out two books in my to-read pile, which may not seem like a big achievement, but I've had so little time to read recently it was nice to just relax and read some new fiction. I've also been toying with the idea of beginning my Ph.D next year, though I haven't decided for sure; if I do it, I'll need to come up with a topic. Applications close in October so I still have some time to think about it. I'm torn between wanting to stay in the academic world I enjoy and get to wear the funny hat and have people refer to me as "Doctor" and wanting to go out and get a 'real' job so I can earn money and get my own house. I know that the longer I leave my Ph.D, the less likely I am to do it, although I could probably do it part time while working. I'll have to wait and see. The trouble is that either way is going to take up a lot of my creative time, and I know that's part of working like an adult and all that grown-up stuff (lol), but I have this constant worry in the back of my mind that I'll get to 60 years old and still have no finished novels or no completed art projects of any worth, which then gets that voice in my head saying, "Don't bother trying, you'll fail anyway." I'm sure I'm not the only one who's struggled with this sort of thing, but I still need to figure out a way to shut that voice up :|

Side note: Chuck Wendig posted this article on 25 Ways to Survive as a Creative Person this morning. I think it's well worth a read, and I want to try to work on adhering to at least some of those points.

I haven't got much done on Dark and Silent Waters (which is currently just under the 40,000 word mark), but I have printed out the outline for DASW and cut it up into sections so I could spread it out over the floor (our lounge-room resembled a ticker-tape parade) and work out how each piece fit into the story as a whole. I've made a few notes for a couple of sections and I think I've sorted out the plot hole/implausibility issues for at least some of the problem scenes. I did manage to write another 2,500 words or so on my other work in progress today. It's one I've had on the side for years, before I even started DASW. Aside from Exile (my main WiP for several years before I started DASW), this story is probably the one I've made the most progress on out of all of my begun-and-then-abandoned stories (and, shamefully, there are many of those scattered around my hard drive). I'm not sure what genre it is, but I guess it's somewhere between crime, horror and urban fantasy. I would rather the words have gone towards my proper WiP, but progress is progress, right? ... Right?

Judgemental Dog doesn't think so:

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ROW80 Round 7: 3rd Update

Aaaarrgghh... It's already August. Where has the year gone? D:

Short update this time, since I still have some preparation work to do for a class tomorrow. I've spent most of my time over the last couple of weeks either being at uni or thinking about uni, so writing has taken a bit of a back seat (as I knew it would). However, I have still managed to make some progress on my main WiP, Dark and Silent Waters. Most of this was handwritten in a notebook on the train on my way too and from uni, though, so I'm not sure how many words exactly, but it was about 10 A5 pages. I still need to type it up on my computer. I also wrote about 1,000 words for another story idea that I came up with a few years ago but never really did anything with; I'd always loved the concept/world I'd imagined, but never really came up with any characters or events to go along with it. I don't know why it waited til now to grace me with ideas, and I don't know how much of it I'll end up doing, but at least now I have something to potter around with when I get stuck on DASW. Haven't had time to do much painting or drawing, but I'm hoping to do some of that over the weekend.

In other news, I know a lot of ROW80ers are writers of (or at least, fans of) paranormal romance. My friend Samantha Marshall has just released her first self-published novel, Aislinn's Shadow (cover photography by our friend, Tony Tulloch).  At this stage it's only available on Kindle but if you have an iPhone/iPad etc you can download the Kindle app and read it that way. I'm not generally a fan of paranormal romance but Aislinn's Shadow is well-written story that kept me reading until the final page; it provides a fresh take on the concept of werewolves (and other creatures). I believe it's the first in a series, and it's definitely worth a read.

Judgemental Dog tries his best to be encouraging.

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