#181 - Film Crew and Writing

We were up early to be ready for the film crew of students to arrive, and Robyn was going to an open house at one of the colleges to investigate some courses for a possible new career path.

I have my writing work to do, so after a quick finally tidy of our bedroom and bathroom I headed down to the writing cave. As per usual I spot launched myself by watching the final video of the Four Keys Book Arts video showing the rebinding of Andy Weir’s three novels. And the books looked amazing. It’s crazy the amount of work and effort this man puts into his craft.

I sipped tea and ate a microwaved breakfast bowl while the oil filled heater got to work warming up my writing space. I watched another youtuber I follow who is trying to green up a desert in Texas. I’m not sure why I like those videos, but I do.

I think I may have started writing around ten thirty or eleven. Or at least I was at my writing desk. I reread the previous words and reacquainted myself with the story. I had some ideas about what this next scene was about and what information needed to be passed on. It only took me about six or seven hundred words to finish the rest of the scene, but that took me up to about one thirty. That is a terrible amount of words per hour, but my speed with pickup as the day goes on and I fully immerse myself in the characters’ viewpoint.

The kids are opening our front door so often that I am freezing down here in the cave. My hands are so cold. So, I cranked up the temperature on the little oil filled heater and now my feet are getting cold even with shoes and socks on. The toils of a writer are constant, I tell you.

From one thirty to two I’ll take a break and walk on the treadmill. That should help warm me up!

When I get back, I’ll write the next scene, whatever that ends up being.

After the treadmill, which I sorely needed, all I want to do is use my bathroom. But it is currently being used as a movie set. Or will be used at some point in the day. I’ve been told that I am not allowed to use it, because my personal brand might be deemed offensive to the olfactory senses of the crew.

Only another five hours or so until they call it a wrap.

Joy.

Robyn finished her school research tour and wisely went to the mall. There is apparently a new movie theatre there with amazing reclining seats with plenty of leg and elbow room. And it’s just regular admission. I think we may have found our new theater. It’s not as close, but it the seating is that much more comfortable, then it is worth the extra time to get there.

The kids have finally stopped filming! And they finished early. My bladder thanks them profusely. Although, I have to be honest, considering there were about ten of them here, they were great. Very focused and professional. Each one of them appeared to be treating this as a          real movie shoot.

I nipped upstairs to use the facilities, finally, and the helped myself to the left-over smoked ribs and pulled pork from last night.

It’s coming up on five PM, where has the time gone already?

I’ve written about thirteen hundred words in that time for the story and about six hundred for the blog, which is great for the 2026-word challenge, but no so great for the fiction.

I’ll need to do a two-hour sprint to get some traction on my fiction. It’s due at three AM.

Robyn returned and went out to pick up one of our favourite dishes from Bahn Thai in Burlington. A delicious order of Thai Salad and Flour Flamed Fish with a side of white rice. Absolutely amazing every single time. Never had a bad meal there.

While she was picking up the food for about thirty minutes, I started another scene and wrote about five hundred words. Not too shabby. Five hundred words per half hour is a good speed for me.

Now it’s back to the writing cave to see if I can get this story written.

Did about another hour of writing and did a little over eight hundred words. A little bit slower than I’d like but still it was a finished scene. I’m definitely starting to gain some momentum.

I’ll take a break and then try to do a two-hour session to really pump up that momentum. At this point in the evening, about nine twenty, I have written a total of four thousand one hundred fifty words for the day.

Got too busy to comeback here and update things.

It’s about four in the morning and I just uploaded my story to my mentor. I struggled at the start of today but got into it as the day went on.

I managed to write six thousand five hundred words of fiction today. Which is pretty amazing. This also helped me catch up on the 2026-words per day challenge as it represented about three days worth of the writing challenge.

The total word count for the day was 7400!

I am only about half a day behind on the challenge and I am confident that I can make that up over the next three days.

I will be sleeping in tomorrow for sure.