haha it's a good thing i didn't make this post the day i meant to · 2:24am Jun 2nd, 2017
Boy would I have looked the fool. A couple weeks ago I intended to make a big ol' post highlighting some realizations I'd come to after doing some writing—yes writing, you read that correctly. Here, look: 
The only problem here is uh, heh, that's all stuff for two chapters in advance. I had an exciting new idea fresh in my head so I had to get it all out.
That was all before things went pear-shaped for Tofu. Anyone creeping my userpage will have noticed that before today I was gone for a week or so. Well there's a reason for that and I've provided a nice succinct list after telling my story to several friends:
•
I’m inI was in the process of moving, I’ve been in this process for the month of May due to unfavorable weather.• I was given until June 1st to be out of the house by the new owner of the building.
• On Tuesday the 23rd I came home from work and opened my door to find an empty house, but for a bedframe, my grandmother’s TV stand and one very panicked cat.
• Upon questioning the landlord’s hired help, all parties pleaded ignorance despite the fact that only two people have a key to the apartment. I later found that the majority of my furniture had been thrown into a dumpster and everything else had been jammed into a vacant garage on the property.
• After showing me to my property and again pretending not to know how the objects got there, one such worker contacted the landlord at my behest and a conversation of feigned ignorance ensued while I listened on.
• Upon crossing the street and talking to my good neighbor who always has an eye (and a security camera) out, he confirmed that the landlord and his lackeys had been moving my things out of the house all day and suggested that I call the police.
• The landlord arrives and my temper boils over; I question his ability to use a telephone. Why couldn’t he contact me and give me an ultimatum?
• In some harebrained attempt at a psychological ploy, the landlord implies that I myself moved my property into his locked garage and dumpster. He informs me that it will cost money to empty the dumpster.
• I duly inform him that I’ve been at work all day, what he’s implying is literally impossible. He suggests I did it at night.
• I lose my temper again. He gets in my face and tells me that I should get off his property because I haven’t paid my rent for 4 months (my mother actually owed the previous landlord rent but she'd worked out a deal to pay extra per week to catch up, this new guy has owned the building for a total of one month at this point and would brook no such deal; I never signed a lease as I informed him I would be moving out) I tell him I’m calling the police.
• The landlord then tells me to “Go ahead and do whatever the fuck you want” and throws a cigarette butt at me, sends his goons away.
• The police arrive and do not take a statement, nor file a police report. I am told by the officer, verbatim: “So… what do you want me to do? I can’t do anything, it’s a civil matter. You can call a lawyer but I can’t do anything.”
• Once the officer leaves, the landlord offers me a “deal.” Drafts a paper saying that he will not charge me a storage fee for my belongings as long as I remove them from his garage in a timely manner.
• With the help of my dad, my move is hastened by a week and I rush to get myself settled at my new place in my relatives’ house.
• The dang cable’s been turned off because of a payment error and that’s why I’ve been gone that whole time. This whole ordeal with the landlord lasted two days.
But enough about IRL problems, that's not what you're here for. Allow me to steer back to the realization I had a couple weeks ago. I discovered that a big part of my problem with this whole thing is the very same problem I've always had rearing its ugly head again. I'm getting way too hung up on wordcount. It was a huge problem of mine when I first wrote Outlaw which led to a lot of bloat and unnecessary padding. It was something I resolved to correct when I started the rewrite which is why a lot of the early chapters had shorter wordcounts. I fell back into that rut without realizing and the anxiety of meeting some arbitrary number of words dammed up the creative juices. Now that I know my problem I can venture to say I'll take efforts to quash it and get down to business for real this time. It might mean short chapters but hopefully no one will mind too much if I can keep the pace up.
New motherfucking chapter by the end of the month or I'll eat my 3D printed Mach figurine and put it on youtube.
Dear lordy that's quite the promise. Can't wait, and good luck!
Honestly, I've been reading some real(tm) books lately, and can't help but laugh at how short some chapters are. Like, its not a bad thing. Its just the way books are paced when they're being looked at as a complete whole - sometimes all a chapter is, is three pages or so... and that's fine.
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Ye most novels average 60-100k words total on the larger side of things. Me, I love the Dresden Files. A lot of my style is inspired by Jim Butcher's and I re-read the entire series recently. Most novels in the series run shorter than a third of FoE's entire length.
Damn...and.. the police could do shit, that's breaking an entering, he has no right to enter your house like that, not to mention damage to your property, and the flicking the cigarette butt at you is assault. Fuck those assholes.
Also YAY! Tofu back!
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I never went anywhere. :c
That landlord would do great in corporate.
Fuck corporate.