So here we are, back on track once more. I've even got a script all ready for Friday as well, so there ought to be no problems with that comic either. And if I can remember the length of the weekend, there should be no difficulties in the week following. That is dependent on my memory, however, which has proven itself unreliable on a fairly regular basis. Reliably unreliable, I suppose one might say. There's a good reason I have to keep a checklist of things to do at work. If I didn't I'd just forget what the hell I was supposed to be doing, and I'm pretty sure that employers don't pay employees to sit around staring thoughtfully at their Twitter feed, willing it to update with something, anything that might cause a slight flicker of amusement.

Luckily, I've had no days like that yet at my new job. They keep me plenty busy, but it's a humane sort of busy that still allows for the little necessities. Like, say, going to the bathroom.

I'm enjoying being able to write prose on a regular basis once more without feeling like I'm going to throw up afterwards. I've got a pretty steady output going right now, even though it's only perhaps a half-page per day. And considering that that's on a project that I haven't seen to in over a year, I'm even more pleased. With this particular story, though, I had a few extra problems on top of my writing-exhaustion to deal with. One was that I had no idea how to wrap the damn thing up. Luckily, I was able to talk that through with Sarah (though she evidently does not recall the conversation...oh well, she'll be surprised!), so that solved one of the problems.

The other problem that I had was that...well, I started freaking out over how long the damn thing was getting. It crested a hundred pages some time ago, and I usually only write things that fit firmly into the "short story" category. So I was feeling the weight of all that work coming down on me, and wasn't sure if I could keep it up. You'd think that the hard part would be done with in just getting the damn thing that far, but I kept finding myself held back out of fondness for the characters--characters that I had gotten to know very well over the past hundred-plus slices of virtualized dead tree and in a story set previous to it as well, and who I didn't want to somehow miswrite in my hamhanded efforts at continuing the chain of events that had been set in motion.

Well, that's a silly worry in my case, because characters I create--so long as I listen to my gut, and by extension to them--always refuse to do things that are outside the realm of their personality and that are not fitted to their current circumstances. They're very good about letting me know, so long as I pay attention. And it also comes down to me getting away from academic writing for a while, too. I no longer have to worry about writing a story that fits someone else's angsty, edgy, detail-drowned definition of "good". I just have to write something that I like, and that's enough.

So anyway, in conclusion: ROW, ROW, FIGHT THE POWAH!