Ride to Valhalla

[Nevetharine]

Greetings from the underworld fellow mortals!

Just kidding. Heeey Bees! Man. It's been ages since I've posted. This was the longest stretch yet. And it calls for a shiny new check-in thread, methinks.

(In case you're wondering who I am, the previous thread was titled To Forge an Ironmaiden.)

That said, I'm not jumping into introductions. Just straight into updates.

The last few months have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Mentally. I've gotten a job as a ghostwriter. For fiction. And getting into the groove of writing projects so quickly? Well, I'm still not quite used to it. Pumping out drafts and characters that quick is a challenge.

My fitness journey has been whittled down to the bare essentials because once I start writing, and I do have a weekly deadline, I'm all in and the rest of the world ceases to exist. Including health and fitness.

So for now all I do is cycle during the week, and a proper upper/lower body dumbell workout every weekend when I have time for myself.

I'm here because I missed you all. I miss talking to people. Even if I'm busy. So I might not make a daily update, but I'll try to remember making a weekly or twice-weekly one.

Have a wonderful rest of the week, Bees!

 

[graoumia]

Welcome back, so happy to read news from you

 

[Bracelet]

Welcome back and good look on your fitness journey!

 

[JohnStrong]

Welcome back!

 

[NightWolf714]

Welcome back! Definitely sounds like you've been busy! I think it's great that you're trying to do at least a bit of exercise amidst all the chaos.

 

[astro_lizard]

Welcome back!! It's great to hear from you again

 

[Anek]

Welcome back!

 

[Syrius]

Welcome back!!!

 

[Nevetharine]

Thanks everyone!

So far so good for this week. Doing 30m of cycling every afternoon and also started the Epic Abs Challenge. The cycling serves me in two ways. It's cardio, and also mindless like walking. So my mind can be free and that means I can work stuff out for the story while I exercise.

Saturday is Muscle Factory Lowerbody day, Sunday is Upper Body Sculpt. My triceps still have not recovered. But I'm not very big on protein at the moment.

Workwise/writingwise (they are more or less the same now), I've finished revising a project yesterday that needs to be reviewed first, and then maybe Monday I start writing the first of six of its books. Depends how quickly the editor works through it. It's a cosy mystery.

Today I want to spend some time fleshing out those characters more. The main ones, at least.

As for my own writing? It's kind of fallen to the wayside. I've been busy with a fantasy short story for like two months now. 8k words. It's going at a snail's pace between work-writing. At the end when I've been staring at words all day, I don't want to stare at more words. Though reading fiction doesn't count.

Have a fantastic day!

 

[aku-chan]

Welcome back!

 

[Fremen]

Welcome back

 

[Nevetharine]

25 minutes of cycling
Day 3 of Epic Abs
First thing water

My triceps have literally burned this whole week from the upper body workout I did last Sunday. Hopefully it's ready for it again in two days. Thinking I'll up the cycling to 35 minutes starting next week.

Writing wise: I'm halfway through fleshing out the first of two main characters. But seeing as the editor hasn't looked at my revisions yet, according to GDocs, I'm taking the weekend to work on my own story. Hopefully, to finish it. At 13-14k, it'll be somewhere between a short story and a novella.

 

[NightWolf714]

Glad you're finding some time to work on your own writing as well. I've seen artists who turned their hobby/passion into a job and never have time for their own stuff and it definitely affects them. So I'm glad you're able to sneak bits here and there for your own stuff.

 

[Nevetharine]

Glad you're finding some time to work on your own writing as well. I've seen artists who turned their hobby/passion into a job and never have time for their own stuff and it definitely affects them. So I'm glad you're able to sneak bits here and there for your own stuff.

Thanks! Yeah I'm making peace with the fact that it'll take me a few months to actually finish a short story. Probably two years to finish a full book. But it's alright. It probably wouldn't have been any different if I had a normal 8-5 job, which is how long I treat the ghostwriting. I take a half hour every morning to work on my own stuff.

I've also learned a new outlining technique. It takes a long time and it's tedious, because I get very detailed. But I can see it helping me cut down on many rewrites in the future.

I wanted to post earlier in the week but I keep forgetting! It's been busy, but I've kept up with the cycling. And I did Hegemon this past weekend for strength training.

Hope you are all doing well.

 

[Mamatigerj]

It is lovely to see you, @Nevetharine; welcome back!

 

[NightWolf714]

Thanks! Yeah I'm making peace with the fact that it'll take me a few months to actually finish a short story. Probably two years to finish a full book. But it's alright. It probably wouldn't have been any different if I had a normal 8-5 job, which is how long I treat the ghostwriting. I take a half hour every morning to work on my own stuff.

I've also learned a new outlining technique. It takes a long time and it's tedious, because I get very detailed. But I can see it helping me cut down on many rewrites in the future.

I'm curious about the new outlining technique!

 

[Nevetharine]

I'm curious about the new outlining technique!

I guess it's something like the snowball method.

You have a setting you fill in, then the characters and their arcs. But shortly, summarized:

Main Premise:
X is a detective who has had a knack for solving cases since he was twelve.

Setting:
A fictional suburb in NYC.

Characters:
Detective X
Background:
Appearance:
Quirks:
Arc:

(and the same for all other characters X interacts with, except the minor minor ones)

Then you do that for each of the chapters. Maybe via plot points.

E.g. Chpt 1:
POV: X
Wordcount: 1800

•X goes to see Y about Z.
•Y tells X that Z has had a habit of freezing cats. Everyone thinks Z is kinda creepy. (This can be only a few lines or it can be very detailes but that's the tense you would use)

Emotional Development:
X feels betrayed. He never thought Z would be capable of this.

Foreshadowing/Cliffhanger:
X discovers a bloody knife in his own kitchen drawer.

And so on until you've done all the chapters that way.

 

[NightWolf714]

Sounds like a good way of having an in-depth but not overly complicated outline. Thanks for sharing it with me!

 

[Nevetharine]

Hi Bees!

Been a busy week, (two weeks?). I just didn't have the will for strength training this week. It's been crazy along with writing work.

I've mostly cycled in the evenings because it's "lazy" exercise. And I'm going to try and stick to Back & Core because my lower back is feeling all the sitting.

I'm also going to TRY Totals. The problem with that is only that I don't remember. I might set a pomodoro timer when I'm working then when it goes off just flip off the timer and keep working. Especially when I'm crunching. Movement just flies out of my mind.

But I'm currently 18 chapters into this 25 chapter book. Almost over the finish line!

In the meantime I'm working on a concept for my own story. Fantasy once again. Just for a few minutes every morning. Maybe I'll be done with it by February next year if book #2 in the ghostwriting project comes through early.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

 

[Nevetharine]

Hi everyone!

Ah, the perils of writing.

I'm very behind on work this week because there's been so many appointments I had to taxi my grandfather to. I'm gonna have to work over the weekend to catch up.

So Back & Core is falling to the wayside, but I'm still trying to cycle everyday, or else walk (pace).

It's bad because my back is killing me and my posture sucks in general.

I guess my spotty focus is a boon here. When I can't concentrate in front of the laptop, I send the work to my phone and go outside, and pace while I write.

Fresh air and movement, though the neck posture of writing on a phone isn't ideal either. Lol.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

 

[Nevetharine]

And then I rediscovered this gem!

5 Minute Strength

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

It's great to see you back @Nevetharine!
Congrats on the ghost writing gig!

Pomodoro is your friend. If you actually use it! (You will be more productive in the long run if you take those breaks to get up and move your body.)

 

[Nevetharine]

Greetings fellows!

I am in the thick of developmental revisions, and it's the second weekend in a row where I've worked to keep up with the deadlines. The writing went "slow", and now that it's finished everyone wants it DONE like five minutes ago.

I'm religious with my daily pacing, walking briskly for more than an hour sometimes. It just helps me figure stuff out. But if I'm going to be regular with anything, it must be core work and back exercises. Back pain is affecting my sleep now and that's a big no no for my already spotty concentration.

@Laura Rainbow Dragon, I'm sorry I missed your message about Secret Santa! I have no clue what my schedule will look like for the month ahead though, and I don't want to commit to anything I may not be able to implement.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!

 

[Nevetharine]

Hi Bees!

Well I'm done with the project for this month. And now I'm trying to get back into a regular exercise program, since I've just been walking and pacing with some yoga sprinkled in.

I'm doing the sensible thing for once and starting with Foundation, as frequency is more important to me right now than difficulty.

I'm also taking a complete break from writing, favoring instead activities like coloring or jigsaws to give myself a break from words.

Still reading fiction every night though. If you take away my books, I will find you and I will... if you think of Liam Neeson you will be able to finish that sentence yourself.

My brother will be arriving later today and he'll stick around until after Christmas.

So I want to wish you all a happy Festive Season ahead of time!

 

[Mamatigerj]

Happy Holidays to you, @Nevetharine!