I WROTE A SCENE! And other writing/life updates!

 Yesterday morning, I woke up with a scene running through my head. Nothing really unusual for me, except it hasn't been happening as much as it used to. So this time I decided to grab onto it before it faded into the void. I got up, did my usual morning stuff, grabbed my coffee, sat back in bed, and scribbled in my morning pages...but then I fired up the laptop and hopped on Ellipsus. And started WRITING.

It felt so damn good! It was so much fun!

Now, the experience wasn't 100% perfect. A few paragraphs in, I started experiencing a few irritations. Ellipsus is cool, but I discovered there were a few things I didn't like. The font that went with my chosen theme looked weird in italics. So I figured out how to change the font and kept it moving. But then two more weird things happened. First, when I typed *** to switch POVs, it changed it to a line. No biggie, I thought, I'll fix it later. But then...it also changed back to the original font. WTF? Ugh!

So I ended up exporting the scene to a Word doc, saving it to my flash drive, and continuing it there. From there I was able to fix the font and the *** issues, and I finished the scene. Problem solved for now.

I decided to delete the copy from Ellipsus for now until I figure out if I can/how to fix the font issues. It might be as simple as picking a different theme. But if it still gives me trouble, I'm sad to say I won't be using it for my drafts. I might be being nitpicky, but I can't afford not to be at this point. This is the first time I've actually written in literal months! I want to keep the friction as low as possible so I'll keep going!

I've still been watching a lot of (too much?) YouTube. But lately I've found some really good videos. One in particular by The Uncharted Studio was really helpful. It was an experiment she did in which she set a goal to write one sentence a day for ten days, and she used various methods to motivate and encourage herself to do it. Two methods really stood out to me that I want to try. The first was keeping her draft open on her computer at all times. Now, while this isn't completely practical for myself (yet), I can modify this a bit. I did have my laptop on my bed already as well as my flash drive, so there's that. And I have my flash drive on my work desk right now (which is where I'm at btw). Just went ahead and plugged it into the computer. So yep, ready to go, along with my set of notebooks I've been carrying. More on them in a minute.

The other method was adding a sticker to her calendar every time she wrote. But I noticed something in the video when she talked about that--the specific calendar she used was NOT a traditional box-style monthly calendar! It was linear, with the days down the left side, and two columns to the right. The third column she'd labeled "Writing" and had colored a section of it, and that was where she was putting her stickers--not on specific days, but scattered around within that colored block! It was so artsy and cute! So that gave me the idea...I could do the same thing somewhere on a wall in my room, but instead of a calendar, I could just put up a sheet of pretty scrapbook paper and make it into a little art project! That way it doesn't scream "habit tracker," which would turn my brain away from it, bc as we all know by now, my brain does not do habit tracking. But I'm imagining how cute it would be to have a growing piece of sticker art on my wall that gets stickers added every time I write! How cool is that?!

Back to the notebooks. Around this time last month, I went thrift shopping after picking up my prescriptions (I'm back on diabetes meds now yay!), and I found the most awesome little stationery bag at Attic Treasures. It's not the cutest in terms of color (unless you like 60s/70s-era green, which I kinda do), but it has an amazing number of pockets on the inside and outside, which I have loaded up with pens, markers, stamps, correction tape, sticky notes, and my sticker tweezers. The main compartment holds my planner, two notebooks, and two sticker books. It's not too big, not too small. I can toss it in my work bag with my purse, my thinking book (which I've switched over to a composition notebook), and a folder, and I'm good to go!

The two notebooks in my stationery bag are both for writing. One is the Vera Bradley A5 where I have notes and scraps. I've designated that as a temporary resting spot for notes since the pages are too easy to tear out. The other is a Dollar Tree special, not quite A5 size that I originally bought as a TN insert, but now it just lives with the VB in the bag. It doesn't have anything in it yet, but I've designated it as a WIP journal. I decided I wanted something a little less temporary but also analog. Love my digital options, but I'm not always at a computer, and I know I'm not always gonna want to open my laptop or sit at my desk to write.

My overall notebook situation is slightly chaotic. There are those two notebooks, my Nichi, and my thinking book. Btw, I switched over to a composition notebook for my thinking book. Bigger page size but lighter and thinner than the B6 Stalogy. But I'm still having the same issue with that as I was before: not wanting to use it for writing specifically even though I technically could. I'm okay with that, though (I think). It's basically become a hybrid thinking book and commonplace book, pretty much focused on home, health, and self-care stuff. Not only do I write in it, I also cut up and paste printouts into it, so it's kind of got a scrapbooky feel to it now. I like it. It's working for me.

But there's still that issue of it meaning I'm carrying six freaking books with me to work every day. They're not heavy individually, but most of them together in a big honking tote bag...ugh. There's Nichi and the two writing notebooks in the stationery bag, that and the thinking book inside the work bag, the notebook in my wallet, and the pocket notebook I'm trying to keep on me at all times. Jeez, I'm addicted to this shit lol.

At least this is my last week of work, then I'm off for two weeks! That'll give me time to figure out my setup for next semester.

Speaking of work, I've actually been WORKING the past couple of weeks. I have a new student! Her name is Paula, she's a few years older than me, and she's cool as hell. She's been working on Document Production this semester, which is one bitch of a class, but she's a trooper. She came to me way behind, but we're basically caught up now. She's already promised she'll be back next semester, so awesome!

This semester was SO SLOW until she came along. Before her, I hadn't had a single student all semester except for Hunter, who has already graduated and only needed help getting into his Parchment account to access his degree, diploma, and certificates. I still keep in touch with Dee, but that's mainly by text only now. We both play a word guessing game on Fetch, and we send each other the solution every day. Other than that and her sending me pics of her granddaughters and such, that's it.

Ronal hired me a couple of weeks ago for a couple of days, but other than that, he's been busy with his job and doing schoolwork on his own/with his study group. He's my only side hustle customer these days. Next semester, I might reach out to Paula and see if she's interested in tutoring outside of GNTC hours, but for now that's it.

Guess that's all the updates for now. Paula could be coming in any minute now, so I'm gonna take a quick break and get ready. See ya next time!