What did I get done this week? Managed to hit my word count goal of 1,500 words on M/W/F (and even got over that on Monday!), and am feeling pretty chuffed about the progress. The story is really starting to pull together, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it. Today, I could hardly wait to get back to the keyboard and get started. I’m through Chapter 5 now, and diving into Chapter 6 next week, but I’m pleased with how the plot is unfolding. It’s going quicker than I’d planned, but the faster pace feels appropriate, given I’m aiming for this to be a nice, tight, little novel. And that fits with the other short novels I’ve read recently. So we’ll see how that goes. But I’m pleased with it so far, and that’s a great feeling.
What am I reading this week? This week, I’ve been knee-deep in J.M. Coetze’s Disgrace, which is–WOW–a heavy read. I wasn’t anticipating it being so hard. Not in style or speed, but just content. It’s a rough, rough, heart-grinding book. Which I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by, given that Waiting for the Barbarians is a hard, deep-think book, too, but this one’s rough. Not quite as rough as Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, but not all that far off. (That’s also an amazing book, but be warned–it won’t make you feel happy, but it will make you feel.) I’ve also been chipping my way through Michael Easter’s The Comfort Crisis, about how the modern amenities of our world make us more stressed and anxious, and how getting uncomfortable can be a useful tool for resetting our distress tolerance. It’s interesting, and I’m enjoying it, but it’s very…male-centric, I feel. There are a few female scientists he talks to about various elements of sound/hunger/comfort, etc., but most of it is focused on walkabouts and hunting trips and men embracing the wild/testing their mettle. That’s not in any way to say that it’s not a good and worthwhile read, but it’s made me wonder if perhaps the need for physically demanding challenges is something people created as a rite of passage to mirror the physically demanding challenge of childbirth. Talk about a rite of passage. It’s got all the elements of a misogi (physically demanding to the point of near failure, requiring determination and dedication to learn your physical limits), yet it’s something only those with wombs go through, and only those who choose to have children. I wonder if the urge for physically demanding challenges is stronger among women (and the non-binary with such organs) who choose not to have children. Then again, I think of people like Freya Hoffmeister (who you can learn more about in the book Fearless which is EPIC and AMAZING and you should definitely read it), who also had a child and still felt driven to pursue epic challenges of physical endurance, and maybe that’s just proof I’m oversimplifying. But I do think it’s interesting that so many cultures have male rites of passage that require physical endurance, but not as many have them for females. Perhaps females simply have too many rites of passage already, via their own biology. We’re constantly changing, constantly evolving, to the point where we’re rarely the same woman from decade to decade. But those are just my ramblings. The Comfort Crisis is interesting, though, and it’s giving me lots of thoughts. I’ll have to dig into them more with time. It’s also really made me want to check out a local sensory deprivation chamber, though!
What’s up for the weekend? Not too much! My folks are visiting my grandmother this weekend, so we have the house to ourselves (which is delightful when you’re used to all being on top of each other). I’ve got a manicure scheduled (I’ve had a gift certificate for almost a year that I haven’t used, so needed to get on that!), and we’re going to try to see the new Paw Patrol movie at some point. The boys are VERY excited.
I’ll probably also be tapping into Writing Down the Bones again, as I’ve been longing to get into a more regular creative practice, and still haven’t pinned down the whole “commonplace”/”creative diary” thing. While I love, love, love the idea of a notebook where I capture all the things that inspire me, I’m still not quite sure how to make that easily sustainable for me. I’ve already got my bullet journal for logging/planning my weeks, but mixing in commonplace stuff just gets confusing. I’ve got my hash book, where I think out loud and do three-pages-esque writing and planning, but I don’t want to feel like that has to be “nicely” put together or anything, because what I love about it is its haphazardness. But it may not be good for “collecting” things, either. I like jotting notes on index cards, but I lose them, and don’t have a great system for organizing them (if I even want to organize them…). I enjoy my little pocket composition notebooks for jotting down passing thoughts, but then feel like I need to PUT those somewhere, translate them over to something… Still not sure how that works yet… Will continue thinking on it.
Have a great weekend and get some rest!