May Write Day: Habits

On By Steven D'AdamoIn FantasyLeave a comment

April was a solid month. We spent some time with friends and family, welcomed a new baby to the family, and started making moves on our house. April felt long, but also passed quickly. As my status update post indicated last week, I made progress on a lot of things throughout April, but didn’t bring many to completion.

Progress without “finishing” it still progress, so that’s something to feel good about.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish two revision cycles for Uprooted, the Herb Witch Tales #1.
  2. Read three books.
  3. Exercise three times per week.

Finish two revisions for Uprooted?

No, but I’m almost done with the first. In the first half of the month, I just didn’t spend enough nights revising. In the second half of the month, we were dealing with our toddler getting Scarlett Fever, of all things, and now I have a minor bout of strep myself.

I still definitely should have finished the first revision and at least made a good start on the second. As with everything, this has more to do with not being in the habit of revising.

Read three books?

Also no. I finished one book in April and have made good progress on two others. I’m currently listening to two different books on Audible, because they are quite different and require different kinds of my attention.

The first is a parenting book, Raising Good Humans, which I’m trying to listen to earnestly, which means it requires more of my focus. I’m finding the book helpful so far, but progress is slow, because it comes with exercises. A couple times each chapter, the author stops for an exercise, typically consisting of journaling about your experiences as a parent, or your experiences being raised by your parents.

Again, because I’m trying to listen to this book in earnest, I’m doing all of the activities, which means I need to take the time to sit down and write my responses. I think it will help, though.

The second book I’m reading is The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany. I have previously listened to a collection of his short stories, which I found difficult to get through. In retrospect, I think those were difficult because the narrator was awful. The narrator for The King of Elfland’s Daughter is quite good, and I’m enjoying the story far more. Reading Dunsany has been an incredible glimpse into the fantasy stories that Tolkien likely grew up on when he was a child, and the influences are obvious. Looking forward to writing a bit more about this one.

I’m also still reading A Memory of Light. I’m at the point in the story where everything is going wrong for the protagonists and it feels like everything is about to collapse around them. The dread is real.

Exercise three times per week?

I think I was not far off from this, but it was not nearly as consistent as I would have liked. I need to take a new tack. See below.

Goals for May

  1. Actually finish two revisions for Uprooted. I need to get this done.
  2. Plan next steps for The Herb Witch Tales. After the above is complete, I need to plan my next steps for this duology. It will likely depend on whether I need further revisions for Uprooted. If not, perhaps I cans end it to beta readers and/or my editor while I start revising New Earth.
  3. Read three books. I should finish the two audiobooks I’m listening to, and finding a third will not be hard.
  4. Exercise every day. Time to knuckle down. I really need to get back into a proper exercise routine, but I can’t do that unless I’m exercising habitually. Three days per week is not cutting it. I want to try to exercise every single day this month. Whether that’s some basic morning yoga, resistance training, or full yoga sessions. I’m not targeting a specific routine here, again, because I just want to do something each day. That’s it. The routine will come later.

Steve D

Mid/Late April Check-In

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

It’s been a long time since I wrote a “status update” type of post, but I’m in the middle of a lot of different things at the moment.

I definitely intended to title this my “Mid-April” check-in, until I realized that it is, in fact, April 25th as I write this. So, here are my status updates.

Revisions

I’m still revising Uprooted, The Herb Witch Tales #1, and hopeful I can finish the current stage by the end of the month. Really enjoying this story, which always feels weird to say about my own writing, but considering what the first draft of this story looked like, I am immensely happy with how it has evolved.

Reading

I’m in the middle of three separate books at the moment. One of them, I may actually finish this month. Another is A Memory of Light, which I’ve just decided is my reading project this year–won’t be finishing that this month. And the third is a book about parenting–Raising GOod Humans–which includes homework.

Yes, I am trying to do the homework. I’m not reading this book because I enjoy the subject matter. I’m reading it because I’ve been having issues with my older son. The book has already helped somewhat, so I’m trying to put in an honest effort. It just means it will take me longer to finish.

Exercise

Part of the above improvement effort has included a realization that I need to exercise for my mental health as much as physical. I’ve always known this, but it’s really hit home for me recently. I’ve been pretty good about it this month for a seemingly obvious reason: I’ve gone back to a yoga channel on YouTube I’m very familiar and very comfortable with–Sarah Beth Yoga.

I had tried the Asana Rebel app, found it lacking, and then wondered what to do next. And I ended up just going back to a yoga teacher on YouTube, whose app I might as well get into, because she’s great. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.

I’ve also tried to get back into a meditation routine, focused on mindfulness. I’m at the point where a 3-minute meditation session feels short, so that’s probably a good sign.

That’s It

Anyway, that’s all I have this week. Lots of stuff happening, but mostly as works-in-progress, which is just the way it goes sometimes. My monthly goals post next week will be more substantive, and hopefully chock-full of updates.

Steve D

Book Review: THE RESIDUE YEARS and the cycle of addiction

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I don’t read a lot of literary fiction, so I tend to pick these stories without knowing exactly what to expect. If I don’t know the author or haven’t heard or read much about the book, then I’m basically just going in blind hoping I find something to connect with.

I just finished listening to The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson on audiobook. I primarily chose this book because it seemed like a perspective on drugs and addiction I had never really been exposed to before.

The Residue Years switches between the points of view of Champ and his mother, Grace. Following Grace’s stint in court-mandated rehab for her crack addiction, she and Champ try to reconnect with each other, with their family, and with the previous life and home they’d lost touch with. Champ, meanwhile, sells crack to support himself and his family, even as Grace tries to recover and find a new path in life.

Champ and Grace appear to want to change their lives, but they keep making poor decisions. As protagonists, you want Champ and Grace to succeed in reclaiming themselves and each other. However, Champ is too self-aware for his own good, convincing the reader that he knows that dealing crack cannot be his end-all-be-all, while continually making choices that pull him deeper into that life. Grace does all the right things on the surface. She gets out of rehab, finds a job, attends NA, finds a new church. She recognizes that she needs to stay away from the toxic people of her past and establish a new life, but she too easily allows herself to be dragged backward.

Jackson does an incredible job of making the reader root for these characters, to hope against all odds that they will break the cycle of crack, and to envision a better future for them. He does all this even as the characters make baffling decisions that just repeat the cycle.

This story is ultimately an intimate portrayal of the vicious cycle of addiction and how it erodes those bonds to family, stability, and love.

I don’t recall what made me buy this book initially, but I’m glad to have read it.

Steve D

A Mild but Hopeful Reaction to Rey’s Return to STAR WARS

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On StorytellingLeave a comment

Disney hosted Star Wars Celebration over the weekend and, as expected, made several announcements about upcoming projects for their TV and film slate.

I’m still behind on The Mandalorian and Bad Batch, so I don’t have much to contribute in terms of where Star Wars is at the moment and where it may be going.

However, the announcement of a new post-sequel-trilogy film featuring Rey is the best news I’ve heard about this franchise in quite some time. Evidently, the film will focus on Rey trying to rebuild the Jedi order. Here are my probably not-surprising reasons why:

  1. The Rise of Skywalker, and the sequel trilogy as a whole, was botched, and those characters and actors deserve a reboot (Finn, in particular, but I don’t think that’s likely). I greatly enjoyed The Last Jedi, but Disney didn’t stick the landing in the final film.
  2. Daisy Ridley is great.
  3. After seeing The Force Awakens, Rey instantly became one of my favorite Star Wars characters. She was funny, intense, relatable, and packed a believable punch in fight scenes.
  4. I’m always curious about what comes after the Big Bad is defeated.
  5. The sequel trilogy did not know what it wanted to say about the Jedi or the Force, and this could be a chance to correct the narrative.
  6. Overall, I’m glad Disney waited to do something different with Rey, but I’m also glad they didn’t scrap her and the sequel trilogy stories entirely. That trilogy had a lot of characters who are worth exploring, so why not start with the main protagonist?

That’s about all I have for the moment, because we know so little about what this movie will be like. Recent Star Wars entrants have been hit-or-miss for me, so I can’t say I totally buy into Disney’s own hype. I hope they get this movie right. I hope it revives Rey’s character and brings Daisy Ridley back into the fold as a staple Star Wars actor. And I hope it has something interesting to say about this universe.

I’ll be looking out for the first teaser.

Steve D

April Write Day: Same Goals, Some Progress

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On StorytellingLeave a comment

March felt like a long month. I spent a week in the office with my entire team, some of whom I haven’t seen in person in years, and couple of whom I was meeting in person for the first time. We’ve had a busy month with the boys, not for any reason in particular other than the fact that an eighteen-month-old and a four-year-old will occupy a lot of your time and energy.

It was a halfway decent month for my goals, as well, until I got sick and was thrown off my rhythm for over a week.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Revisions for Uprooted, The Herb Witch Tales #1.
  2. Read three books. Pretty straightforward. I also want to continue making good progress on A Memory of Light. I’m at the point where some narrative chips are starting to fall, and it is both dreadful and exciting.
  3. Exercise at least three times a week. The app is making me do three workouts per week, at minimum. So that’s baseline. I also want to start adding in other forms of training, so I’m mentally aiming for 4-5 workouts per week, and I’ll see how my routine develops from there.

Revisions for Uprooted?

I did not complete my revisions, but I’ve made some good progress in the last week. One thing I can say for certain is that I have a really good story on my hands. That is not something I would have been confident in saying before this revision phase. There are a couple minor plot threads I had forgotten about in the long hiatus since my last revision phase (as I was drafting New Earth), that highlight the struggle for survival in interesting ways. Not just describing the characters as tired and hungry again and again, but demonstrating how conflict can smolder from that basic tension.

So, I just need to be more diligent in revising. I still want to finish my current read-through to look at overall plot and identify areas that need more work, and then read through again to reverse engineer my outline and ensure the scene and chapter structure makes sense for the plot and pacing.

After that, I’m not sure. Maybe a third read-through to look for smaller details I want to fix, before deciding whether I have a solid manuscript to send to an editor, or even beta readers.

Read three books?

Yes! And my reviews have been fairly active on Goodreads and here. I might have read four, actually… I lost track a bit, because I updated a few of my reviews on Goodreads, which changes the where they appear in my “read” list.

I didn’t read much in A Memory of Light, but I’m about halfway through. I’m still very much interested. I’m just at a point in the story where some chips are starting to fall, and I’m dreading losing characters I love.

Exercise three times per week?

I started off strong, and then this very minor but very nagging cold I got in the middle of the month threw my off.

I had been using Asana Rebel to find yoga-type workout videos, but I’m not thrilled with the app. After the introductory program, there’s not really much guidance. There are just a bunch of videos from various trainers. I can watch yoga videos for free on YouTube, so I’m not quite seeing the value in the app at this point.

I’m also starting to consider different types of workouts. I just don’t know how and where I want to exercise. I haven’t belonged to a gym since COVID lockdown, and it’s difficult to see an opening in my day-to-day schedule for that at the moment — getting changed, going to the gym, stretching, working out, getting home, changing again. I need a solid hour or hour-and-a-half, and that time is difficult to find as it is. My office has a small workout room that I might start using, just for the convenience. We’ll see how that goes.

Goals for April

  1. Finish two revision cycles for Uprooted, the Herb Witch Tales #1. I definitely want to finish to two read-throughs I mentioned above. If I make real progress doing so, I can aim for a third.
  2. Read three books. I’ve been able to stick to this one so far, this year.
  3. Exercise three times per week. Still in flux what my real workout routine looks like, but I’ve been doing alright for now.

Steve D