impromptu / veer

A call from a great friend lent a much-needed comfort to my present consternations; thanks JL.

Following a rousing moment of creative inspiration / result of perspiration at the conclusion of the workday with MainFictionThing, I was greeted this morning with a brick wall. Veered off into AnotherFictionThing for awhile. Benefit of having multiple things going at once.

(Question remains with Another: where do I start? (At the beginning, wherever that is...))

Also considering a new little weekend challenge for myself on non-newsletter weekends like this one though it won't start for two weeks. Recording here so I don't forget which I probably will do anyhow.

narrative plate juggling, in theory

Decided that the only way I'm going to get everything done that I want to get done is to work both MainFictionThing and ComicsThing daily, creating a chain across the daily workblocks. Hopefully the variety and interplay will help with both; that one is in my glitchy prose and the other a communicative script for someone else SHOULD, in theory at least, prevent too many unwelcome narrative similarities. In theory.

muse and obsidian for brain and blood management / coordination

First section (or reasonable fascimile) of MainFictionThing finally in place. Some nips and tucks req'd eventually, but the main jist is there and duly reflected in reorganized and slightly less manic Muse board though it has to be said that working in Muse really helps me get into the fucked up headspace of one of – ok probably both of – my characters: the board's exhausting to look at – just as I'm sure it is to live in this character's mind.

I know the feeling.

Can't leave Obsidian out of what seems to have become a workupdate post: not only is it the focal point for the (mis)management of my creative brain, but it also helps keep me alive: makes an excellent tool at recording blood sugars and meals and such, especially if I eat at a restaurant: I've got a spreadsheet at the top of my daily notes and use a tag for the restaurant which lets me quickly find instances of when I eat there and the requisite insulin to make sure it doesn't kill me on repeated visits. Handy.

fri/20220916

55ºF, clear, yet foggy: finding that standing helps even more than I had previously thought: think it has to do with that movement – and my muscle memory of percussion, of standing and moving to different instruments, in this case, keyboard to iPad to writing by hand (and, in a nod to my past iteration, to practice pad for GL Stone's STICK CONTROL exercises – helps me think): Walter Murch called it a dance, as he stands while editing, and, unsurprisingly, Mr Murch is correct.

Helps too, that I finally found a use for Muse: while Obsidian is my default brain – and, largely, the home of each final document – , Muse is a digital version of how I think: details, relationships between paragraphs, how they move and interact: deep focus boards (on the Mac, the big screen) within big picture boards (on the iPad) to work and manipulate those relationships. So far, haven't encountered any vanishing text issues in this Muse-era: relief, though one eye remains, as ever, open.

Donations made to candidacies of Tim Ryan, Nan Whaley, Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, John Fetterman, Charlie Crist, and Beto O'Rourke: always feels good to contribute though I wish part of the contribution would involve a "minimal emails" option.

tue/20220913

59ºF, clouds: convinced that part of my Switch love is how much it reminds me of Sega's Game Gear, as close to a perfect portable system as one can get. Current game lineup is CUPHEAD, HADES, and UNTITLED GOOSE GAME in addition to the MARIO KART boot camp: I think I'm unraveling some of my niece's launch trickery. Victory will be mine.

Staring at the screen that's both filled and blank, a recognition emergent that not only do I not know what to write – both in the bird-by-bird and the broad sense – but I’m unsure of how to write it; suspect that it will take both what/how to solve said quandary, or a third (why?) or the right balance of the HW/Obs/Muse nexus but: can't decide if Muse is contributing to the solution or to the problem – or if it's showing me the problem which will, in theory/dreams, lead to the solution? Either way, might be time to let MainFictionThing percolate for a week and return to other MainFictionThing(s).

That said, something's sounding right though I don't know what. Alas.

RIP Godard; I had already planned a rewatch of ALPHAVILLE. Might have to push that up.

mon/20220912

63ºF, clouds: Slept through my alarm (only by twenty minutes; must've turned the thing off. Morning blood sugar check reminder alert FTW) and the world didnt end, at least for now.

Returned to working with Muse – NOT as an Obsidian replacement, but as a compliment – this morning: recognized that since MainFictionThing will be released only in physical form (Press (A) 02, hopefully) it needed the spatial thinking Muse does so well for me to approximate page turns and that the more rote, line by line nature of Obsidian wasn't working: I need to see it, manipulate it.

Attempting Muse again with one eye open: flashbacks / PTSD remain from the vanishing text issues that led me to abandon Muse late last year but I'm hopeful that the Mac-iPad sync will at least absolve some of them. Nonetheless, my stance that it's a brilliant concept remains firm: I wish only that my confidence in it wasn't so bendy.

Current method/solution: Obsidian on the Mac (since the Stream Deck works only on Mac), Muse on the iPad. Type things, do full on-writing in Obsidian, add, via Universal Control, to Muse board for manipulation on iPad, return, repeat. More handwriting? Hopeful ameleoration of vanishing text issues. Live back-up, etc etc.

The Switch is a delight.