Hello There Friends!

Ah yes. June. Usually the beginning of freedom for most. For me, it was the beginning of crunch time.

Blog Post?

Unfortunately, I’m missing this month’s blog post as well. I wish I hadn’t already used up my backup posts last year when I was super sick, because I’m out of extra posts to put up in case this kind of thing happens. It’s frustrating.

And it’s not like June’s post doesn’t exist! I have 940 words written of my post! I was actually set to finish my draft by June 25th. However, right around the 20th, I had to focus on my research paper.

Aaaaaaaaand one of the two writing projects is going to let me graduate. Thus did I put my post on the back burner.

I’m hoping that once I get my major writing in by this Wednesday, I can focus on this post. I’m hoping I can get it out next weekend with the holiday coming up. I’m a little nervous about this post, because I use critique of a well-known and beloved fantasy character to critique anti-intellectualism in our stories.

In the meantime… Enjoy this old blog post that’s in the same vein as my upcoming post! http://gettingthesciencewrite.com/2023-Species-In-Fantasy/

How’s the Research Paper Coming?

I’d say the paper came at an incredibly inopportune time. I hit “burnout” about a month ago, and have been puttering along trying to redo an entire figure’s worth of experiments (and it’s not a minor figure in my paper) while trying to push out some jumble of a draft.

However, this is a moment to dive into how I work for the blog, because currently treating this paper like a blog post is the best way for me to pump out words!

(I thought I took pictures of some of my draft, but it looks like I didn’t save those photos. Sooooooo use those imaginations!)

At the moment, if I stare at a blank page on the computer, nothing comes. Fingers ain’t moving. However, if I look at blank physical piece of paper, I can start scribbling. I don’t start from beginning, I jump around section by section. I know that sounds maddening, but it’s how my brain works. I can write sections, and then I leave room for transitions.

The funny thing is: I don’t move the sections around. I still have an overarching story I want to tell like I talked about in the last newsletter, but I like tackling sections that I feel inspired to write in the moment. It’s better to get something on the page rather than struggle to write chronologically.

Think of it like instead of painting the foreground first, then middle, and finally background, I like to paint the flowers in this corner, and then the clouds over in the other corner, and then work on this puddle in the middle, until it all comes together into one cohesive work.

How’s Cycling Going?

I’m so happy to announce that I’ve been working with coach Sarah Kaufmann since February to regain the cycling that I lost from celiac disease last year! She’s awesome! She kicks my butt with her workouts, but I’m already seeing results.

I’ve gotten back up to 4.5 hours of cycling! Considering 2 hours was originally my limit, I’m so happy!

Is it frustrating to have to work back up to 4 hours? Admittedly, yes. I’d give my left kidney to regain my cycling fitness from 2022. But it’s coming together. Cylcing legs are coming back, slowly. I don’t expect to really regain my cycling legs until well into next year or even the year after that. But dang, does Sarah know how to build up endurance! (Thank you coach!)

How’s The Dragon Story Coming?

It’s been fun! I’m embracing my “Dianna Wynn Jones” style of hilarious storytelling. If you don’t know who that is, look up “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Dark Lord of Derkholm". Her stories are some of the funniest I’ve come across in years and I’m working through her library audiobooks while I work.

I’m actually going to share some “behind-the-scenes” here! I started working on the world map the other day. It’s very bare, as I was figuring out how to use this style in Inkarnate (and the world map is not important at all to this first story: it comes into play in the later book, but for book 1, we only need to know general locations).

As you can probably tell, the main location for book 1 is the university: Draco Marcach (still debating if that name is going to change in the final draft). Actually, all names are considered placeholders right now. I’m also struggling to figure out the appropriate coloring for this map. I don’t usually touch the parchment style.

Do I need to work on the map for this project? Nope, but it was a good excuse to test out some of Inkarnate’s features.

This is a bit more bare than I was expecting. Unfortunately, PhD be PhD-ing at the moment. A lot of my scicomm projects have been put to the side. However, you may hear more about my science DnD adventure soon!

That’s a wrap for June!

-Becca