Hello.

I hope the days have been treating you and yours well.

The days have been good to me, overall, and it’s been on my mind that I haven’t posted an update lately. I don’t really have anything burning its way across my mind to be said, but I keep thinking about how a former friend said I needed to get better about expressing myself. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but the comment has lurked in one dark corner or another of my mind ever since it was made.

What will sound like news (but really isn’t) is that I haven’t substantively written since the end of July.

But that’s okay. It’s actually normal for me. The dearth of writing across most of 2022 was not… normal, that is.

You see… I am what I like to call a burst writer. Other people use the term ‘sprint writer,’ but I feel that is too easily confused with timed activity sprints as described in the Pomodoro method or variations thereof. What is a ‘burst writer?’ Why… I’m glad you asked! Burst writing–at least as I define it–is periods of high productivity followed by (for me, often shorter) periods of no productivity. I have tried managing my daily word count and various other methods to build a daily, consistent writing habit… but to no avail.

I’ll keep trying, but I recognize that being a burst writer is most likely who I am. And as with most other facets of me, I am okay with that.

I am starting to feel that itch, though. The weight of unwritten words settling around my shoulders. I have between four and six projects that are all over fifty percent (50%) complete that I feel will all come crashing together in my next writing period.

Tempus (Primogenitor #4) is one of these.

I’ve been working on other projects during my non-writing time. One of those is the creation of a baby wood shop. There are a half-dozen (-ish) projects that are burning a hole in my tools, if you will, but are exceedingly difficult–if not outright impossible–without a dedicated space for that facet of making.

*** Digression Warning ***

I have started following Adam Savage in the past eight months or so. I was intellectually aware of who he is (as the husband-half of my best friend was a major fan of MythBusters and told me all about it) but as I grew up without cable TV and haven’t really felt a burning need to watch TV in over twenty years, I’ve only seen maybe a couple hours of footage of the show overall. I know I’ve mentioned Adam Savage and his YouTube channel in earlier posts, and the use of ‘making’ above is what brought him to mind now.

He defines ‘making’ in such a way that it includes everything from machining to woodworking and even to writing and the other creative arts (painting, scuplting, composing, etc.). I had never considered that, and after it settled into my mind, I found myself thoroughly appreciating it.

So, yeah… in the not-too-distant future, I will be a multi-faceted maker. That’s pretty cool… even if I do say so myself.

*** Digression Concluded ***

Once I get the shop up and running, I’ll post some pictures of my first projects. I may even post pictures of the creation process for the shop. The space that will be the shop is–right now–an unused carport, and I would much rather have a baby woodworking shop than a carport.

In other topics…

My September days have almost always featured some time in Starfield. What feels to me like the primary storyline didn’t really grab me… and it still kinda doesn’t. It wasn’t until I started branching out into the faction missions or other quests that I really started enjoying the game. Don’t get me wrong; the main storyline is an awesome concept, and I can appreciate it from a story standpoint… but much like Skyrim and the quest to defeat Alduin… I don’t really care whether I complete it or not. I’ll do it eventually, just to know how the story ends, but it’s not a major priority for me.

I have already started a new game, too. Much like with Skyrim, my first attempt at a play-through ended up with me stuck in a quest chain I grew to dislike, and on top of that, I’d made some decisions that took the story in directions I didn’t like, so I chalked it up to the early learning curve on a game like Skyrim or Starfield. And started a new game. I’m back to having as much fun as I was prior to getting stuck in the less-than-satisfactory quest chain, and I know to avoid that particular mission now. Luckily, even though you automatically get the undesirable quest chain in your log as part of a dialogue tree, it’s not required.

I like the customization of ships, too. The ship I built in my first game was so ugly. Good night was it ugly. But it was an awesome ship, too. I’d reached Piloting Level 4, and I’d put Class C engines, shields, reactor, and weapons on the ship. It was (and still is, if I load the game) an ugly-as-homemade-sin cargo ship with the maneuverability and firepower of a heavy fighter. I am totally okay with that. The shields that unlock if you join the UC Vanguard are pretty good, too… and if I remember right, they’re only Class B.

In this new game, I started down the Freestar Rangers storyline to see if they cough up equivalent ship hardware. Given the look and feel of Akila City, I have my doubts… but I’m open to being pleasantly surprised.

Another reason that I started a new game was to save up the credits to buy a ship and customize the hell out of that, keeping the starter ship largely untouched. In my first game, the starter ship still existed pretty much in name only (and maybe the original landing gear).

The more I thought about that, I wasn’t really a fan. For a new game like Starfield, I get a bit nostalgic, so in my current game, I’ll keep the starter ship largely untouched and do all my crazy, ugly-as-homemade-sin modifications to the ship I bought.

I will say that Starfield will probably be the Sci-Fi Skyrim for me until something better comes along. That being, it’s not uncommon that I’ll open Skyrim when I want to play a game and don’t really have anything specific in mind. All my gripes about Skyrim aside, it really is an awesome game, even as old as it is at this point. Starfield already gives me that feeling, and I don’t really have any gripes about it (that undesirable quest chain notwithstanding).

I can easily see my schedule becoming three to four hours of writing each day, three to four hours in the baby shop (once it’s built), and filling out the rest of my awake time with the necessary business of living mingled with Starfield. That–I feel–would be an awesome schedule.

I’ll let you know how it works out.

In the meantime, I hope you find new and interesting creative endeavors and that the days treat you and yours well.

Be safe out there… at least, safer than me.  😉