Writing Journal, 2.2.2020: Wrapping up January

So, this week was a bit more planning than writing than it has been before.

Recently, Project D and Project F have been occupying my frontal lobes. The details are here, but basically Project D is a fanfiction fantasy project I’m trying to move toward completion and Project F is a long-term original content fantasy project. A longtime fan of fantasy, the genre has now grabbed my attention with a vengeance.

Essentially, with more work as I wrap up my time at my current district and plans I have to help my wife with regarding both selling my house, buying a new house, moving, helping my son get set up with a new job after finishing his training, and getting my daughter eventually settled in at university, there is a lot going on. I’m happy the month of January is wrapped up – my wife and I are that much closer to having the crazy time finished up.

With all of that, my time writing has been somewhat limited. I always hate reading fanfiction that authors have abandoned due to losing interest in the story, life problems, etc. (On the Internet, you likely have to consider the possibility that some of those authors just pass on mid-story or retire from writing without public comment.) I want to make sure what I’m writing gets done. I have a good outline of the project, I have to just sit down and write everything out. From my estimates, I’m about halfway through the project, and I hope I might be able to finish it up by the end of this summer. Whether that happens is another issue, but I am hopeful and I’m really enjoying the story (it’s here if you want to read it).

Much of my planning/research has been centered on how I want to name both characters and places in my Project F. I’ve started planning what the world the new story takes place in with the help of Wonderdraft, but thinking of what the names of those places should be and what the names of the people that live in those places are another struggle altogether. Everyone talks about how brilliant Tolkien was in naming conventions and so forth, but the guy was a linguistics professor at Cambridge University, so he had a few advantages that I don’t have. I want them to be good without sounding too derivative and done in a way that’s not going to take forever to research, much less write.

I do have some technological resources JRRT didn’t happen to have, however. I think this whole process might be worth it’s own blog post, but don’t ask me to advise you on how to handle it. I’m just muddling along through the creative process just like everyone else is, trying to make something interesting.

Anyway, here’s the stats for last week:

+2,203 words written.

Days writing:  3 of 7.

Days revising/planning: 3 of 7 for 240 total minutes.

Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

So, nothing horrific.

Have a good week reading and writing, everyone.