November 2023 Update
Well, I probably shouldn’t have bought that Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild—that is certainly going to cut into my productivity. But you know what? I don’t care. It’s fun. And I could use more fun in my life right now.
The infusions for MS went great. The worst side effect/infusion reaction was a slight headache. So other than the general discomfort of having an IV in for six hours, nothing even close to remotely complain about. In fact, they gave me a steroid in the cocktail of drugs before the actual infusion and the next day I felt great. Was moving much more easily without all the aches and pains. I talked to my GP about doing that before ski trips, so now I have renewed hope that skiing won’t be slipping away from be so dramatically as before. We’ll see—I’ve learned to be cautious that hope side of the equation.
In regards to writing, I am chipping away at MK2, but its slow going. I’m running into the typical problem all pantsers have when writing: where to go next. I deal with this fairly regularly so I know how to solve it. But there’s a new dimension of fatigue with MS where I’m like “man, that feels like a lot of work” and it takes some wind out of my sails. But I am creature of routine and that is saving me right now. Every morning around 4 am I’m at the laptop for 15-30 mins to chip away at it. And progress is being made! I estimate I’m about 2/3rds the way through the first act. Which means I need really need to figure out the first plot point.
So, my target is to have the first act wrapped up by the new year. That should be plenty of time, but while it’s certainly true that inspiration follows hard work, there’s no hard and fast rule on when that inspiration will show up in the middle of all that hard work.