October is very much here. I’m glad Tampa is getting rain every day up to mid-next week. It’s the best feeling, even with other things going on. This past week has been tricky for me mentally but nevertheless I charge on — not because my feelings don’t matter but rather it’s because of my feelings that I must push forward. The events from last week, as well as my work schedule, meant that I missed the gym but that’s okay because side well…shit happens.
This month also means that I’m on the home stretch of this one year writing of Drafts. While the month isn’t even close to finished, I’ve managed to write quite a bit for this month’s chapter. I did say that with this project, it would be one chapter per month, regardless of length. I can honestly say that with how things are going, this last chapter may be longer than I thought and will definitely make up for the shorter chapters. The part that I haven’t taken into account? Editing these chapters into verse stanzas in the same style as FireFrei. In just having edited the 1st chapter alone on my Mac, I realized that, even with the shorter chapters, this project may actually be in the length of FireFrei. I think the only reason it initially doesn’t feel this way is because of the flow and style of storytelling that I’m doing in this project.
I also think that in committing to this monthly format of writing chapters, I found myself not only giving myself grace but also able to capture some of the magic happening in my head while also keeping my memory sharp regarding the world I build in the story.
In the previous work, a chapter wasn’t done until I felt that I got an ending fleshed out, even if the chapter itself took months to write and finish. In this case, in boxing myself into one chapter a month, I found myself more prone to flex my writing, remembering some aspects that I forgot while also trying new things; I think there’s beauty in that.