Month: September 2019

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Walking and wordage: week 3

Steps achieved!

We’re entering into the home straight of the walk and words September-athons, and it’s a mixed result.

Yesterday, I notched up my steps for Steptember, as you can see by the blue circle on the screenshot. Totally worth the wet walk on the 21st to keep the count up!

The money raised is a little disappointing, though, but I’m grateful for those who were able to find the spare cash to chip in. I know there’s not a lot of coin to spare at the moment. I’m guilty of having bookmarked a couple of such campaigns to only return to find them over.

You’ll see from the screenshot that the other team members are also well situated to land their 280k of steps 🙂

If you’d like to donate to help support people with cerebral palsy, you can do so here

The wordage for Writers Victoria’s #30kin30days has, as expected, limped along.

I managed to spend the V/Line journey this week tinkering with the Whimsy Project, but it’s a mess, defying — oddly, for me — geographical setting, with characters I can’t quite get a handle on. Too soon for such an intimate character study? Maybe.

Clearly it’s not going to be the quick, short exercise I’d hoped for, but I’ll back up next month with a new writing goal being run by a friend to stop myself getting too distracted. Once I’ve got some clear air again. I think it needs a good chunk of immersion to try to get these characters talking.

Meanwhile, the D&D party have got themselves into a right old pickle. Backs literally to a wall. Much more fun scripting the campaign than bashing my head against the Whimsy’s narrative brick wall, I can assure you!

 

A damp stroll to keep the step count up on the 21st. If only all paths were so clearly lit, eh?

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Farewell to Frank at Gundiah

Dad taking life in his stride at Conamore

Family and friends are invited to share in a celebration of the life of Frank Nahrung, who died on 11 July aged 82, at the Prince Alfred Hotel at Gundiah on Friday 11 October from 2pm.

Our farm, Conamore, was about 10 miles up the road from the Gundy pub, and the pub and the hall next door formed the social centre of the rural district.

As well as propping up a stool at the bar on many occasions, Dad also helped run it for a few years with his partner Eve at the helm, so it seems an appropriate place for a farewell gettogether.

There will be nibbles and a few drinks, and anyone who would like to share their respects and a yarn or two is welcome.
 

Dad, Eve and customer at the Prince Alfred Hotel, Gundiah.

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Walking and wordage: week 2

Waves on a very full Lake Wendouree show the wintry wind is still blowing in spring.

Two weeks into the walk and words September-athons, and the legs are doing all the work.

Steptember reports an average of about 12,500 steps a day at the halfway mark, which is better than I’d expected (the goal is 10k a day). There have been a couple of windy days but fortunately gaps on the rainy days to keep the mileage up. Let’s see if the weather holds!

The other team members are also on track 🙂

If you’d like to donate to help support people with cerebral palsy, you can do so here

The wordage for Writers Victoria’s #30kin30days has, as expected, not improved.

A couple of book reviews, D&D game planning and general tiredness have meant very little creative energy has been expended on Project Whimsy, although the writing prompts have made me aware of just how much research is needed for even this most basic of stories. Deep sigh and move on.

If I can make some calm air, I’ll return to plotting and character development this month, with an aim to write a skeleton next month. I’m still hung up on the ending. The original thought was a tragedy but now I’m wondering it that’s just the easy way out…

 

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Walking and wordage: week 1

Cygnets on Lake Wendouree

First week check-in for the September-athons, and it’s going … OK.

Steptember is encouraging me to get out and about, with mixed results as the weather and the V/Line intrudes.

Last Thursday was a beauty – I ended up accidentally walking around Lake Wendouree. I’d intended to just walk up to a marker and back again to stretch my legs on a glorious spring morning, but ended up doing the full circuit. Maybe it was the first of the cygnets and ducklings I saw wobbling around that spurred me to wobble on, too.

All up, so far, about 84,000 steps logged for Steptember, and the three others in the team have also been taking it in their stride 🙂

If you’d like to donate, you can do so here

The wordage for Writers Victoria’s #30kin30days has, as expected, not come close to the nominal 1000 words a day goal, although I am stacking up the daily writing prompts, which have been excellent, to work through as the month unrolls. Location, character and plot have featured so far, ideal for someone like me in the throes of working out a new story.

I’ve kicked around some scenes, mapped out a plot skeleton, started working out who the characters are, so some wheels are in motion.

I haven’t been counting words written for my D&D campaign (cleverly blogged by one of the players, which has been a valuable creative outlet this year as I work out the story and world and challenges for my players to encounter.

I’m hoping the walk to and from the station plus the commute will keep both mileage and wordage ticking over, even if not quite at optimum.

 

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Walking and wordage for spring challenges

In September, I’ve got two -thons happening: one charitable, one creative.

The first is Steptember (thanks, Ellen, for inviting me to the team), raising money to help people with cerebral palsy.

It kicks off on 3 September, with a goal of taking 10,000 steps a day till the end of the month. The daily average is 3000, we’re told. A trial run yesterday revealed some disparity in our pedometers, but what the hey. It gets me out of the chair and maybe does someone else some good, too.

If you’d like to donate, you can do so here

The other distance effort for the month is Writers Victoria’s #30kin30days program, which, as the name applies, set a goal of 1000 words a day for 30 days.

I’ve written bugger all this year, just a few bits of flash fiction since the PhD was signed, sealed and delivered, so I thought this might be a good way to jar the creative synapses out of their stupor.

I’ve chosen a project that’s been hanging around for a very long indeed, and while I’m not expecting to roll 1k a day, I will be very happy to have a solid outline and some scenes drafted by the end of the month.

The program started on 1 September, with a prompt to work out WHEN the story is set. Excellent, I had that in my head, but the prompt called for a room description to conjure the era, and that led to a short scene (250 words on the V/Line; hello again, my office between offices!).

You can join in or follow along on Twitter.

2 September’s prompt was to make a list of 10 locations and then go to town fleshing out one of them. Well, I have a road map for my story, so I’m going to see how I go at selecting key locations and working up their significant details, including smells and time of year (thanks, prompt!), over the next couple of days.