General Updates & A Few Snippets #2

Hey, hey, hey!

Hoo boy. Been a while, hasn't it? If I'm not mistaken, this is one of, if not the, longest periods I've gone without posting anything new (including updates like this one). I'm sorry about that. It's not that I've become disinterested, and I've definitely not abandoned ship -- not at all, in fact. It's not even really about being "too busy," since life is always busy. It's just a particularly bad case of fark-I-can't-finish-anything-I-start.

*chuckles* In other words, the usual.

But this post is here to break the silence! While you might already be caught up on the general updates from my occasional Twitter postings, I'll also be sharing some more behind-the-scenes type previews of several of my current works-in-progress, as well as post ideas I've been considering trying out.

This will be very similar to my last Updates & Snippets post -- with hopefully one or two good tidbits in here to help tide you over during this quiet time!

As always, thank you for bearing with my slow arse.

Updates

- I've Hit Another Wall

And it seems to be a particularly thick wall, because it's been two months since my last piece of actual content. I'm still writing, and I've got many a draft going, with new ones started almost every day. Just none of them have gotten very far (yet). S'alright, though -- we'll get back on track here eventually!

Till then...

- It's Been 84 Years

I am extremely, extremely bad with visiting and keeping up with my blogging friends (it's no different in my personal life, by the way, 'cause being social is hard). I need to set aside just a few minutes a day, a week, a month -- something, just to get my butt over to see you guys and read your posts. I mean really. Now, will that actually happen? Will I stick to it? Uhhherm.

But I do have some rounds to make, and I hope to see many of you soon(ish). Again, haven't forgotten you -- keeping up's just not my strong suit! I've not done much new exploring out there in the blogosphere, either.

(Clearly very little has changed in this department since my other update post lol.)

- Construction Still In Progress!

It's been an eternity, but I'm still in the midst of reorganizing and changing up my blog's categories/labels/design details and the posts that go with them. Not much has happened in that area lately, but I am still working, and it's still a mess in places. As always, please do let me know at any point if you have feedback on these changes (or anything else)!

- 100k Celebration Preferences

Considering that I've not had any new posts up for a while, I made sure to start collecting responses for my 100k Celebration Preferences Survey early on. That survey is still wide open, and anyone with a preference for potential celebratory events is encouraged to voice their opinion!

Thank you to all of you for helping me and my blog get to this point. 💕

Snippets of a Few Upcoming Pieces

Note: These are all WIPs (works-in-progress) that are in the very early stages and likely to change -- potentially becoming something entirely different and, relative to these previews, unrecognizable. Any given titles are likewise probably temporary. These are just fun glimpses into what I've been working on!

For more, see my previous Updates & Snippets post, as I'm still working on many of those, too.

"Arcadian Whispers" (Working Title)

This one was put out on Twitter almost a year ago now, back in July 2017. Originally an ode written for my high school writing class, I was never quite happy enough with the wording and direction to post it, so I've continued to work on it. It hasn't received much attention lately, and it still has a long way to go, but I'm super excited for whenever I do manage to finish this. Who doesn't love a good nature poem?

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"The Angel of Presque Isle" (Working Title)

Lake Erie. ❤ My childhood lake, and one of the subjects of this poem -- thus far titled, "The Angel of Presque Isle." This is a very recent WIP, inspired by a visit I took to Presque Isle, a peninsula in the US state of Pennsylvania (hence the current title. I like the sound of it, though, so I just may keep it!). The lines shown are definitely very early -- in fact, they were written while sitting in the car, one quickly jotted down after the next, but you can get the general feel that I'll most likely be going for.

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"Soul of Tempered Glass" (Working Title)

One of the poems I'm most focused on at the moment, this is a somewhat personal write that touches on fear, (wasted) potential, and letting loose the lion of one's heart. A soul with the luster of a diamond, but the fragility of glass -- in other words, a soul with great potential, but that is easy to break. Like a pretty piece of china, kept safe behind locked doors... until it isn't.

Two lovely music tracks influenced part of the rhythm and wording (and theme) here: 1) This instrumental version of Lindsey Stirling's "Shatter Me," and 2) "Sleepsong" by Secret Garden.

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Untitled Road Trip-Inspired Poem

Another fairly recent WIP, this one doesn't yet have a title, but its inspiration comes from all the road trips I've been taking with my family. Driving through cities and suburbs, farmland and woodlands, quiet, open roads and bustling streets -- a wide range of scenery and associations, some familiar, some new. Laughing and smiling the time away with the people closest to you. That's some good poem fodder, right there!

(This picture was kind of a tough one to make readable; if enlarging it doesn't help, let me know and I'll add the lines here as well!)

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Untitled Shorts

Lastly (but far from the last few poems I've been working on), these three spur-of-the-moment short pieces were crammed together into one graphic because I just didn't feel there was enough to them yet to give each its own spot in the list.

Top (#1): This is intended to be around 4 lines. That may change if, while I'm writing, several new light bulbs suddenly come to life, but it feels like a 4-liner at this point. I'm currently stuck on the third line, though -- haven't yet come up with anything fitting... The theme is essentially part of that whole "freedom versus security" debate.

Middle (#2): I've been wanting to finish this one for eons!! I've had it as a draft (with these same lines, no less) since either 2015 or 2016. It's been an eternity, but eventually I hope to have this one completed. I'm not a romance writer, but it was a really sweet article title I had stumbled across that inspired the idea of a mostly-abandoned train, kept running for only one person, overgrown but full of memories and love; the article was titled, "Learn The Heartwarming Reason Why This Train Station Remains Open For Just One Passenger," but unfortunately I lost the link and source before I could go back and read it.

Some early title possibilities include, "Ticket for One," "Eternity's Railway," "The Forever Train," and/or simply "Old Lover's Debt." Who knows if I'll end up going with one of these, or if a new and better one will come along by then...

Bottom (#3): A testament to the wall I've hit, this was a more recent writing attempt (just last week), and the momentum I had gathered disappeared within minutes of tackling the second line. Death is the theme, possibly a personification of, and my guiding line is "death touches us all" -- which then also inspired an acrostic poem that I've been playing with.

Current working title = "Thread of Common Fate."

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Other

(short stories, plays, scripts, etc.)

Just a few of my most recent items of focus, I regret to say that I haven't been working, at least not successfully, on many short stories as of late. I've had ideas, but they haven't made it on paper, yet.

I've been playing around with script and play writing, too, and I'd really like to do something like that... How fun! But, alas, this is about as far as I've gotten:

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Untitled Script/Play

EX. DYING PLANET - DAY

The landscape is a desolate wasteland. Where remnants still remain, the faded plant life paints the region a bleak, dying green.

* * *

A decent beginning, maybe, for a possible allegory about extremes versus balance, but I've not even decided if it'll be intended for screen or stage. I may just write a generic version first... finish the story, see how it turns out, make edits as necessary. This would only be my first, after all! Practice is necessary.

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Potential Post Experiments

I've also been considering some new, different types of posts, especially ones related to violin playing.

I'm a violin noob, and really just a music noob in general, but I would love to start posting songs and sounds, to practice and push myself to continue learning the instrument. I mean it when I say I'm still crap -- I can only play a handful of songs, most of which are from a lesson book, and even those are far from mastered. I'm slow, generally out of tune, and still working on not bouncing the bow or hitting neighboring strings. All that said...

I was no better at poetry when I first started putting it out here. My desire to write quality, and also frequent, content drove me to improve my knowledge and ability drastically -- it became a near-daily activity. I wrote for myself, but being aware of the fact that my writings were also public, I wanted them to be good.

Whether they actually were or not is debatable, but you get the point. It's a source of motivation.

The Problems:

I don't know if my limited playing ability, accompanied by my anonymous blogging style (meaning audio only, no video), would make for interesting violin posts. I'd certainly have fun with the tracks, too, experiment with them -- I've recently started messing with Audacity, so lots of potential there.

I've even been thinking about what non-personal video I could include, even something as simple as an audio waveform animation, for which I think Sonic Candle might do the trick. (I'd love to make music for my poems, but I'm not quite there, yet).

But, especially in the beginning, I also want to post original sounds -- no effects, no special edits. They'd be short, mostly, and not pretty. But it would encourage me to grow, try new things, etc.

So we'll see. I'd like to do it. I think it'd be great fun. It would just probably be mostly for myself, least for a while, till I got creative.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this!!

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That should just about do it for updates, I think. I don't know when my next post'll be out, but it will, eventually, be out. Especially if I decide to try out the violin idea. However, you know you're always welcome to contact me if you have need! Posts or no posts.

Thank you all, as always, and my best wishes to you!