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The Sabbatical: An Unexpected Journey

As I mentioned earlier, I want to use the discipline I've generated by writing daily posts (almost) without fail to become involved in NaNoWriMo. While I'm not sure how well I'll handle this stress in my life, I'm excited to put forth the effort. Since it's only 1,667 words a day, and I can slam out about 1,200 in an hour, it is more time at the keyboard than I'm used to. However, due to certain circumstances and the way that my broken brain works, I've finally decided to upgrade from an "It's okay, I guess" machine to something that (I hope) runs better, longer.

With a new toy tool at my disposal, I'm hoping that will put additional incentive to really focus on my writing. For years, I've argued that I needed a Muse to write well. That may still be true, since my blog posts aren't necessarily sterling wordcrafting. However, to simply write I need a space and some time. The first one is taken care of, thanks to my personal office. (It's Halloween night, so I'm kind of bragging a little by having the lights on and blinds up. That way, trick-or-treaters can see in at some of the decor. It isn't a lot, but, yeah--I'm kind of proud of my room.) The second one is what I'm working with now. Starting tomorrow, I'll be putting this daily exercise toward more creative endeavors.

This year, I'm thinking of pursuing a steampunk story that has been percolating for a week or so. Normally, I plot out farther in advance, but it's only been in the last little bit that my wife and I have figured out why our steampunk costumes weren't as exciting as a lot of the other ones that she has made. It boils down to the fact that there's no story for our costumes. They look kind of steampunk--they have gears and the wild west/Victorian era aesthetic--and that's about it. There isn't any backstory or information about the costumes that informs them--or us--of why we're dressed that way. My hope is to write a novella on a couple of characters, a wife and husband team of cloudfarmers, that will give us ideas for details in the costume department.

In a lot of ways, I'm taking a sabbatical from my non-fiction writing in order to pursue a journey that will be enjoyable for me and my wife.

Here's hoping that it works.

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