Ira Heinichen's Blog, page 229

Day 2,171: Sympathetic Villain

Do we need a sympathetic villain?

I feel like that’s something storytellers have been taught…and I’m just not so sure it’s necessary. And I really do mean I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer. All I know is that I have the question.

Do villains need to be SYMPATHETIC?

They certainly need to make sense. Their logic certainly needs to make sense, even if their entire point is that they’re crazy. Their “world” must make sense. But…do we need to empathize with them? I don’t know. I’m going to noo...

Day 2,170: A Thousand Words

I might be in a little mini groove. I wrote another thousand words today. Halleloo.

Quick entry tonight because I want to hit that hay, but there were some small victories today that felt good:

I was tired this morning, driving to work, and worried about being overwhelmed. From the last year or so, I’ve become gunshy about getting any sort of work out that feels too large. Because it’s meant those words were garbage in the recent past. So, when I make gains, like I have this week, or put in c...

Day 2,169: It Never Fails…

It never fails; I always have at least one good idea before bed.

This writing before sleep thing is staaaaarting to kick in. I’m on a streak right now that’s very satisfying. And by “writing,” I mean on my current work in progress. Not the blog. Obviously THAT streak has been going for awhile

Day 2,168: The Zone

I’m in the zone.

I can feel it. It’s a nice place.

The zone feels like one day at a time. One scene at a time. One word at a time. The zone is in the present. It’s not worried about the future or the past. It’s focused. It’s calm. It doesn’t slide too high or too low. It’s even-keeled.

Even yesterday with my frustration over missing a writing session, I could still feel it. I just needed to put in my nighttime session and start over in the morning.

I did that today. I started over. I let go o...

Day 2,167: Ugh

I feel like my day got torpedoed at the end…or more like I torpedoed it.

It was a mix of both, to be honest. I got behind with work, and that made me available late to go and get my afternoon writing session in…and then there wasn’t anywhere available to write.

I don’t like that about my current writing situation. I don’t have a dedicated writing space that I know will be there for me. I’m at the mercy of what’s available.

Maybe tomorrow I need to scope out more options. It would mean going t...

Day 2,166: The Best

I’ve had one of the best Sundays in a while, today.

I can’t tell you exactly why it was so good. I mean, I can: I got everything done I wanted to get done…but in terms of WHY I was able to get all that stuff done and feel so good about it? I don’t know. Except maybe that it’s good to be home, and I’ve been writing.

I realized or remembered something this week about my writing: it’s okay to make a mistake, go back and delete it, and then figure out what do write instead. That takes time, and t...

Day 2,165: The Routine

I was taking in therapy today about how much comfort and safety I get from my routines.

I’ve been out of those routines here for a little while with all the traveling and stuff from the month. And here’s the thing: I always look forward to traveling. Genuinely. I actually love it. I remember as a kid thinking about how amazing it would be to be an adult and get to travel where you wanted, and pack a big suitcase and wear fancy clothes and fly around to all these neat places and take photos.

I...

Day 2,164: Up and Down

Man, writing is a gd rollercoaster for me right now. The ups and downs.

I had a breakthrough on this scene today. I was tired as fuck, but I got to work on time and I sat down and I banged out my morning session and there it was: the scene I’d been looking for.

Magic.

Carried over into my second session, too, after work. Magic.

And then I thought of something the scene needed, and so I tried to put it in tonight…and it’s not perfect. Uuuuuggghhh.

Day 2,163: Foul

You ever wake up grumpy? No reason, just foul?

I freaking almost never do that. I’m a happy waker. Or, at the very least, I’m a tired zombie waker.

Not today.

I woke up grumpy. Stayed that way, just feeling in a funk, till around lunch time…and then some time in the afternoon, the cloud lifted. For, again, no particular reason. I felt normal again. I feel normal.

I think it’s just decompressing from a very intense month. I wouldn’t be surprised to feel funky again for a day or two in the next...

Day 2,162: Wins and Losses

I wrote all three sessions today. That’s a win.

The writing wasn’t great. I’m on a sequence of scenes that clearly need to be fixed. They’re not working. They’re not ringing true. There’s an emotional truth that’s not being observed. So…I’m working and reworking them. That’s a loss, I suppose. At least for now.

The A’s played like crap in the Wild Card Game. Again. Two years in a row. Soundly defeated. That’s a loss.

I had a good day at work today. Eased in with some work that wasn’t too ment...