VellaMal

Hey! I remember you too! Happy to see you again! I just went to link the challenge but it turns out you find me there I'm about to go looking for yours, too! Not enough pre-prep, too much trying to load up individual days with tasks. Unfortunately, my ability to do little tasks like logging varies pretty wildly from day to day. The spreadsheets are a little step for me -- they're not intended to be used every day. They're all pre-prepared meal plans, so at the moment, all I need to do is to pick one, load up the grocery list on my phone (which is already all set up, too) and go for the week. If I get energy or inspiration, I can use the spreadsheets to put together more plans, but at the moment I've got a few good ones that mean I don't have to rely on being attentive enough to log every day or make a plan from scratch every week. But you're totally right -- I've tried to go the spreadsheets-and-regular-logging route in the past and that didn't work. My main problem was simplifying in a way that meant I was still working from concrete numbers.

*reads thread and takes notes* I really need to start budgeting better -- not only do I need to take into account tax-deductibles now, I've also got to get a bit more serious about savings. And reduce impulse spending. And actually, you know, figure out what exactly my finances are doing. My parents sent me a spreadsheet, but I have a lot of trouble regularly logging my expenditure. I've started to put average prices on my weekly meal plans after my shopping trips, though, so I can fine-tune those.

and more often than I'd like: (Editor-for-hire and general wordsmithery)

Oh man I can already tell this thread is going to be dangerous for me ... You folks make awesome food! For the random veggie recipe challenge: Honeyed Carrots Take about a kilo of carrots, and a spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, I like to add some cardamom or whatever you like. Carrots go in chunks, and saute in butter and spices until they're just starting to go soft, and they're all coated in the spices Then about a half-tablespoon of honey, toss it through, serve before it burns. Really good side dish. Zucchini or eggplant is also a really good one -- I make a simple bake with zucchini and eggplant slices. Chop mushrooms and toss them through some salt and paprika. I often add onion, too, but you said you didn't want any onion so I was going to leave that out. Sometimes I mix some cashews in with the mushrooms, too, and you can get creative with sweet potato, chopped cauliflower stems, pretty much whatever you like. Fennel tastes amazing, if you like fennel! Layer zucchini and/or eggplant with the mushrooms and other veggies between them. Drizzle of olive oil, and bake in the oven. Cheese goes on top if you're a cheese sort of person. That's all that's coming to mind right now -- I'll have a dig and let you know if I come up with any more!

Hey, all, it's me again. I think this is something like my sixth respawn and I'm getting frustrated, but that's neither here nor there. I've reworked my plan again based on what didn't work last time, I've got a whole new set of goals and expectations, and a couple of brand new spreadsheets, and I'm ready to start banging my head on the brick wall again. I'm super excited to be back in the forums though!

Good luck! You can definitely stick with it Just take it easy and don't put too much pressure on yourself, and we'll have your back here.

*sneaks in* Hey ... can I join? I'm mostly doing writing-for-hire rather than my own writing at the moment, because Earning Money, but hopefully I can catch a few hours this week to knock out a few solid chapters. Thrillho -- definitely agree. The thrill of finishing the draft is an amazing motivator! I often find I'm better at fixing nuances anyway when I know what the whole thing looks like. Kishi -- those snippets were amazing! Looking forward to the new scene when you post!

Hey, all! Vella here, I write fantasy that I hope will make me money one day. I would like to be a card-carrying member (Also yessss Brandon Sanderson's lectures! Really interesting talks!) As for the story, continuing from @J3NN In my memory, Ash and Oak are still beside me, not looking at me. My eleven-year-old face turns to them for guidance, for reassurance, but they are following the rules, not looking at me. My heart pounds as I get closer and closer to the end of the tracks, where there was a clearing. Last time I was here, the clearing was full of people. I still remember where they stood, as if they'd left footprints in the leaves. Here, and here, and here. And they'd led me to stand ... my footsteps make soft, crisp noises over the grass and leaves ... Here.

Hey, all! Sorry that I ended up going dark. Challenge went ... well I guess? I didn't get all my goals done, but at least my cat is fed, my house is relatively clean, and I've been paid enough to pay rent next month, which is good. I didn't get my $500 buffer, but I do have $300, which will mostly go towards buying essential life things, but I'm planning on setting aside part of it to buy myself a nice massage because I deserve it. I'm planning to skip next challenge and concentrate on getting work lined up, but I should be back to Capoeira regularly by then. I'm finally, finally on meds that seem to be making a difference, so I'm going to recalibrate my internal "how much in a week is too much" meter and then decide on how much to do for the next challenge. It'll probably involve regular Capoeira attendance (and finally learning some of the songs properly!) and something about not eating takeaway so much (because oh god the amount of takeaway I ate this month because I ran out of energy to make food ...) I'll see you all in the Monks in a couple of months, and around the boards before then!

Yeah, pretty much life happened. I tried to happen to life about as much as life happened to me, though, which is about as good as it gets sometimes. Still writing, though! I managed to hit a 11,000-word writing day over the weekend with the help of significant amounts of copy-pasting from my first draft, which I'm pretty proud of. This week is all deadlines, though, so I'm not expecting to get a lot done on my personal work until next Monday. Totally here for the Bards' Guild if there are still folks interested, even if it just turns into chatting about writing-related stuff rather than prompts exactly

Also, thanks for the imgur instructions Zeroh -- I've actually been wondering about that one for a while. I have to get some stuff done now (day off got consumed by deadlines unfortunately, but I'll make time later this week) but I'll be back with a progress report soon!

Things are working a little better! Here are a couple photos of the Awesome Art!

ALSO The tattoo! It's based on old woodcuts of Ogma, who was supposed to, according to legend, have invented the Irish Ogham writing system. In a couple woodcuts (particularly a Roman one with a description of "local customs"), he was depicted with chains from his tongue to the ears of his joyful followers. Y'know, persuasive and charismatic and all that. My artist specialises in botanicals, so instead of the followers, I asked for the chains turning into flowering vines at the ends. This is the result: Aaaaaaand site doesn't want to add photos because I had to mess around reuploading stuff too much. I'll post the pics in a bit when the site has decided I'm to be trusted again

Quick update on week 2 I actually managed to clean up the kitchen and bathroom this week, though I haven't done the floors yet (I still have one day, right?) so that's going well. This week, attended the doctor's appointment, talked to the accountant who'll be doing my tax returns (because I can't do them anymore now that I'm freelancing and they're complicated) and sent the e-mail to cancel that donation that's been hanging over my head. After I'm finished here, I'll be sending the e-mail to cancel the gym membership as well. I've also talked to my artist and graphic designer for the next book cover, and we've done the next stage of planning, so I'm counting that in the "learning to adult" section of my challenge. Currently my electricity bill is still overdue. No luck there unfortunately. I haven't been back to Capoeira because of The Drama With Meds, but I'll be going back on Monday. I'll be taking some time to write proposals in my Week Off, if I can. As I mentioned, Tuesday I did do a couple of hours of writing (I made a little online writing group with some friends, and we do writing challenges and sprints together, so at least it was social as well as work), but I spent most of it playing video games and getting back into my Irish studies. Game was cancelled, so I had a pretty slow day. I also cooked a really kick-ass Vietnamese-inspired stew with cinnamon and lemongrass in it and I'm so glad I have leftovers from that because I need to eat it all the time. And that's this week.

Thank you! I didn't manage to take the whole day off (again ... I need to get better at the not-being-tempted-to-write thing ...) but I did play a lot of video games online with friends, so it helped quite a lot! I'll drop some pics in the next post They still look a little red (mainly because I was still a little red) but you'll get to see all the cool colours and everything. Thanks! I'm currently weaning off the old meds, which is going OK (waking up is hard, but once I'm awake I can actually stay awake for a normal length of time, which is a vast improvement). Plus, I cancelled my clients for a week while I change over, so I have some breathing room during the period where I'm likely to feel most terrible. Thank you! I'm pretty proud of myself for what I managed to do (or, at least, I'm trying to be proud of myself for it, which is sometimes hard, but occasionally I manage it). Really looking forward to seeing whether the next meds will do good things.

^This. One of the pieces of advice I've always consistently been given about pitches is that they need to convey character and conflict (or at least give a sense of who the characters are and what they want. I like the background in what you've got, though I think maybe the self-help background might be something for after you've managed to get the coffee with them? I mean, please don't take me for an expert - I've not pitched anything successfully! I'm just going on the advice I've heard from other, more successful people.

@fleaball, don't worry, you can always start more language talk in my threads OK, rest of week 1. What day is it again? I'm not even sure anymore. Changing my meds dosage has messed me up and I'm just so tired all the time, so I've got to talk to the doctor on Thursday about going on something different. As a result, I've done basically nothing over the past few days. However! the kitchen is clean, so I'm counting that as a win. The floors have been swept, so I'm counting that as on track. I haven't made it back to Capoeira, but that wasn't the point of this challenge, so I'm letting it slide. I managed to leave the house long enough for the last session on my awesome tattoo, so that's definitely a win! I'm still en route to $500 at the end of the four weeks, although I haven't paid my electrical bill yet, and I need to do that asap. Waiting for the next paycheck (should be next week) and then I'll be back on top of that. Haven't done any more of my e-mailing or phone calls. I'm all set to take tomorrow entirely off, though, so I'll actually manage that one this week. Next week, when I've got my head in the right spot again, I'll be putting in some job proposals, hopefully catching up on that goal. I did tell at least one client I'll be taking a week off, though, because I needed some time to fix up the meds situation before I dive back into full-time workload. So, not as much as I said I'd do, but more than I expected I'd do. I'm counting Week 1 a win.

Ooo, a prompt I actually need to work on! This is for my current WIP, the one I was working on the other day. Three heartless people plan to sacrifice a city to save a country. The fourth didn't plan to, but she's going to have to anyway. I'm not happy with it yet, but that's where I'm at at the moment.

I'll answer those responses soon, I promise. I got snowed in with work, so I'm here long enough to do basic catch up and then I'll be back later with full responses and all that. We're now ... three days in. There are a few things I've done and many I haven't. First, finances. I'm still en route to have my $500 at the end of the month, but it's going to involve a period of a week or so in the middle where I've got a negative bank balance in between paychecks, so that's not going to be fun. But looking at the long run, I am still technically on track. No project proposals so far, but a client did get back to me about an upcoming project, so that takes some of the pressure off. Still going to keep applying for jobs, but I've at least got more wiggle room now than I did a week ago. I've set the date for the doctor's appointment and blood test, and I am on track for making that. Today I got an Internet bill, which I can't pay just yet, but I'm on track to get paid again before it's due, so I'll at least pay it on time. Everything else is still on hold. I have so not done the dishes as regularly as I said I would. I need to get on that, and do the floors, because my rental inspection is in like three days and if that's not incentive to do housework, I don't know what is. It's Tuesday here and I'm currently working on a writing project, so it's safe to say that that one's a bust for this week. But it's not one of my main/paid projects, so at least I'm still taking a break from the ones that cause stress. After I've done some work here, I'll be starting on the video games, though, and then I'm heading to game night early, so I won't be able to spend the whole day doing this, either. And that's me for these three days. Going to go and make myself a nice, calming cup of tea and start relaxing properly.

Thank you!

Very true! But this is a rewrite, so I feel like editor me is getting in the way more than usual. I think I've about figured out how to make this work, though ... I'm going to be ducking back to another character and doing some plot reveals from her perspective. There'll be a little subplot about sending letters that never reach their destination and which tie further into the main plot. It'll involve messing a little with perspectives and switching from third-limited POV to third-omniscient and possibly a slightly different style, but I think I can actually use that later in the book as well and the little asides will be really good for adding information later that I was going to struggle to add. Thanks for the support, everyone!

Yeah ... plus I've just realised it has like four other connections to the plot which make later bits make more sense in the long run ... UUUUGH it feels like I'm writing useless stuff in but I think that's how we're going to need to do it. Mostly I just don't want the reader to feel like I'm faffing around too much at the beginning - I'm a bit notorious for my slow starts and I feel like the reader might get bored if I'm like "And now let's leave all the intriguing characters and incidents I just introduced to do something unrelated for 2000 words!!" Hence why I'm wondering if I need to put in one of my other POV characters and have something still connected to the Main Plot Centre happening at the same time. For reference, the story is now 18,000 words long, so I really feel like some of my simmering pots need to start to boil soon or the reader is going to have some Serious Questions For Me.

Awesome progress, Stribs! 1000 words in an hour is no joke! Haven't attempted the challenge yet, but I know which scene I'm going to write next. But now I have a conundrum with this rewrite. Do I a) make a digression in the story, probably at least a chapter long, that basically involves a character going on a fruitless wild goose chase and ending up right back where they started, or b ) attempt to come up with a reason why the character DOESN'T DO THE SENSIBLE THING, stays where they are without following the only obvious lead they have, and goes against their stated goal for a thing they have no stake in ToT Tempted to bring in one of my other POV characters earlier than intended, but that ruins my nice thematic peel-off structure that I had before. Might be the only way to have my digression and keep the plot ball rolling, though...

Ooo, hadn't thought of the oven. I'll give that a shot, thanks!

Woo Prompts! How often are we doing prompts? Is it going to be, like weekly, every few days, or...?