Coronavirus Pandemic Day 131 - Sticking to a Schedule

While working from home for the last eight years, I already had a problem with the days being indistinguishable. I mean other than DH working a traditional job and having the weekends off. But the effect seems to be amplified with so much shut down or limited because of the coronavirus.

Even worse, DH was literally ordered to take some vacation time by not just his boss, but some other upper managers and executives at his company. I'm kind of glad because he's had a major case of the doldrums.

But by the same token, DH has been lecturing me about MY stress levels and taking the weekends off.

I admit I was very stressed since my return flight from Vegas right at the start of the pandemic. But things have eased a bit by sticking to a schedule. Getting up at a consistent time for the most part (gabbing on the phone until four in the morning did not help over the weekend). Setting how many words per day I need to reach thanks to the tools at Camp NaNoWriMo. Leaving the afternoons for editing. And taking breaks to watch Scorpion, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory.

I need some comfort watching right now, and it definitely helps.

Now, I need to finish A Twist of Love so I can read the latest volume of the Dresden Files, Peace Talks. DH finished it yesterday, and he was giggling a lot over the weekend.

Consequences

This picture in the form of a magnet rests on my refrigerator door. There's two reasons for it.

Reason #1: In any career, a person must continue to learn new things. Sometimes though, the lessons become so embedded in the subconscious that you don't realize you've learned it until you use it.

Reason #2: I love the TV show Supernatural. I didn't watch it for the first four seasons because I was afraid I'd jinx it.

On a side note: Every frickin' time I fall in love with a show in it's first season, it gets canceled. Misfits of Science. Cancelled. Quark. Cancelled. Almost Human. Cancelled. Hell, I didn't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the John Ritter episode late in the second season because I didn't want it to get cancelled.

Anyway, back to Supernatural. Once the producers and writers got past creator Eric Kripke's original five-season story arc of stopping the Christian apocalypse, the following season dealt with the ramifications of Sam's last episode of Season 5 decision.  Subsequent seasons create a gigantic pile of decision/consequence until the stack tumbles with the twelfth (current) season back to the variation of the original problem, stopping Lucifer.

Consequences of past decisions has been an occurring theme over the last two seasons of The Walking Dead and in the last several books of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series as well.

As I'm working on the last three books of the Bloodlines series, I already knew they dealt with the consequences of Sam's creation. But I started wondering how to work in the consequences of the other characters' decisions into the last volumes.

And when I was re-reading a section of Ravaged the other night, I realized I had already done so. Specifically, the consequences of Bebe's decision in Blood Magick and Alex's in Blood Sacrifice. I knew these two characters need to be in Ravaged, but I didn't know why until I watched the mid-season finales of both The Walking Dead and Supernatural. And in separate conversations, Logan (who made a very brief appearance in Zombie Love) and Alyson (a new to readers character) come right out and say, "Yeah, it's your fault because of what you did/failed to do, but now, we need to figure out how to clean up the mess."

Wow! Talk about an epiphany.

So, keep studying the things you like, understand why you like them, and it'll improve your writing.

Progress

Currently reading - Changes by Jim Butcher

For those of you keeping track (like Julie), no, I haven't finished Eclipse yet. DH finished Changes Friday night. If it weren't for plans on Saturday and Sunday, I'd probably have it finished by now. And DH really wants me to finish it so he can talk about it without blowing the revelations.

You know, like the stupid kid who told me Leia was Luke's sister before I saw Return of the Jedi.

In compliance with FTC regs, I bought this book with MY OWN DAMN MONEY. And guess what? I'll take it as a fucking tax deduction too! Because it's market research!

Seriously though, great book. It'll have you thinking just how far Harry may cross certain lines. I won't spill spoilers, so in the immortal words of Stan Lee, "'Nuff said."

In the meantime, I'm still slogging through edits on AVT. Teri and Faye's critiques on the first twenty-five pages along with a long talk with Christie over coffee Friday morning helped. Christie's normally a hugger, but thankfully she refrained because she was still trying to cough up a lung after contracting the dreaded man-flu from Mr. Craig earlier in the week. As an immunocompromised person, I truly appreciate that.

Back to the editing situation:

As I've said before I have this weird tendency to write short. Weird as compared to most other writers I know, anyway. This means crap doesn't make sense to other people because it's still in my head and not on the page. Oops. Thank Djehuti, I've got great c.p.'s to point this out. Now, I just need to go back and layer in the missing parts.

Anyone else out there have this particular problem?