Monday musings...

Just because I haven't in a long while, I'm posting this to my blog at measi.net, too...

This past weekend was a bit odd and scatterbrained. A good one, and for the most part I finally feel like I had a productive weekend that didn't leave me feeling like crap for not doing XYZ. I did some chores. I did some writing. I also goofed around. So all in all - the balance I needed.

Friday night was the X-Files movie, which I did enjoy even if I was well aware going in that it wasn't going to be fantastic. It was fun. I think it was definitely geared more toward existing fans, and I don't expect many new fans of the series to come from this movie. But eh, no big deal. Enjoyed it, loved seeing Mulder and Scully go on another adventure together, and laughed along with many others in the audience. So good times. :)

On Saturday, Ivanna was up in the area, and the original plan had been to get together, but the party she said was happening was a bit too far away for our tastes, so we wound up not going. I'm going to have to plan some sort of a weekend to go down Easton-NJ way and see people instead.

We did finally get some good yardwork done on Saturday - the trumpet vines and wild honeysuckle needed to be tamed back quite a bit in the front yard along with weeds that had managed to grow taller than Erich (no... really. 6'4" foot high weeds). Thankfully with rain, they pulled right out of the ground, so it wasn't too difficult of work for me. Erich mowed a decent amount of the yard, and it's starting to look somewhat tamed back.

I focused a majority of this weekend on writing - my ficathon deadline was extended until August 2nd, and while I know where the story is going, I've really been having difficulty getting the "that's what we need to do!" point in the story out through my fingers and move properly. Lots of characters spinning around waiting for me to figure out where they're going. The irony is that the next chapter is already 3/4 written - so it's a basic "get from point A to point C" type situation. But my brain just has not been able to write in a way that I'm happy with.

I realize that I could be a complete slacker, ignore the years of "show, don't tell" that was beaten into me with every writing course I've taken. And yes, I realize it's fanfic and nothing earth-shattering and that it doesn't have to be good. I see fanfiction, however, as a way to practice and perfect writing - working on creating strong, fluid dialogue, improving story pacing, etc. It's a bit of a writer's workshop to me. So even though it's not for a grade or wage, I do take it seriously - perhaps too seriously.

Anyway, I think I've got the solution, and it's progressing nicely now - albeit a bit slower than I would want. I really need to push to get the chapter done today so I can get it to beta tonight and allow folks appropriate time to check them over. I'm concerned that the last two chapters may wind up too late for beta work, and I'll just have to risk it on my own.

Worst comes to worst - I had a half-day planned for Thursday. I'm already planning to spend a good portion of it at Borders writing.

More distractions were added to the home this weekend, too. Matt bought a copy of Lego Indiana Jones (which, from the little I saw, was absolutely hysterical). We also picked up our copy of Rock Band. The guys jammed a bit last night - I was offered the singer position, but I only recognized one of the three initial songs, and couldn't sing it anyway, so I just sat and watched (I generally hate to sing in front of other people. I can carry a tune okay... but I don't have a particularly strong voice and am just a bit too shy about it. That's why I play an instrument instead).

I also picked up two Sims2 expansions, although my CD-ROM drive seems to have died again... so it's off to purchase a new one before I can install.

Busy, busy, busy...

And now off to work!