Happy Thanksgiving! Open Mike day matches up with Thanksgiving week this year–so what are the other Americans doing for Turkey Day? I’m staying home, making lobster tails, pesto salad, cranberry bread, and my favorite veggie side dish while taking calls from my spread-out family members. I’ll get back to work on Friday.
Lobster tails? Yum!
I’m doing the traditional family gathering at my cousin’s, with the traditional turkey, stuffing, etc., and the traditional lousy weather to drive through. 😉
I am also probably taking a day off from the thirty30K writing challenge. That’s fine for wordcount, I’m way ahead — but my other goal was to finish the book this month, and that’s not looking so good. (In consolation, it probably needs more than that one extra day. Sigh. There is an end to this thing, somewhere, right?)
Yeah, the story has to be as long as it has to be, which can be depressing with these challenges.
It’s just the two of us, so we’re doing only the parts we love–roasted turkey thighs, cornbread stuffing, Robert’s amazing cranberry-orange relish, those little crescent rolls that you buy in a can and roll up, green beans w almonds, pumpkin pie. Hey, that turns out to be more than I realized!
I’m also working on a novel. It’s already taken an awfully long time, and I’d hoped to have a complete rough draft by January. Not at all sure that’s going to happen, whether or not I work on it tomorrow. I will finish it, though.
I continue to write. Nothing more will be published this year, but you can buy things:
https://writingandreflections.substack.com/p/shameless
And if you have bought anything, I am grateful! If you want to give me something more, at no cost to yourself, you can review the work, or rate it. (Even short reviews are helpful.)
my sister’s visiting anyway to help with the new baby, so even though no one’s traveling this thanksgiving, between her + us + a couple friends + 2 small children we have a pretty good-sized gathering (although 1 member is too young to eat anything yet). we’re doing chicken and bread stuffing, not very exciting but filling and tasty!
for a special thanksgiving treat, i showed the toddler pictures of trucks and planes online. he was thrilled.
writing-wise i’m not getting much done right now (pre-baby: i’ll be on leave! i’ll get so much writing done! post-baby: why write when i could nap…). i hate revising. i don’t wanna 🙁
Finally got back into writing again, ironically enough as a way to build motivation for homework. Two more weeks of school after this, and then I have temporary freedom until January hits. (Cue tired cheering)
It does turn out, though, that taking far too many human development and family science classes can help with writing a good deal. Who would have thought that studying relationships would help with characterization and story building? 😉
I woke up this morning and had an entire scene of the novel–not words, but situation and emotions–complete in my head. It’s “Ryan goes home for the holidays” so I can
see why my hindbrain was thinking along those lines, but it’s still weird!
Tbh, wasn’t sure what to say: less writing this last / next week, more setting up 2026 goals and planning system. I always move that direction late November tbh.
Coming back to the open mic post for a question / post request (depending on how much you have to say about it…)
I saw someone say recently that a lot of popular fiction involves Number Go Up: number of monsters killed, number of countries conquered, happiness of subjects, number of items acquired, number of people in love with the main character… and that a clear Number to go up is particularly satisfying for most readers, and it also provides an easy way for the writer to make sure things aren’t slowing down (just make the number go up every few chapters!).
Do you think this is true? Thinking of popular fiction I’ve read it seems true of some but harder to see how it applies to others – especially in romantasy and romance. The number of love interests usually doesn’t go past 2 – so do those genres have a number? Is ‘relationship growth’ quantifiable in some way – number of kisses, number of miscommunications resolved, etc.? Do you disagree with the entire premise?
This can bring in the power scaling problem. I only like numbers go up when it naturally, organically fits the story myself.
My writing keeps creeping forward with a combination of the worst aspects (or so it seems) of a burst writer and a plodder.
One thing I seem to keep having to stop and think about are fantasy & science fiction honorifics and terms of address. The protagonist of my current (novel-length) WIP is now in a provincial area where people take honorifics seriously, as compared to the part of the kingdom he’d spent the last several years in, where people are less formal and so less inclined to stand on honorifics and titles.