Wednesday, March 25, 2020

March Sweeps - Day 54

(they're sunglasses, not a bikini top)
Not much new to report today.

Oh, except that Marshal Latham texted me to let me know his state went on lock-down.  I don't know if there's a statistic somewhere that says which states are at what level of quarantine, but I figured, with Idaho closing its doors, it won't be long before I'm not allowed to go to the park or pick up a pizza myself.*  So, I made it a point to get together with my cousin (for the first time since this started) to have lunch, in case tomorrow or the next day, we're no longer able to do that.

Actually (two in this post . . . so far), I felt a little bit guilty about it, in case it was irresponsible of me to hang out with him during his lunch hour at work, sit in a car with him, eat food in the deserted breakroom at his job.  Still, he's the only person I see socially anymore, and if it's our last time going out, well, we talked about the stuff we always talk about, and that never gets old.

I started editing our newest "Delusions of Grandeur" episode today, but it's slow-going.  I'm currently at the thirteen minute mark, and I think I'll do a couple more minutes and pause at fifteen.  I also edited a chapter of the Lara/Holcomb story (only Chapter 2, so it'll be a while), but was starting to fall asleep there, so I might stop and do my run a bit early.

Oh yes, I also wrote today.  I went to the park, did the stairs, yadda yadda yadda.  I feel like, if the library were open, I'd be finished with this story and on to the next one (and maybe the next after that).  I believe there is something to that dictum that you should find a place where you only go to write, until your brain gets used to writing when you go there, otherwise why is it so much harder for me to sit in the car or on my bed and write for more than a few minutes at a time?

I did my run, and it wasn't as easy as it had been the last two or three days.  But I had gone up and down those darn stairs this afternoon until I thought my legs might collapse out from under me, so I don't feel like I was slacking off.

After that, I sat down and re-recorded Chapter 3 (for some reason, the sound was messed up on it--which I believe happened a bunch of times on "Calling 2"), and then Chapter 12.  I looked at Chapter 13, and it took place later in the story.  I guess I should've checked 14 and 15, in case one of those was out of order, but instead, I just wrote up a mini-chapter to put between them, that explained why the new Chapter 14 took place later.  And I recorded that.

So that, plus what little I wrote at the park, equaled 1,153 words.  I might sit down and write more, but for now, I'm publishing this.

Words Today: 1277
Words In March: 33,023

*Actually, the other day, I did go by the pizza place, figuring I'd pick one up, and the line went out the door, even with social distancing, so I just drove home and made myself some soup.  Not due to fear of Covid-19, but due to laziness.

2 comments:

Tom Tancredi said...

Listening to your story today you sent me. Did I understand correctly you did a sequel to The Calling? Is it published? I thought that was probably your best story so far (although I did love that time-traveling kid's uncle one too).

I wrote 300 words yesterday. I feel mighty! Using your comments box as my accountability check-in. But if I stop writing don't yell at me. I'm bad at starting a habit and sticking with it.

Rish Outfield said...

Yes, I wrote a novel-length sequel called "The Calling: Reunion," and it is available on Amazon (as well as a two-pack that includes the first story). I was holding off on announcing it officially until the audiobook was available, since I'd much rather people buy that. But Audible took a day longer than I've been writing everyday to get back to me, telling me there was too much background hiss AND the audio was too quiet on every single track.

That means, if I sat down today and re-did all those files (which I'm not going to do), the soonest the audiobook (and corresponding episode of the Outcast, which has been done since January) would be out would be May. I might just start over with the two-pack version, and see if they accept that.

Good work on your 300 words!