Whoa. New LJ layout. @_@
Well, today was a little bit better than yesterday, which was nice. I'm definitely starting to feel like my old self again, despite snapping at dad this morning for no good reason. (Sorry, dad.) I'm also trying to seriously increase my vegetable/fresh fruit consumption, which isn't easy to do in the winter but I feel as though I'm managing. Made some vegetable soup today which was not stellar but didn't make me want to hurl, either. It's good enough to eat when I'm hungry instead of diving into the nearest super-cheesy white rice casserole.
Today wasn't wildly productive in the way of writing or outlining, but I have spent the last couple of hours reading through Holly Lisle's many writer workshops at her website, www.hollylisle.com. The upside to this is that I now know how to make maps and a lot of other essential things a writer needs to know, mostly pertaining to making money, hiring agents, etc. The map thing is really fun, I look forward to honing my map skills in the near future. I'm not sure if I'll ever need anything as complicated as what she likes to do (her map of Matrin was GORGEOUS and hugely detailed, I was absolutely awed by it's beauty) but I still find sketching out a quick map here and there is a lot of fun. This is somewhat ironic since I absolutely hate maps in books, mostly because I only see them as I'm starting out when their locations mean absolutely nothing to me, then I promptly forget about them until the end of the book. This has the result of me going through the entire book totally confused as to where everybody is or what they're doing, and only figuring this out once I've already built up a bunch of strange disjointed cities, towns, and mountain ranges in my head. And now that I've written all that down I suddenly realize what a load of crap that thinking process is. To think I've been carrying that around in my head for years now. Hmph.
Anyway, I'm sketching out some things for TEC, which is the abbreviated name of my new novel. (Yes, I am aware that I have a thing for story titles starting with the letter T) I'm really starting to get excited about it and I think it will be really beautiful once it's finished. I'm looking forward to doing a whole bunch of world building and I think that's probably what I'll spend the rest of the night doing. For now, I really just need to get out of this extremely uncomfortable computer chair and go collapse on my bed and nurse my aching shoulders and lower back. I was kind of hoping once the sugar got out of my system my muscles would stop aching so much but it doesn't seem to be changing as quickly as it could be...the unfortunate result of this is that I've been taking a lot of Tyelnol recently, something I don't like on little bit since I know the stuff they've got in them can cause liver damage. But sometimes it's the only way I can sleep at night, goodness knows my crappy bed (which is STILL propped up on old moving boxes and probably will be for the rest of my stay here in this house) isn't helping any. Another complaint I have is the winter weather. I don't think my skin has ever been this dry before, and I hate it. My hands are especially bad since I wash them all the time 'cause I'm constantly working in the kitchen. Now my arms and wrists are starting to get in on the act, which has never happened before. The cold weather also makes staying downstairs for long periods of time almost impossible since it's usually absolutely FREEZING down here, though the past couple of days it's been pretty temprate. There are literally times when I have to wear slippers, a hat, a shirt, a sweater, another sweater or fleece jacket on top of that one, and a scarf. Eventually I may even need to start wearing gloves again and bringing down blankets. My kingdom for a laptop!
All right, enough bitching and whining. Time to go upstairs and actually get some work done.
Today wasn't wildly productive in the way of writing or outlining, but I have spent the last couple of hours reading through Holly Lisle's many writer workshops at her website, www.hollylisle.com. The upside to this is that I now know how to make maps and a lot of other essential things a writer needs to know, mostly pertaining to making money, hiring agents, etc. The map thing is really fun, I look forward to honing my map skills in the near future. I'm not sure if I'll ever need anything as complicated as what she likes to do (her map of Matrin was GORGEOUS and hugely detailed, I was absolutely awed by it's beauty) but I still find sketching out a quick map here and there is a lot of fun. This is somewhat ironic since I absolutely hate maps in books, mostly because I only see them as I'm starting out when their locations mean absolutely nothing to me, then I promptly forget about them until the end of the book. This has the result of me going through the entire book totally confused as to where everybody is or what they're doing, and only figuring this out once I've already built up a bunch of strange disjointed cities, towns, and mountain ranges in my head. And now that I've written all that down I suddenly realize what a load of crap that thinking process is. To think I've been carrying that around in my head for years now. Hmph.
Anyway, I'm sketching out some things for TEC, which is the abbreviated name of my new novel. (Yes, I am aware that I have a thing for story titles starting with the letter T) I'm really starting to get excited about it and I think it will be really beautiful once it's finished. I'm looking forward to doing a whole bunch of world building and I think that's probably what I'll spend the rest of the night doing. For now, I really just need to get out of this extremely uncomfortable computer chair and go collapse on my bed and nurse my aching shoulders and lower back. I was kind of hoping once the sugar got out of my system my muscles would stop aching so much but it doesn't seem to be changing as quickly as it could be...the unfortunate result of this is that I've been taking a lot of Tyelnol recently, something I don't like on little bit since I know the stuff they've got in them can cause liver damage. But sometimes it's the only way I can sleep at night, goodness knows my crappy bed (which is STILL propped up on old moving boxes and probably will be for the rest of my stay here in this house) isn't helping any. Another complaint I have is the winter weather. I don't think my skin has ever been this dry before, and I hate it. My hands are especially bad since I wash them all the time 'cause I'm constantly working in the kitchen. Now my arms and wrists are starting to get in on the act, which has never happened before. The cold weather also makes staying downstairs for long periods of time almost impossible since it's usually absolutely FREEZING down here, though the past couple of days it's been pretty temprate. There are literally times when I have to wear slippers, a hat, a shirt, a sweater, another sweater or fleece jacket on top of that one, and a scarf. Eventually I may even need to start wearing gloves again and bringing down blankets. My kingdom for a laptop!
All right, enough bitching and whining. Time to go upstairs and actually get some work done.