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The rain was pouring down earlier today. I had resigned myself to thinking I wouldn't be able to do my daily walk around the neighbourhood today, so after lunch I did a 10 minute pilates session with a YouTube video. That is, on top of the 10 minutes of yoga I did this morning.
But now, I look out the window, and I see a patch of blue sky, and no rain at all. Tricky. Do I go for a walk after all, considering I'll have to go pick up Sabrina in just over an hour from daycare, or do I skip the walk anyway and use the last of my alone time for a shower?
It's been a while since I last had alone time. The last few weeks, because of lockdown, Sabrina hasn't been at daycare at all, and Taina should have been going to work (because the taxi company is an essential service) but hasn't been due to a combination of being sick with a cold, then choosing to work from home but not being able to due to technical difficulties with the laptop, and finally just calling in sick every day last week because he felt too anxious to go to work.
But today is Monday, and we're in Level 2, so Sabrina is back at daycare until 3, and Taina has headed off to work.
I haven't had the entire day to myself though. My mother-in-law Debra messaged me this morning to check if any of us would be at home. I told it was only me, but she decided to come visit me anyway and she brought over some soup and buns for lunch.
It was nice, we chatted about stuff, like politics, and celebrities, and what we've all been up to over lockdown. She's been working on some sewing and patchwork stuff.
But, nice as it was to catch up with her, I was also pleased she didn't stay super long, as I have a few things I want to do, plus I didn't want to miss out on enjoying some alone time.
Apart from today, nothing is much different than it was when I last posted a few days ago. Taina has now just two weeks left at the job with the taxi company, and then he starts his new job. I've been still living my day-to-day focusing on achieving the journeys in my Fabulous app, which really has been fantastic for me.
Last week, I discovered a site that has lots of free online courses, so I started doing a free creative writing course, just for the heck of it. It's been good, I learned a few useful things yesterday, from going through the tasks it set for me.
I had to read these two extracts from different writers, scenes where they were introducing a character near the start of a novel. After reading them both, I had to post comments about my thoughts on their styles, comparing and contrasting, that sort of thing.
A few things I learned: -Authors often alternate between giving pieces of description of a person or scene, followed by then a sentence or two of plot or dialogue, then more description, then more plot. This means readers don't get bored by a big block of description detail.
-Rather than simply stating how a character feels, an author can subconsciously put it in the reader's mind through description of either the character's appearance or the location of the scene. For instance, talking of grey cloudy skies will automatically cause a reader to assume the character might feel sad.
-Using adjectives that seem out of place can be intriguing and original, but also provide insight into more than one thing at once. eg, describing a character's clothes using a personality adjective like 'cheeky' can allow the reader to imagine both the clothes, and also the character's personality themselves. This means the author gets across more information without using too many words and without the writing being boring.
So I'm enjoying this so far. To be fair, I was super excited when I decided to start working on writing a book not long ago, but when the time came to actually start writing it, rather than just popping down random notes about the story and characters, I found it hard to get myself to do it.
I always find this with writing. I put too much pressure on myself, expect myself to produce something perfect. I can never live up to that expectation, so of course I just put off actually doing it. So part of the motivation for doing this course is that it postpones the time I will need to actually start writing something properly.
But on the other hand, if it gives me ideas on how to write better, then it might be good.
Whichever way, I have no major expectations for my writing, other than it being a fun project to absorb myself in up until it's time to start my Accounting degree course in November.
I could of course be using this 25 minute "deep work" session to write now, or progress further on the writing course. But I just felt more like journalling today. Technically journalling is writing, for a start, but also it's good for my emotional and mental well-being to try and do this regularly.
So, it seems the time is up already. Hopefully I have just enough time to squeeze in a shower before I have to go and pick up Sabrina soon.
weezieishness · Mon Sep 13, 2021 @ 03:29am · 0 Comments |
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