August 2024 in Review

[rowyn]

 

Health & Fitness

Still not paying much attention to what I eat. I remain on track for regular “exercise”, as long as you’re willing to accept things like “10 minutes of aerobics” or “45 minutes of cleaning” as exercising. (I feel like I ought to up my Average Amount of Exercise but “too little” is still better than “none.”)

Writing

Still only writing Apothecaria. I think the illustrated buffer was still around five at the end of August, but the written buffer had grown longer, so I probably wrote another 35-ish. I’m getting close to resolving all the major story arcs, so I may declare this playthrough finished at some point in the next four-five months. I don’t have an outline for the story -- the original point was to let random prompts guide the development. I am well past the point where I’m using much in the way of prompts but I still haven’t written out a guide for the remainder. Just seeing where writing takes me.

The Business of Writing

I finished editing A Dragonling’s Family! Remaining tasks are:

• Illustrate cover
• Layout cover
• Layout book
• Final readthrough (this pass is 98% ‘make sure the layout process didn’t munge the book’ but I generally also catch a few typos during it.)

I have made very little progress on the “illustrate cover” front. I made some sketches I didn’t like at all and one sketch that’s kind of okay. I have thought of three other options, two of which are just ‘please don’t make me draw all three viewpoint characters plus the eponymous dragonling’.

The whole reason I haven’t done this illustration yet is that I’m dreading trying to capture the triad. UGH. I am tempted to go back to the old silhouette-style covers I used for the Etherium and Arranging Paradises series. I am just not that good at full illustration. 530+ illustrated Apothecaria entries notwithstanding.

Social

A convention friend was in town for a few days in August, and we got together for dinner on two nights. Other than that, I don’t think I saw anyone. It’s weird how happy I am just to stay at home and do my own thing and not see people. It’s not that I mind seeing people; I enjoy seeing my friends and family. But I don’t crave it or feel like my life is lacking when I’m alone. I went out about once a week by myself to get a bubble tea and takeout, but pretty much stayed home otherwise.

Eliyahu is visiting me again this month, plus I visited my parents & friends in North Carolina, so I’m getting out more this month.

Goal Scorecard

I forgot that I set actual goals for August! Fortunately, there weren’t many and I did them all.

• Finish editing A Dragonling’s Family: Done!
• Pay August bills: Yup! In August!
• Buy plane tickets to visit parents: Done! I am visiting them as I write this, in fact.

Stretch goals

• Kept up with Apothecaria!

Goals for September

• Pay bills
• Finish illustration for A Dragonling’s Family cover
• Buy plane tickets for next trip to parents.

Stretch Goals

• Publish A Dragonling's Family
• Continue posting Apothecaria
• Start tracking eating habits again
• Do things on the Bored? list

Comments

[tuftears]

*cheers for continuing exercise and visiting around* *also cheers for edits*

*encourages cover with all the protagonists* What if you go slightly abstract with it? Instead of trying to do a whole composition with perspective and all, have them in pictures like a set of tarot cards, some laid over the others?

[rowyn]

Ohhh I like that idea

I wonder if I could do a bunch of abstract crows, like the Escher birds, and put a character in each bird