🌷A Nice Day at the Cottage🌼
The weather has at last become disgusting.
Don’t mistake what I mean here: I’m not saying “at last” as in “oh boy yay howdie doodie it’s hot as shit out!” I mean I’m simply surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Oh no, dear reader, I am absolutely appalled by the heat that has had the audacity to show up—and in June no less! (Please note the sarcasm its incredibly important to the bit).
There are a ton of trees around where my office is in the house, and I can hear the birds softly singing. There’s only a few of them and they’re very quiet but when everything is nice and quiet and there’s only the soft sounds of nature, I feel like I’m a fairytale character writing in their little cottage in the middle of the woods. My neighbors have chickens and sometimes they cluck so much I can hear them in my house as if they’re in my own back yard. Most people would probably find that annoying, but I personally really love it. It adds a perfect gentle ambiance to my own home.
Plus, I mean, they’re not hurting anything. If anything they’re helping add to the vibe of my aesthetic!
With all of that going on right now, I’ve got one more spice to add to the recipe that is my cottagecore/goblincore fairytale aesthetic: I’m burning the forest-scented candle we made a few weeks back. I can’t for the life of me remember what we put in it—just a bunch of forest smells, like trees and flowers and moss. We also used a woodwick, which makes a lovely crackling sound while it burns, so with all of this put together we have a perfect little fairytale-vibes kind of day!
For my Speculative Fiction Writing 2 class, we have to write two consecutive scenes in our thesis novels. I thought it wasn’t due for two more modules.
This is where I screwed up. Apparently, it’s due next week.
So here I am, happily sitting at my desk, working on both the scene for next week and the thesis overall. I have to have at least 15k words written and ready for presentation to my instructor by the end of this term (4 more weeks) so she can judge whether I receive an approval on my thesis or if I will need extra help moving forward in the program. That being said, I’m not overly worried about it. I emailed her last week asking for help with my outline because I thought it was weak, and that it needed punching up. I told her I was completely willing to re-do the whole thing from scratch so I can make it as strong as I could, and she told me after reviewing it that it’s certainly not in need of a total redo.
She helped me figure out a proper beginning (which I’m going to work on after I finish what’s going to be immediately due) and posed questions to me that I think will help my piece become stronger in certain areas. The rest, she said, was really solid and I’m so happy to hear that. I think this might have been a case of being my own worst critic.
For today, I’ve been writing my thesis. The hard part is figuring out a consistent writing schedule around school and my day job, especially when the summer heat is unbearable at work and I come home feeling completely sapped of all my energy. But I can do it!
Project: Land of Shadow and Thorn
New words written: 909 (way less than I wanted)
Present total word count: 6380
Things accomplished in real life: Today I decided I wanted to get dressed up all cute, and since I got a new jumper dress (the “overall winner jumper dress” from Modcloth, bought from Poshmark) why not put together a whole outfit with it? I wish I’d thought to get a picture of the whole thing, but I am notoriously poor at forward thinking so I didn’t. Oops!
Danny surprised me with a fondue night, and while we ate we re-watched The Great. It was so good! He made some steak and toasted some baguettes and we had a little wine with our dinner! It was so good, and personally, I think a hobbit would be proud of it!
We’re also replaying the Alan Wake games, because new DLC just came out for Alan Wake II. We found one of them in the world already and omG it was complete and utter perfection! It was so funny and gave spotlight to a character that I don’t feel like gets enough of it! Definitely recommend if you’re on the fence!
Things accomplished in fiction: Not a whole lot, unfortunately. I got the newest scene started and am still trying to find this character’s voice. I think the problem was that I accidentally woke up too early (thank you, Daisy, for getting me up at 7AM for no reason) and my brain doesn’t write well during the day. I’ve always been a nocturnal writer, and a nocturnal person in general. Since having moved to 1st shift at my day job, I find myself more easily exhausted, and that’s definitely because my entire being functions better at night. But the show must go on, as they say! Hopefully my next writing session will go a little smoother!
Also I think my brain might need a little reading reboot. I’ve got a couple of books coming in the mail and I might spend tomorrow just cozying up with one of them. Maybe I’ll take my vintage radio back downstairs for the evening, put a fireplace ambiance on YouTube, and just completely vibe.
