Well friends, the end of the semester has come once again. Albeit a little different this time, given the COVID-19 Pandemic and needing to stay at home. I hope you are all doing well and are staying healthy and safe.
Working on the final exams from home was definitely a different experience. A few of my exams were easier than I was expecting, and quite possibly easier than they would have been in person. (I would've preferred to do them in person, but given the circumstances, I can't complain). Surprisingly, I had some time during finals week to work on my writing again, which was a nice change of pace.
Classes don't start again until Monday for May Term, our mini semester to wrap off the year, so I have the weekend to relax and do some writing. So far during this stay at home time, I've finished two short stories (one that I turned out much longer than anticipated, and have began rewriting (for the final time) my first project.
The first project I finished is a retelling of the classic Knight vs a Dragon fairy tale, but with a few twists. It's one I have several drafts of since I wrote it my sophomore year of college. I'm still trying to work out the kinks with my ideas (the main problem being trying to describe some fantasy-technology and make the story work).
The second is a short story in a series I have planned, but haven't started yet, a sci-fi world where railroads race across the stars, inspired by the amazing anime series Galaxy Express 999 and Galaxy Railways. I was inspired by a story about train wreck songs to write a story about a wreck in space, which didn't turn out as I planned. I was planning to have a character die, but that seemed too obvious. Or maybe I'm just too kind to my characters. Then again, is having them nearly sucked into a black hole kind? 😜
Speaking of trains in space, do you remember when I talked about the Bethany Galactic Railway chronicles? Well... I decided to scrap that idea. The space part anyways. The idea of talking locomotives with faces in space didn't seem to click with me (if you want to use that, by all means, go for it, it's not mine to claim. There has been other series like that, See Galaxy Express 999 or Galaxy Railways).
As I've mentioned on Twitter, Johnny and the other characters who make up the story are some of my oldest characters. Since I decided to write in 5th or 6th Grade, I have been working on the project in some form. It's a story I want to finish, but I've struggled to do so.
As I explained when I've struggled with my overwriting/overthinking, I have in the past struggled to finish projects and continuously rewrote projects. And then, I saw this video a few weeks ago by Ellen Brock:
When I heard the section about writers who start projects but never finish, I thought "Crap, that's me!" I decided enough was enough, I was going to finish this draft. I wrote myself a simplified outline (based off mine using the Snowflake Outline Method, link here if interested) and have been working at it ever since.
So where am I currently? I finished Chapter 4, and am working on making my way through Chapter 5. Unfortunately Chapters 3, 4 and 5 in my outline would have been more condensed, but I had to spread them out a bit. I'm aiming for 12 pages per chapter, which I have stuck to so far (with maybe an extra page to finish a chapter well. I'll condense it in the edit).
All right, last writing update: I have continued working on The Occasional Express, my spin off blog for train related news and opinion pieces. The views fluctuate with the posts, same as here, but I'm all right with that. For a time during the stay at home/quarantine, I considered not writing any more posts. However, I'm going to stick with it, and see where it goes.
One thing that is consistent in my writing is that is has given me a bit of escapism from the stress of the news and just life recently. Being able to create has helped me feel like I have some normalcy as well. I hope you are finding the same in whatever you may be creating or doing to keep yourself mentally healthy.
That's all I have for this blog entry. For my writing friends, what have you been working on during these crazy times? And for my non writing friends, what have you been doing/working on?
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