NaNoWriMo 2023: Weekly Update #3

Hey y’all,

Ah, week 3. Kina like an old friend who is comfortable but also doesn’t really chip in much? That’s NaNo week 3!

But this year I actually flatlined for five days. That’s basically the whole week. Here, have a look:

I’m telling you this for reasons that will become evident in a moment. First, let me back up and give you the regular overview.

Today I have for you, mah lovelies, the newest chapters in Teresa’s Backbone, as well as a digest of other activities I do in my life aside from writing itself. As you’ll see, some are directly related to writing, but many aren’t. This is in response to Stephen King’s wondering in On Writing about what writers do when they aren’t writing. I also sometimes get comments about how prolific I am or what a massive output I produce, and I want to demystify that as much as I can. I know writing sometimes mystifies ordinary activities, which is a bummer, but I’m doing what I can here for you, babe.

Have a look at the chapters—or not. Then read on past the list to the other stuff. See you there.

New chapters

A Me & You story path chapter wherein I rant about continuity. It’s also a chapter that briefly features a librarian, which is starting to become a personal trope or subtrope or scene theme or whatever across my books. The titular “book 15” is No One Ever Knows Why, which is still in draft herself. I think Ryan is the only one who’s read any of it? But you’re all welcome to.

This is, let’s see … the sixth part of the Desolate Farrago path. Here are the others: 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5. You can also read about Desi in The Thieves of All That You Are and SOMA.

A dream story that introduces another murder mystery, albeit obliquely. Pay attention to the pamphlet. Verna is also introduced in this chapter. I was certain I’d written about her already, but. Can’t find it. So here she is. Be careful.

And then there’s …

Lifestyles of the Dipshit and Lamous

Another Me & You. In this one, we take a tour of a sordid rich getaway and retrieve something valuable to me. It’s not what you might think. But! It isn’t quite ready yet. So I wrote most of it in Week 3, but it will need to be finished later.

You made it! Okay great. Now, imma give you a list of things I do aside from writing.

Other things I do

So these activities are kina free-floating. I’ll give you my regular(ish) schedge in just a sec, but lemme tell you about a few things I do that I can just drop in and out of any time I find a free second.

Take a walk

I don’t often do this in colder months, which is kind of a problem.

Mini-meditation

Whenever I am suffering or bewildered, I will take a second to notice my breath and feel my body.

Work on images

Probably too much? I get really sucked into AI art generation. It’s so good at getting close to what I have in mind but not just right that I end up spending way too much time and effort trying to get images just right. I often edit them in other apps after, and that adds even more time. In a dream world, I would have a good relationship with illustrators who dig my work, and I could just pay them to do it. But that’s still in the pipe, as it were.

Pet my cats

Whenever I can. One of them is real loud and can be kina demanding, so he gets a lot of petting. The other one is smaller, soft, and kina snuggly, so we bond during meditation, mostly, sometimes at bedtime.

Listen to birds

I’ve started my first ‘old person’ hobby: birdwatching. Well, it’s more like bird listening. I use this app called Merlin from the Cornell Department of Ornithology to identify the different birds in my yard. It’s pretty wholesome. Plus my dad was super into birds, so it kina feels like a way to be with him since he’s gone.

Read

Probably not more than a Substack newsletter or a chapter, but. I try.

Pay bills

Yeah, we all got ‘em.

Spend time with my kids

Often playing video games, sometimes D&D, sometimes just yappin’. We’re a big talkin’ family.

Helpin’ Mom

Mom is in her 70s now, so we go over to her place a few times a week to help with cleaning, trash, and recycling. She sometimes needs to talk about other things, too, like her health, her house, or her cats.

Mah typical schedule

Sleep in

Every morning I can. I wake up not infrequently during the night and have two cats and two young kids, so. This is not an everyday thing by any means. But whenever I can, I do.

Take my time getting up

With the cats & kids already noted, I take my time waking up and getting up. Some folks can’t do this; they wake and have to get out of bed straight away. I get that. But I can stay in bed for anywhere between twenty minutes and an hour most mornings. I might use this time to …

• Check email (despite Tim Ferriss’ advice)
• Look at Notes
• Capture details about my dream.

I will almost certainly …

• Play Framed
• Play Wordle
• Start Squardle. I used to play the whole thing, but it can make me quite tired, so. Not anymore.

Have coffee

I like a dark roast—usually French roast. I have a Keurig, but don’t get on my dick about it, okay? I use biodegradable k-cups, so. I have one cup of caff, and then it’s unleaded for the rest of the day cos anxiety.

Take my morning med

I have a thyroid disease, and the thyroid is a fickle bitch, so you have to take the medicine a goodly ways away from any other meds you take.

Meditation

I am a fairly serious student of Buddhist meditation. I came to meditation through a Dungeons & Dragons novel called The Verdant Passage, and I came to Buddhism through a Thich Nhat Hahn book called Anger that my sister recommended to me (which had, in turn, been prescribed to her by her therapist). A mentor gave me a copy of The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler. (Incidentally, she isn’t Buddhist.) It sat on my shelf for, I dunno, five or ten years? One day I was wondering why life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, and my eyes literally went to rest on the spine of that book. (The subtitle is, of course, A Handbook for Living cos on the nose.) I saw His Holiness in Charlottesville shortly after that, and it was a transformative experience. I got pretty deeply into reading his books thereafter and eventually branched out into other schools of Buddhism, mostly through the University of YouTube.

So this is something I take more seriously than writing, and it also helps me write and manage my mind throughout the day, which is why it is the first devoted activity I do each day. Well, I say that but …

Talk with my youngest

On any given day, it’s a toss up if I will talk with my youngest or meditate first. Depends on what’s going on with him. He’s pretty self-directed and efficient at this point, so if I am meditating when he comes to talk to me, he usually just hugs me and says good morning or leaves and waits till I’m done. Obviously if he really needs something, I stop what I’m doing and help him.

Talk with my wife

After meditation, I check in with mah partner, and we figure out the day. Who needs what when and all that. If we both have a flexible morning, we chitchat for a bit. She will likely share at least one meme or Reels-type dealie with me (often Boomer Mom), and I will probably drone on about my dream or some aspect of terrestrial existence I find baffling or insufferable. She will listen patiently and nod.

Writing

Once everyone is set around the house, I go into mah writing cave. Well, it has a window, so. Not a proper cave. In any case, I try my best not to emerge until the work is done. This is usually about two hours. If I’m very tired or in pain, it might only be one hour; and, if I’m feeling exceptionally strong, I might be able to do as much as four hours. By the by, I know Uncle Steve suggests that everyone write for four hours a day, but I would caution writing any longer than that. You will probably hurt yourself. Like, seriously. I’m not kidding. I mean, if you have an 18 Con score or higher, go nuts. But I have, like, an 8? So I have to really pay attention to my breath and body and mind while I am writing or I can easily overdo and overwork myself. Be kind. Go slow. That’s the best advice I have today for you on the subject.

Eat food

Look, I more or less adhere to an intermittent fasting kina diet, but don’t gimme shit, okay? I’m not going to tell you how to eat or when or when not to or what to eat or what not to, so let’s be friendly about it with each other, okay? I’m not a strict adherent or anything. I just find that my mind works much better if I wait until midday to break my fast. You do you. Please. And let me be.

The day job

Ah have a full-time but flexible day job I can do from home, so I usually start work after all that, typically around 10, 11, or noon. Somewhere around in there.

Lunch

I eat lunch next, usually. You know, if I remember to. Sometimes I forget to eat and get a little batshit. I sometimes make my youngest lunch then, too.

Nap

If I need a nap and I am able to (both in terms of schedule and literal ability to fall asleep), then I take a nap. Often they’re about 20 or 30 minutes, but I might sleep for a few hours if I’m really wiped out.

If I can’t sleep, then I will rest in bed. I might read or watch YouTube, maybe a movie. But nothing too intense. Rest is the idea.

Mo work

I work for, I dunno, several more hours, being sure to eat snacks, go to the bathroom, walk around (preferably outside), and shower. My oldest will probably get home from school around this time, but I won’t really be able to talk with them until dinner most days.

Family dinner

We do our very best to eat dinner together as a family every day. We’ve done very well this year. Other years, it’s been spottier. Dinner might be quite short for me—as short as 15 minutes. Unless, of course, I’m cooking, in which case it’s like an hour and 15 or more. I usually use this time to check in with the kids about their school days and with my wife about her work day. They rarely ask about mine, but that’s okay. I usually don’t want to talk about it anyway, and if I need to, I’ll talk with my wife later on.

Even mo work

I typically work for 2 or 3 more hours after dinner and finish around, I dunno, 8ish. I am usually effing spent by then, and ready for sleep. I may be in a good bit of pain, too, depending on how well I’ve cared for myself throughout the day and what the weather is like.

Kids bed-time/family movie/reading time

We get the kids ready for bed; then, if there’s time, we watch a show or a piece of a movie together. If they don’t have school the next day, we probably watch a few episodes or a whole movie. They go through phases of wanting to be read to, so we do that when they’re into it. Then we tuck ‘em in, kiss ‘em good night.

Adult alone time/wind down

This is really the only time my wife and I have alone together. We are both usually crapped out by this point, so we decompress a bit by talking and watching part of a movie or a show—typically one we’ve seen a lot so we don’t have to play close attention to what’s going on. It used to be she would always pass out first, like by an hour or more. Nowadays, I typically fall asleep first—sometimes as soon as fifteen minutes, but usually more like an hour. She tells me I make some very weird sounds while falling asleep. I know I snore and snort because I wake myself up from it sometimes.

Night-time meditation/dreamtime

If I have it in me, I do a brief night-time meditation. This usually guides me into sleep very naturally. I went through a phase of trying to do dream yoga whereby you meditate in your sleep, but I failed spectacularly. So I don’t really attempt that these days.

Dreaming is a huge part of my life and my artistic process. I think it was Dali who said something like he could spend the rest of his life meticulously recording his dreams, and I get this in a very big way. I have, for example, written at least two novels in my sleep; however, there was no way I could get them down before I forgot huge pieces of them. So who knows. Maybe one day. But I often get a dream story or a chapter or two out of them, as you’ve often seen.

Cyclical existence

And then I do it all over again. Until, you know, I can’t.

I hope you found at least some of this useful or at least entertaining. I’d say I’m happy to answer questions, but only kindly posed ones, please. Sometimes folks use my sharing info like this as an opportunity to complain or give me shit about it. Let’s not do that, okay? I’m also not certain I could give any useful advice or pointers. My life is a fairly well-tuned thing that I’ve spent a couple decades working my way into and cultivating on a daily basis. There isn’t really a shortcut option in there, or, you know, I would have taken it immediately. Still would prolly.

Whatever you are up to, please be kind to yourself and don’t compare yourself to me or anyone. You are your own mystery and that’s beautiful.

Take good care, and keep on rockin’ it, babies!

Xoxo,

T

P.S.—If you missed the first two summaries, why here you go, lovely:

AiS 0074