Day 1 Aug. 26, 2015
The Writing:
Today I failed to reach my goal of four hours of solid writing, but I did manage a good two hours. I've learned not to get too discouraged if I fail to reach my writing goals and chalk it up to life getting in the way. I am in a foreign country with a dozen bakeries in a one block radius after all. If I beat myself up too much for missing out on two hours I end up throwing in the whole goal which would be much worse. So I've learned to shrug off the missed time and keep going.
I was a little low on inspiration for a book series I've wanted to start so I put it off for now. I also didn't feel like digging through my folder of 'Works in Progress' to finish a story. There was also a long list of things I've already finished and need to submit so I hid that for today. I finally decided to start with something new, something to get the creative juices flowing.
I opened up Horrortree.com and browsed through some of the submission calls they have going. Once I found something I quickly came up with an idea and began writing. I often do this practice when I find myself not in the mood to write or am struggling to start. Someties having a short new project can get the gears moving.
I was an hour into the first story, a weird fantasy set in the 1800's, when I realized my characters weren't speaking like they were from the 1800's. For instance, I had a character refer to a 'car' as if it were a common item. Looking over my work I realized none of the dialogue was consistent with that era. Rather than go through and polish up the dialogue I saved the work in my 'Works in Progress' folder and found a new competition to write for.
The second story is going much better and proving much more promising, a horror piece I'm basing off a real life experience, and resulted in the second hour of writing.
I've realized using personal experiences in a fresh or interesting way can sometimes give me a boost and get my imagination running.
Tomorrow I hope to finish this story and have it ready for the competition deadline on the 31st.
Non-writing:
Today was a rather quiet day spent with my wife. We've been burned out from the traveling to get here a few days ago and we've been shopping and cleaning to get our apartment to a liveable state since. We decided to relax with a movie and take a break from it all. We did venture outside to buy some groceries and a croissant for breakfast before returning inside.
It's been interesting trying to function in a country where we don't speak the language. If I didn't have a similar experience from serving a mission for my church in El Salvador, then I would probably be a little more panicked. That being said, it's been a little frustrating that something as simple as ordering a croissant involves a bit of charades, pointing, and laughing when I'm finally understood.
My wife seems a little less frazzled now that the place is clean and is beginning to feel like it could work as our home for nine months.
