Category: Musings

Updates July 11-15

Hello

Thanks for the likes and follows. 

Last week there was no update. As usual, the work-life balance is a little off. I am giving myself a little grace cause a lot of things were going on with my family and me. There will be no details. I don’t have the strength for that kind of vulnerability. I will share some surface facts. I had a significant haircut. Once I get used to it, I will add a new glam picture. I thought I would change that picture every quarter but completely forgot about it when other plans went south.

In a previous update, I wrote about Camp Nanowrimo. The picture on the side is the wallpaper shared by the official site. It might be a fuzzy image on your device, I apologize. There were two different wallpapers. I set up the other one for the entry that should’ve been posted on July 4th. This one has a red dragon and the other a white dragon. Symbolic for history buffs and Arthurian lore experts and fans. The quest continues.

I have written about 4000 words on Connection Lost, which is roughly one and a half scenes. It sounds like a good start, however, I signed up the last week of June; Camp Nanowrimo has been counting the words since June 24th. They have me a week behind and that adds up to about 2000 words. Not sure how to feel about it. Fortunately, the story is going well. I wish I wrote more in the scene outline. I am not going to dwell too much on that. I will just keep writing like Dory keeps swimming.

This entry is posted late because these words were not with over the weekend. Most of it was typed up on the tablet and I didn’t have Grammarly or ProWritingAid to help me out. I can’t tell which service is better. I paid for ProWritingAid so it gives a bit more. I don’t have it in my budget for Grammarly yet.

I started to watch, the K-drama Alchemy of Souls. It is a supernatural fantasy drama about a mythical country in Korea. It is a weekly show and I like it. it can be frustrating but it is also nice not to binge everything. Another K-drama I will recommend is Tomorrow. It is another supernatural fantasy but it is contemporary and deals with important issues in mental health and Korean history. There was room for improvement but there always is; no story is perfect.

This week, the goal, of course, is to catch up on Nanowrimo. I need to figure out how much I am going to share about the stories I work on here. I have to do more thinking on the subject. There are reading goals but those are in a holding pattern. That is all for now.

I hope all of you are doing well and please remember to be kind.

End

Updates June 27-July 01

From the Desk of JC Henry

Hello,

Photo by Jess Vide on Pexels.com

Thank you for the likes and follows.

This is the last week of June, well actually the last 4 days. I don’t want to believe it, but that is reality. The second quarter is over. There has been some progress and some regression. I wanted to have significant improvement in my stories and writings. However, I spent more time not writing than writing. I’m at fault here. The thing I’ve heard Sarra Cannon say in many of her YT videos is to be honest with your time. Which means there are going to be days you can’t write and days you don’t want to write, try to get them into your schedule, and don’t beat yourself up when they happen. In layman’s terms, expect the best, prepare for the worst. I was not thinking about it at all. Despite what I wrote in these updates.

I realized this second quarter that I have a mindset about writing that needs to change. This is a guess. I wrote about 5000 words this week. But the majority were day journal words not meant for the public until I’m dead plus 80 years of the life of whoever has control of my estate. The fiction or non-fiction writing is the work I think of when I say or type writing. Not the reading or listening of books scheduled for reviews, not the admin stuff I do for this blog or my life.I realized this second quarter that I have a mindset about writing that needs to change. This is a guess. I wrote about 5000 words this week. But the majority were day journal words not meant for the public until I’m dead plus 80 years of the life of whoever has control of my estate. The fiction or non-fiction writing is the work I think of when I say or type writing. Not the reading or listening of books scheduled for reviews, not the admin stuff I do for this blog or my life. This is all work for the writing but not considered in my mind. When I spend time on things that are “not writing”, then feel like nothing is getting done. I haven’t found the correct method to deal with this, especially when life outside of this website and writing also is important. I don’t talk about finances on the website, but that is important. After I got sick, I could no longer do a day job in healthcare. It is an issue I have to take seriously because of the rise in expenses. I used to say that I had a writing life and real life. My struggle for a long time is to merge them without problems. Any constructive suggestion leave in the comments.

Despite what I’ve said in previous entries. I have signed up for Camp Nanowrimo in July. Third quarter will start off with a busy bang. The rest of this week will be me, making a plan for this to work. The good thing about Camp Nano is that the rules are a little different. I can be a nano rebel with ease. The story I started in April will continue. I wrote about 4000 words on Connection Lost; it is far from complete. There are 4-6 more scenes that need to be written for the story. The plan is that the completed story will run in the word range of a novelette or novella. But those are later plans. The goal for Camp Nano July is 25,000 words and to get as many badges as possible. I enjoy collecting badges and the camp nano trajectory graph. There are also new friendships and encouragement from others. So many more people would have been talking about it if the Supreme Court hadn’t decided to run with tyranny. I don’t want to go off on that tangent.

I have decided to give credit where credit is due. That means I will no longer erase the name tags attached to the pictures I borrow for essays or Quotes for Writers. I get many of them from the WordPress and Pexels. If there is a tag, I will leave it. Apologies to artist for previous post and thank you as well.

In Reading news, I am jumping around. I have not finished reading any story for review or fun. It is the same for audiobooks. I don’t think I have reader’s block, just a mild case of reading fatigue. It hasn’t stopped me from buying books. I got the last book in a series called Wotakoi: Love is hard for Otaku by Fujita. It is a lovely slice of life, an office romance manga that is also an anime. I can’t remember what I saw first, the manga or anime. The anime was fantastic, and the so is the manga. Considering re-reading the previous. Even though they are digital, I am happy to have a full set.

Strange enough, the writing goals this week will include a lot of reading. I haven’t looked at Connection lost since May. I need to familiarize myself with the story again. There is a brief concept outline, but for my sanity and productivity, I will look into real scene outlines or something to that effect.

That is all I have for right now. Despite the state of the world, I will continue to say, let’s be kind to each other. We do not let people’s negative guide our thoughts or lives. We are the change the world needs. I wish everyone the best.

The End