False Alarm and Class Fiction Writing

[davetheanalyzer]

I’ve had my yearly checkup. After getting my bloodwork done, I only did the checkup through video chat at first, due to the snow and my messy sleep schedule but my new PA was interested in having me checked in person, especially since I was worried about a bump on my neck. I’ve had the neck bump checked a few years before when I became aware of it and I was assured it was harmless hair or nerve follicles. I pretty much forgot about it until I became newly aware of it a day or two before the checkup. The PA checked it himself a few days later and hearing my explanation, assured me the bump hadn’t changed and sometimes you just become newly aware of the condition of parts of your body. That’s a relief. With that, the bump mostly no longer draws my attention. And that’s on top of my teeth sensitivity issues having eased away somewhat. Probably helped by me changing the brush head of my electric toothbrush and rubbing extra toothpaste on those sensitive areas. 

I finished the first draft of the sixty page project for Seminar in Fiction II, which amounted to the first two chapters, though I didn’t manage to fit in everything I have planned. I was going to have the chapters be around 24 pages each, to fit in with this story’s inspiration from half hour TV shows, but the chapters had to be upped to 30 pages to fit in all I needed and even in the second chapter, there was one last scene I wasn’t able to include. I’m already on the second draft planning to cut and compress some fight scenes and other moments but I have a feeling I’ll be reaching 30 pages often with these chapters. At least this allows greater room for character and humorous moments.

I struggled more with my Writing Portfolio rewrites, since I need to make the fight scenes and the context for them understandable and not wanting to cut any later scenes out. I initially added a page where we saw how the fight began but didn’t like it, so I reverted the second draft to be more like the first draft, albeit adjusting it with the feedback in mind. I wrote a lot today and am far happier with the current iteration, though I’ll still make changes. I guess this is the challenge you get when you include fight scenes in the written medium. Writing them can a pain but I like the idea of that kind of conflict being in my stories and my stories wouldn’t work as well without them. I have enjoyed writing some and been satisfied with the finished product of others but it’s hard making one up as you go along, judging how long it should go, it’s comprehensibility, and if it’s saying something about the characters. I’ve written fight scenes for a while, so I believe I’ve improved on them. I just need to continue improving, especially for an audience that mightn’t be used to them.

That’s all for now. I’m still finding time to write We Will Hold On Forever once a week, so still making incremental progress. I’ll see you all at the end of March.