Arboreal woes + writing

[ratbones]

I woke up very early this morning, on my day off, to the sound of a chainsaw running right outside my bedroom, where the tree service was taking down my beloved 60-ft-tall pine. The tree dominated the property and absolutely dwarfed my little house. I've been arguing for months that it didn't need to come down, and I knew I hadn't gotten anywhere but I didn't know it was happening today. Now my yard is wrong, my house is wrong, the lighting is wrong everywhere, I'm absolutely livid about the tree and also about nobody listening to me about the tree, and I'm exhausted, both from being woken up three hours before I intended to wake up and from crying buckets. I recognize that I probably look a little crazy for being so attached to a tree, but that just makes me feel worse. :(

At a certain point, I decided that I needed to feed my brain something enjoyable and also completely absorbing if I wanted to stop bursting into tears at the sight of uninterrupted sunlight coming through the window, so I hoisted myself over into words mode. I think I had hit a bit of a procrastination bump on my zombie AU because my outline was outdated and I knew I had to move some things around to fix the pacing for the next couple chapters (aaargh), so I did some aggressive scribbling of plot notes on several sheets of legal pad spread out over my desk, which was a weird turn because I never write anything by hand, but it seemed to be enough of a disruption to get me out of the rut. Chapter 5 just went up, and I have a big chunk of chapter 6 written, along with a pretty precise road map for where I'm going next. Patting myself on the back here for putting a crappy day to good use and doing something that made me feel a bit better. I could've just moped all day. Old Me would have.

By the way, I don't update on weekends because I work weekends. And a few other days per week, but those are more flexible, while the weekend is not. This is part of why I haven't hopped on the Sunday Six bandwagon. The other part is that the idea of picking out a snippet makes me nervous.

I still don't know exactly what I'm doing on Dreamwidth, obviously, but hey an attempt at a post was made that's good right

Comments

[umadoshi]

I'm truly sorry about your tree. ;_; Losing it would be hard enough if it had been necessary, and losing it needlessly is just awful. *sympathies*

but hey an attempt at a post was made that's good right

It is!

[ratbones]

Thanks for the tree sympathy. Yeah, I'm just really sad and frustrated and, and, ugh.

It is!
:)

[extrapenguin]

I feel you on attachment to trees. They're nice! They block sight and sound! Let them beeeee

As for what DW is for: It is for whatever you wish it to be for.
1. The occasional life and fic update
2. Posting long meta and wanking up a storm in the comments because after a certain point, everyone, including you, is Wrong On The Internet
3. Nonsense polls (if you have a paid account)
4. Commenting on other people's posts
5. Telling everyone just how much you love something
6. Participating in memes
etc.

(As for Sunday Six, there's also WIP Wednesday. And you don't have to share a snippet if you don't want to - I think you could just tell us what the project's current wordcount is.)

[ratbones]

They're nice! They block sight and sound! Let them beeeee
YES. My view on that side isn't bad even without the tree, but it blocked direct morning sunlight and indirect car noises. I'm an insomniac, I kinda needed that. Argh.

Thanks for letting me know about WIP Wednesday, that might work better for me! And also the list of ideas, which all sound fun except #2, lol. If someone thinks I'm Wrong on the Internet, I probably am ^^;

[extrapenguin]

Oof, sympathies from a fellow insomniac. Adding light and traffic noises is bad!

(Be the tree ninja and plant new trees everywhere, including your yard?)

[ratbones]

Oooh, I'm kind of happy when other people get my sleep problems but also oh no insomnia is horrible

(Be the tree ninja and plant new trees everywhere, including your yard?)
This...this appeals to me. Yes. I need some saplings. :D

[jo_lasalle]

Sudden tree death, with a tree that's been there forever and is really part of the whole place, would make me pretty bummed too. >.<

This is part of why I haven't hopped on the Sunday Six bandwagon. The other part is that the idea of picking out a snippet makes me nervous.

I feel very similar about the snippet thing. I never have anything I feel comfortable putting up for Sunday Six, which is a bit sad because I'd quite like to play, but the idea of pulling snippets out of my longer work is... eeeks! (The one week where I had something I'd have been comfortable teasing with, I forgot. ^^)

[ratbones]

I don't know how old the tree was (guess I could find out now, because there's a giant exposed stump in my yard) but I'm guessing at least three times my age? Which isn't even old, for its species. Feels real bad to see it destroyed so very quickly.

Yes, the snippet thing, aaaah! I wanna participate, and I could always (try to remember to) post on Saturday night, at which point it's Sunday morning for a lot of people here, but wouldn't it either be boring out of context or give too much away I don't KNOW. Plus, I might edit it in between posting the snippet and posting the whole chapter/fic, which is probably completely fine but feels weird.

[clevermanka]

That's fucking horrible. I'm so sorry you've gotta deal with the emotional fallout from that. Ugh. UGH. I'm glad New You was able to direct the energy into writing.

[ratbones]

Thanks. <3 Yeah, it's really pretty awful, that trifecta of nature getting destroyed + nice things being taken from me + my opinion being dismissed. But the writing was a good place to go with it and I'm happy with that part, at least.

[forestofglory]

I'm so sorry about your tree. That's just awful.

I do find that writing by hand uses some different parts of my brain that writing on a screen. I used to draft most of my stuff out by hand because the flow was better. Now I only write by hand if I'm really stuck or I want to brainstorm something.

You can use DW for whatever you want. Lately I've mostly been using it for talking about what ever media I've been reading and watching. But I also like reading about people's everyday lives, and I have been enjoying lots fanish chatter about Guardian of course.

[ratbones]

Thanks. My poor tree, ugh. I appreciate the condolences <3

The writing-by-hand thing is interesting. I'm used to typing as much as possible because my abominable handwriting is readable only to me if I'm not being careful, but nobody else is going to read my notes/brainstorming type stuff anyway, so I might add it to my toolkit for future use when I'm stuck.

Oh yeah, your media posts are a good idea and format! I don't take in enough new stuff to do that very often, but I like reading yours. I might try doing semi-regular life and writing updates, if I can think of stuff to say ^^' I love all these Guardian 30-day meme posts too, just haven't had time to do my own.

[forestofglory]

My handwriting is pretty bad too. And my spelling unaided by spelling check is "creative"

I'm glad you are enjoying the media round ups, I started doing them fairly recently and they have been fun. But you can be less through about it than that and just be like I read/watched a thing!

I haven't done the Guardian 30 day meme partly because I actually don't know the answers to a lot of the questions, but I do like reading other peoples answers.

[frith_in_thorns]

I get incredibly attached to trees so I would also be horrendously upset, it's not at all silly. **hugs**

[ratbones]

That's so nice to hear, I don't think anyone around me IRL gets why it's a big deal. Thank you <3

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Awww, was your tree legally taken down? Because there's like a whole huge area of tree law with massive compensation if it was cut down illegally...

Also, I feel you on the Sunday Six! I feel too self-conscious of my snippets, so I don't participate, although I do read other people's stuff. And honestly, dreamwidth is whatever you wanna post on it!

[ratbones]

Yeah, it was legal, I'm a renter and my landlord was on board. :( Wish I'd bought the place so I had some kind of recourse. Although, on the other hand, I'm glad I didn't buy it, so I can relatively easily move somewhere with more trees if I manage to uproot myself (heh) from here.

It's good to hear I'm not the only one who's too shy for Sunday Six posts! Reading all the snippets is so fun, and gets me hyped for everyone's upcoming fics, so I wish I could make it work, but...*flails*