Tortoising Along

 You hear that? That's my distant shrieking because it's suddenly not-so-suddenly March now and I ought to make another blog post.

February felt like it lasted forever, mostly because it was so cold. It feels like I spent most of the month either obsessing over Pathologic 2 or up late at night, after Tim has gone to bed, trying to motivate myself towards some concrete, productive activity while chronically unable to maintain my body heat and wondering if spring actually will ever come, or if by some weird paranormal phenomena, it'll be like this forever. 

Then again, if I think back again on my last blog post, that was like...two weeks ago? Right? All these things I've been meaning to do I last engaged with approximately two weeks ago, right? I haven't been meaning to get back to my acrylic painting for more than a whole month, right???

My therapist tells me I'm not the only one: a lot of people are struggling with motivation right now. So I'm not the only one feeling incredibly disinclined to any movement of any sort, physically or metaphorically. Evidently it's an effect of a history-changing crisis persisting for over a year now.

Still, I'm trying! It's an uncoordinated, unplanned sort of trying, like a fish eating whatever bits of food float in front of its face.

The Worldbuilding Project

I meant to write a blog post after I was done the worldbuilding task I've been working on, but evidently that's going to be a while longer. I posted previously about my new concept for how to approach worldbuilding individual cultures. Well, I've been following through with this for the culture where the story of my supposed fantasy novel series starts, and it's been working surprisingly well! The one thing is I've had to add a fair bit to it, because I realized, mostly through doing research, that there were some areas I missed. Here's what it looks like for the moment:

1. ENVIRONMENT

Lifezones

Resources

2. POPULATIONS

[So, a rundown of the different beings that live in the area.]

3. RESPONSE TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Summary of Environmental Challenges

Addressing These Challenges

Food

Fire

Shelter

Clothing

3. SOCIETY

Values

Religion

Hierarchy

Law

4. LIFE IN SOCIETY

Birth

Growth

Sex

Health

Death

5. CULTURE

Music

Intoxicants

Leisure

Art

War

I'm not 100% the lifezones thing will always be there, it was just necessary because this particular area is a canyon, and similar enough to the Grand Canyon that I researched that to get a grasp on how the area would look. Turns out the Grand Canyon area consists of a bunch of diverse lifezones, and this needs to be accounted for in understanding the challenges of the environment.

Then as I was doing my research on the Grand Canyon I realized the specific challenges it presents and began to think of how a society might adapt to these challenges, so I decided to have a place to put a concise summary of these challenges and responses. This made a framework to reference as I moved on.

Lastly, I added the culture section because I realized that there were facets that didn't fit anywhere in particular. I figure that part is the mostly likely to experience growth. I know that a section about timekeeping needs to go in the skeleton somewhere, but I haven't decided yet where to put it.

All in all, my method worked for me! Investigating the climate and challenges of the area did generate a lot of ideas, and things have been flowing naturally from there. There are some blank spots, mostly because of the interconnectedness of any world: the area was once under a colonialist power, which left a lot of marks on the culture, and there are aspects of trade with other areas that need to be considered. The other big blank spot has to do with how sewage is handled because...I have no idea. I don't know what to do there. It may not matter to the reader, but I'd like to know!

I have also been researching the Havasupai of the Grand Canyon, mostly as a point of comparison, juggling two books which, though written by white men, were apparently approved and acclaimed by the Havasupai. The books in question are I Am the Grand Canyon and Havasupai Habitat. They've both been immensely informative and excellent reads beyond just their usefulness .

I don't want to culturally appropriate, of course, but it's been crucial to learn how actual people handle this kind of environment in real life, and how that might shape your philosophy. It was a pleasant surprise when my hypotheses about how people would adapt to the environment were correct, and equally pleasant to find circumstances where I was wrong. The last thing I'd want to do is get the wrong end of the stick and mischaracterize what life in any given environment would be like.

Ultimately, the culture I'm winding up with is vastly different from the Havasupai. Even so, my dream is to have a section at the back of this theoretical book, should it ever get published, where I can list my research and inspirations, so that people can seek context without thinking I invented certain food items or whatever when I was actually inspired by the real world and by real people.

(If anyone thinks my approach is problematic, I would love to hear about it. I strive to be respectful, but what do I know? I'm always willing to learn.)

Other Writing Tasks

The worldbuilding is what I've been spending a lot of time on for the past month or so. I'm still persisting with my crap manuscript from NaNoWriMo. Apparently, I stopped at exactly 88,000 words last night, go figure. Ideally that would be like...where the book is done. And I'm only maybe halfway through the story, or a little more...oops. I keep remembering things that I ought to have put in, such as maintaining that so-and-so is good at a certain kind of magic. Eventually, I'll learn to do this better. I've already got ideas on how to do it better.

I've been continuing with the short story game, but slowly. Editing feels insurmountable some days, I suppose because of the continual overwhelm. I've been stuck on at least three new stories, unsure what should come next, so I'm letting those ideas ferment.

Haven't been up to much else worth discussing, but I am writing six days a week without fail! I'm also drawing a lot and keeping up with my reading. Struggling with the meditation, though. 

The hope is writing will get a little easier when the weather warms up and I can sit out in the sun to write and my feet aren't cold all the time. We're getting there, slowly but surely.