Hello, friends. It’s been awhile.
First, let me say that I’m still here and still going. The past few months have been challenging for all of us—even here, in Northern Ontario, where our COVID cases are now sparse and very few. Last time I did a blog post, I believe we were still in stage 1 of Ontario’s plan to re-open the economy. As of Friday, July 17, 2020, most places in Ontario have moved to stage 3, where most places can re-open their interior dining/sitting area and allow groups of larger people, but still maintain safe social distancing guidelines and follow mask guidelines whenever possible. We are that one step closer to returning to normal, if normal becomes a thing any time soon.
I wanted to share a bit of a ramble about things going on since, and where I’m doing.
Although COVID presented a huge social challenge (the year 2020 has sucked so far, hasn’t it?), we have come far in pulling ourselves back off the floor and resuming our almost-normal and daily lives. Since COVID took over, I had significant restrictions at my workplace. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t laid off, but what did I do with the extra time on my hands? Not writing much. I’ve been putting about and doing other things—learning classical guitar, breaking a steel string guitar, playing video games and other instruments, etc., that kind of thing—but not much of writing. It has put me in a significant frame of mind that just put me off a bit. I have done some here and there, editing my WIP manuscript for Elineer, but even then, I had to take a break from that.
Since stage 2, businesses were allowed to open patios and exterior dining areas. This allowed me to leave the house for once and take my books again. Sitting outside actually is something I had forgotten about since I was a kid—getting that sun, enjoying the breeze and the shade and evading the intense rain we’ve been having as of late—it was fun to do. However, the air conditioning is inside the cafe, and when stager 3 began, I leapt on that chance immediately. With my notebook and new writing laptop, I’ve slowly starting writing things again.
The one thing I’ve learned about being restricted to staying at home during the major peak of the pandemic is that I got really bored—so bored, in fact, that I could not concentrate on writing and had to do other things to entertain me. That includes vegetating in front of my computer and wasting the hours away. Although one can say “I’m doing alright, COVID cannot defeat me!” and be relatively successful in doing so, it takes a mental toll on you, even if you aren’t physically or economically affected by it. Not that veering away from writing had done me any harm. Playing instruments and experimenting with them proved quite the saviour.
As for the aforementioned WIP for Elineer, I have done some extensive editing, but realized my timelines and calculations are all wrong. I may have mentioned this before, but using a beta map and forgetting to use a finalized version of a world where you rely on markers and waypoints for your destinations and plots is a Bad Idea(TM). I had to check all the dates and lengths of time between plot lines and make sure it all lines up. It became overwhelming to the point I had to step back from Elineer. I have not given up my pride and joy that I’ve worked on for years, but I do need a break. I haven’t done the things I wanted too, like release expanded versions of the submissions I made to the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize. I am planning to enter into the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize, and I have done no groundwork on that, either. I’ve been deciding how embarrassing it is for me to continue The Severis Tales, and I’ve decided to continue writing it while thinking of some other ideas for the same universe, the world of Algenon, and some more standalone products I wish to deploy. Hopefully, while working on little bits of Elineer, I can do some of these projects that I have neglected.
Some of my anxiety has come back regarding sharing my writing and ideas and my imagination, even if I am thirty-something years old. I will continue and explore new avenues.
If all these things sound like I’m moaning, I have delved into mapmaking. I signed up for Inkcarnate, a free (or, for more features and a lot more functionality, pay a cheap price USD per year) online program that allows anyone to create fantasy maps with distinct styles and such and make them look spiffy. I have done a series of them for Elineer, creating a Prototype A of the world. Perhaps, in the future, I will share some of them with you. I may do the same for The Severis Tales, because I’ve updated the wiki to a total of forty-nine characters to prepare for releasing the seventh instalment of the series. I’ve branched out beyond writing to give my brain a break, but also to expand my horizons. So far, things are looking up.
I realize I go on about his a lot and have released sod all, but I’m taking my time, because after thinking I was cool about attempting to release a half-assed and broken WIP four months ago, I realized how quickly your ego can take over, then everything hits the fan. Then it’s all over. I’m still updating as I go along. I’ve just realized that I can make so much happen, I can’t control it. Slow baby steps.
Also, I bought a Korg MS-20 Mini analogue hardware synthesizer. Need to have fun sometimes, right?