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[mare]

I can tell this is a really mild case, if it is covid which I think it is because I can't smell anything at all, and my sister is the same way. I've got a cough but not nearly as bad as the last time.

I saw the results of your election. Seems like the better side won for the first time in a while. A lot of the people who I follow on twitter are from the UK. Succession has a big following there and it seems like that's the guy they were all hoping would win and most of their politics align with me, so I'm hoping it'll be a positive change for you. Let's hope the same happens here! I'm scared to think that this might've been the last July fourth we've celebrated as a democracy. I can see orange Hitler wanting us to celebrate on Jan 6th instead from now on. Yes, I have a very grim view on life these days. LOL

[Carter-Orange]

I still can't believe Orange Hitler could be elected again!

[mare]

You and me both!!

[RokofAges75]

Me as well!  It's like a recurring nightmare!  Steph, if the UK's conservative party is anything like the US's, I'm glad they got defeated.  Hopefully your new PM will bring about some positive changes.

Mare, I'm glad your symptoms have been mild so far.  I hope they stay that way!

[mare]

Ugh! I know this place is just a big shit show at the moment.

Thanks! I'm already feeling a little better so is my sister, so that's a good sign!

[RokofAges75]

Hope you're both continuing to feel better!  How's the writing going this week?  I saw that you were able to update today, Mare - yay!

I finally had a good writing day yesterday and wrote almost 2k words.  The day before, I only managed to write 99 words after spending hours obsessing over the smallest, stupidest details, like how to describe a door. 🤦‍♀️  Sometimes I get derailed by the dumbest stuff.

[mare]

Yay good for you! How to describe a door? It's funny what we find ourselves obsessing over when writing. For me it's always gestures. How to accurately describe how someone is being held or where someone has their hands. It looks right but when I close my eyes and picture it, sometimes it seems like I have written it so the person has an extra hand or is bending it in an irregular possessed by Satan way. Kind of like Brian and his carrying of random heads in One Phone Call.

I'm at the critical point in my Invisible Child story where there is a lot of action and that's not always the easiest stuff to write. Seeing it all play out in my head is one thing but sometimes it's hard translating that into writing. The writing on that one is going well. Because it's at the critical (at least what I considered critical) part of the story, it's just been flowing. I'm supposed to be jumping back to my Thursday one today but instead, I'm going to keep working on invisible instead. I have no clue where I'm even going with the other one to be honest. It was originally supposed to be a slash which I thought I'd be daring and try, but nope. Quickly I realized that wouldn't work so my characters are in a kind of limbo. I don't feel too bad for ignoring it because it doesn't get any love.

I'm feeling much better, but I am really tired. Which is good because my body never gets enough sleep except when you're schedule oriented like I am, sleeping in isn't easy. You'd think because I don't have to work anymore I would ease up on that, but nope. I still force myself to start my day at 5:30 

[RokofAges75]

Yes, a door!  So stupid.  I tried to move on from it, but I just kept coming back to that damn description.  I think I may have been subconsciously stalling, though, because I'm at one of those places where I know I need to get from Point A to Point B but am not exactly sure how I'm going to get there, which is the hard part of plantsing.  At this point, I'm probably just going to write a conversation where the characters talk through the problem and see what solution they come up with because I can't decide LOL.

Brian carrying random heads on his shoulder... 🤣  I still think of that whenever I hear One Phone Call!
I totally get what you mean with the gestures and actions, though.  Sometimes I have to act things out myself to figure out what works, then figure out how to describe it.

Action can definitely be challenging to write!  You want to describe what's happening in enough detail that readers can picture it, too, but you don't want to slow down the action with too much description.  I'm glad it's been going well, though!  I love those scenes where the writing just flows, especially when it's an important scene that you've been looking forward to or worrying about.  If it's going well, I would stick with it and not worry about your other story for now, especially if no one's begging you for updates.

I'm sorry you're stuck on the other one!  Was slash not working for the characters or for you as a writer?  I found slash super awkward to write at first.  It got easier and more comfortable for me the further I got into the story, but I still giggled whenever I wrote any kind of love scene between Nick and Howie.  The research that went into some of the more "graphic" (by my standards, not by AO3's) scenes was even more awkward, but hey, I learned a lot! LOL

I'm glad you're feeling better!  That's so crazy that you still get up at 5:30 every morning, especially when I know you wake up in the middle of the night and post a meme every night LOL.  Lately, I've still been up when you post them.  I was doing pretty well at not staying up ALL night until this week, when I finally had that good writing day.  I wrote all night, and now my sleep schedule's all messed up again.  It was almost 5 a.m. when I went to bed this morning, which means I didn't fall asleep until almost 6, and then I slept until almost 2.  I've missed my late night/early morning writing sessions, though.  There's just something so cozy and satisfying about writing when it's dark and quiet, and the rest of the world is asleep.  But I leave for Pigeon Forge on Friday, so I need to get back to sleeping at night and waking up in the morning in the next three days LOL.

[Carter-Orange]

Sorry to hear you're both having a few troubles with getting your writing done.  I agree you want it to be descriptive enough without holding back on the action.

I struggle to get to 11pm without falling asleep lol, and I'm always up before 7am even on the weekend.

Yes, I hope our new government will do a good job.  I hope Biden decides to step down and be replaced by someone younger and more competent for you.  I think he's past it and should just enjoy his retirement.

[RokofAges75]

Writing has gone better for me the past couple of days.  The start of a new chapter or scene almost always goes slow for me, but once I get past the set up and into the actual scene, it goes faster.  That's where I am now.  Trying to finish Chapter 61 before I leave on vacation, and then I'll have three chapters finished that aren't posted yet.

I honestly don't know why anyone would want to continue to work into their 80s if they didn't have to, especially doing one of the most stressful jobs there is.  That being said, I don't think Biden is going to step down at this point, and if he did, I worry the change would just cause more chaos.  I just hope Democrats and anyone who cares about democracy will unite and vote against Trump in November, regardless of who they're voting for.  Biden may be old and not as sharp as he used to be, but I do think he's a decent person who has surrounded himself with decent, intelligent people who will support him through a second term if he's re-elected.  The media is causing more panic about it than there needs to be and just making the situation worse.

[mare]

Yes, a door!  So stupid.  I tried to move on from it, but I just kept coming back to that damn description.  I think I may have been subconsciously stalling, though, because I'm at one of those places where I know I need to get from Point A to Point B but am not exactly sure how I'm going to get there, which is the hard part of plantsing.  At this point, I'm probably just going to write a conversation where the characters talk through the problem and see what solution they come up with because I can't decide LOL.

Brian carrying random heads on his shoulder... 🤣  I still think of that whenever I hear One Phone Call!
I totally get what you mean with the gestures and actions, though.  Sometimes I have to act things out myself to figure out what works, then figure out how to describe it.

Action can definitely be challenging to write!  You want to describe what's happening in enough detail that readers can picture it, too, but you don't want to slow down the action with too much description.  I'm glad it's been going well, though!  I love those scenes where the writing just flows, especially when it's an important scene that you've been looking forward to or worrying about.  If it's going well, I would stick with it and not worry about your other story for now, especially if no one's begging you for updates.

I'm sorry you're stuck on the other one!  Was slash not working for the characters or for you as a writer?  I found slash super awkward to write at first.  It got easier and more comfortable for me the further I got into the story, but I still giggled whenever I wrote any kind of love scene between Nick and Howie.  The research that went into some of the more "graphic" (by my standards, not by AO3's) scenes was even more awkward, but hey, I learned a lot! LOL

I'm glad you're feeling better!  That's so crazy that you still get up at 5:30 every morning, especially when I know you wake up in the middle of the night and post a meme every night LOL.  Lately, I've still been up when you post them.  I was doing pretty well at not staying up ALL night until this week, when I finally had that good writing day.  I wrote all night, and now my sleep schedule's all messed up again.  It was almost 5 a.m. when I went to bed this morning, which means I didn't fall asleep until almost 6, and then I slept until almost 2.  I've missed my late night/early morning writing sessions, though.  There's just something so cozy and satisfying about writing when it's dark and quiet, and the rest of the world is asleep.  But I leave for Pigeon Forge on Friday, so I need to get back to sleeping at night and waking up in the morning in the next three days LOL.

I get the avoidance thing. It's easy to obsess over something when you're not quite sure how to build the bridge from point A to point B. Transitions are hard, no matter how much planning or outlining you do. I do the same thing with my characters having a conversation, but I don't write it down. It happens in my head which is why I think I end up changing things so much.

The over describing is definitely the hardest thing for me. Do I really need to say he stood up and played with this? Should I just skip it? But if I do then how does he end up by the bookcase? Drives me crazy!

The slash thing didn't quite work for me because as much as I'm not a homophobic person, I just have an incredibly hard time picturing or writing about people who just aren't gay being gay. My brain just can't change that part of the equation for some reason. The boys it was impossible. I didn't think it would be that hard for me to do it in the succession universe, since Roman in particular has so many sex type problems and is probably bi curious. But when I started the story and had the two guys together, Roman just fought me about it so that's what I wrote. He thought he was into it but turns out he wasn't, but the guy didn't except that. The other guy is Mencken, who neither of you probably know yet, but he's a mega villain and besides Roman and Gerri, is the second most popular ship. So now I'm in a situation that this guy is obsessed with Roman who isn't really into him and has regretted the decision he made to meet him in his hotel room, and I have no idea where to go from there. Not to mention in the process of doing that, I'm pretty sure I alienated the whole Romencken crowd. LOL

Good lord my sleep schedule has always been screwy. Even when I was teaching, I was up at 3:30 most days, read, ate breakfast, cleaned and then went back to sleep at 5, woke up at 6:30 got dressed and then left for school. It's kind of the same thing now, minus the school part. I am up at 5 and then find myself going back to what I like to call residual sleep at around 7:30 and then wake up again at 9 and shower etc... But before that I am usually awake starting at midnight on and off until 5:30 hits. I know I probably only get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night if I'm lucky but then I do have the luxury of taking a nap during the day. Usually by 1 I am exhausted!

I hope you get your sleep schedule sorted out before you leave Friday. There is something nice about writing when it's dark and quiet. I choose reading over writing at that time. I always read first thing in the morning and right before I go to bed.

Have a great time at Pigeon Forge!

[mare]

Sorry to hear you're both having a few troubles with getting your writing done.  I agree you want it to be descriptive enough without holding back on the action.

I struggle to get to 11pm without falling asleep lol, and I'm always up before 7am even on the weekend.

Yes, I hope our new government will do a good job.  I hope Biden decides to step down and be replaced by someone younger and more competent for you.  I think he's past it and should just enjoy his retirement.

I seriously doubt Biden's going to back down. This whole thing is reminiscent of kids trying to convince their parents it's time for a nursing home, but mom or dad refuses to go insisting they're okay! I think it's important to note that even though people are having all kinds of issues with him running again, in the end all of those people will still end up voting for him because they all realize the alternative will be so much worse!

[mare]

Writing has gone better for me the past couple of days.  The start of a new chapter or scene almost always goes slow for me, but once I get past the set up and into the actual scene, it goes faster.  That's where I am now.  Trying to finish Chapter 61 before I leave on vacation, and then I'll have three chapters finished that aren't posted yet.

I honestly don't know why anyone would want to continue to work into their 80s if they didn't have to, especially doing one of the most stressful jobs there is.  That being said, I don't think Biden is going to step down at this point, and if he did, I worry the change would just cause more chaos.  I just hope Democrats and anyone who cares about democracy will unite and vote against Trump in November, regardless of who they're voting for.  Biden may be old and not as sharp as he used to be, but I do think he's a decent person who has surrounded himself with decent, intelligent people who will support him through a second term if he's re-elected.  The media is causing more panic about it than there needs to be and just making the situation worse.

I'm glad you got going on the new chapter. I ended up working on Invisible Child yesterday and will again today. I might just put the other one on hold until I finish up this one. The hardest thing for me in this fandom is figuring out when to end a story. There's so much going on in this one, I can easily keep it going for at least another 10 plus chapters, but one thing I've noticed about stories on AO3 is they really never get too long. I think the longest one I have seen on there, for Succession anyway was 15 chapters. I don't know if it's because they are shipping fics so not that strong of a plot or attention spans! When I started this one I had fully intended to end it by chapter 15, but I'm currently writing chapter 20 and feel like it's nowhere near the end. I might stop it at 22 maybe and then make a sequel. Heading into a realm I have actually never done before which is medical drama! Your specialty. This is a great example of my characters talking to me at night and changing things. I had no intention of having Roman became really ill, but he suffered a head injury while he was a hostage and in reality, it would go unchecked so I've been playing that and then did research about what can happen and now at chapter 20 he's having a craniectomy LOL

And yes! I agree about the press. They are making it so much worse but it's the dems who are going on these programs and making all kinds of excuses that are making it so much worse. We all know he's an old man who is acting like an old man. Stop trying to convince us it's jet lag! And now a lot of people are up in arms because of Jon Stewart's last episode. I'm sorry people, he's just being honest. Ugh what a shit show!

[RokofAges75]

I totally get what you mean regarding slash.  I was the same way - it was the suspension of disbelief that always got in the way of me being able to fully enjoy BSB slash fic.  It definitely came across in the way I wrote mine.  I could believe Howie as a closeted gay man who, for religious reasons, married a woman and started a family even though he secretly had feelings for men, so writing him falling in love with Nick wasn't that hard.  Writing Nick reciprocating those feelings was much harder, which actually ended up adding some nice conflict to the story, because Nick's character had a hard time 1) coming to terms with his own sexuality and then 2) coming out to other people.  I liked the dynamic it created, but I think some readers wished I would have shown them having a longer, more public relationship before I ended the story.  Anyway, Nick sounds similar to Roman as far as being unsure about it.  If the other guy is a villain, you could get into non-consensual sex/rape territory if you wanted to go that route - it may not be what the shippers want to see, but a lot of readers like that stuff, too!  That's a hard thing to write, though, so I understand if you don't want to take it in that direction.

Sounds like you are at an exciting part in The Invisible Child!  Craniectomy, yay!  Is this craniectomy happening in a hospital setting or while he's still hostage? LOL  Have fun with the medical drama!

I definitely understand the struggle to end a story in a reasonable number of chapters LOL.  I'm currently on Chapter 61 with no end in sight, and I've already changed my outline to save some of the stuff I had planned for this story for a possible sequel/threequel because I realized it was going to be way too long.  That being said, don't feel like you have to cut the story short and save the rest for a sequel just because there aren't a lot of long fics in the fandom.  If it makes sense to end the story at that point, fine, but otherwise, let it be long!  There may be readers who have been craving a big, meaty fic LOL.

Yes, your sleep schedule sounds terrible!  I may be a night owl, but once I fall asleep, I can usually stay asleep for a reasonable amount of time.  I'll sometimes wake up in the night to go to the bathroom, but I can usually go right back to sleep once I've been asleep.  Falling asleep the first time used to be hard for me, but listening to podcasts has helped a lot with that.  I take melatonin on school nights or whenever I need to go to bed earlier than my body naturally wants to fall asleep, and that usually works for me.  I'm glad you're at least able to go back to bed or take a nap later in the day if you want/need to.

The Biden situation is exactly like trying to convince your elderly parents to stop driving or move into assisted living.  I appreciate Jon Stewart so much; watching his live Daily Show special right after the debate was the therapy we all needed LOL.  I love that he can tell the truth but still manage to make it funny, even though the situation is not funny at all.

[mare]

I think out of the boys, having Howie or AJ as closeted gays would be easier for me to write than the other three, but I see from the premise of yours, having Nick question his sexuality and struggling to come out made perfect sense. I actually did go the sexually assaulted route for mine. At the end of the chapter when he was getting ready to leave, I heavily implied that he was attacked. There's no way I could write a scene like that. I mean for me it's hard enough writing consensual sex, so I just implied it and had him in the shower bruised with bite marks all over his body. That's become the plot now. Him dealing with it and not being able to tell anyone because of the NDA he signed before it happened. For me the struggle has been keeping that plot going. There's really only so much you can write without becoming too repetitive and I don't know how to bring it to a close. I'm all over the place, so hopefully by skipping this update and maybe deciding to push it away until I'm done with this one, I'll figure something out. But I also hate the idea of abandoning a story, so maybe I'll do an every other week thing. No clue! 

I resolved the kidnapping part of the story. He's been rescued and now he's in the hospital. That's why I feel like maybe it would make sense to break it up into a new story since the initial plot of a kidnapping has been resolved. What I am writing now is the aftermath of that. Although a craniectomy done MacGyver style would've been interesting. LOL

Yeah, my sleep schedule is ridiculous. I have tried melatonin, but it really doesn't do much for me. I'm glad it works for you. When I take it, I'd have to take it in combination with something else. Sleepy meds just don't work on me for some reason. I'm pretty sure at this point even horse tranquilizers wouldn't work on me.

Jon Stewart is great therapy! I wish he was doing all five nights. Maybe he'll decide to come back after the election is over. I know that's really pushing it, but it would be nice. Hell, maybe HE should take Biden's place! I'd love to see him debate Trump!