friday.

Woke up at five today and had the final scene of my first chapter so clearly envisoned in my head, I had to get out of bed and just get it written. Which means I now have 2/7th of this fic done, with the prologue written and finally, the first chapter, ready to move on to the second.

We're at almost 10.000 words at this point.



I think I said yesterday, in evident tiredness, that the next part was called "Bargaining", well, it's not!! Hahaha, the next part is "Anger". It begins with Gennaro's vigil at the marina, a scene I'm really looking forward to writing - though, it'll be another of those scenes with a bunch of people gathered in the same place, so I have to strike the right balance between observation and internal monologue and focus on the main players. I find some comfort in how easily it went with the last scene of that kind, without me struggling too much, so I just need to write it on a day when I've got enough energy for it. Evidently not today. I'll save it for tomorrow when K. and I are going downtown. Maybe, if I have time today, I'll watch the beginning of act 3 of the ballet to get the right feel for the set-up. It's a scene where the people of Naples hold a vigil for Teresina whom they think has been lost at sea. So, similar.



Today I still have my set of chores and besides that, I'll try getting more of that Napoli plot synopsis translated for my artist welcome note which is honestly becoming more a letter than a note. I sincerely hope my artist likes to read... >_>



Also, at some point - probably my night - an author sign-up post should go up for smallfandombang and I'm so mightily excited about that, I can't even. Can't, can't, can't. Very much looking forward.



In the meantime, I may have gotten a second idea for a small fandom fic I wanna write. Which takes us back to my favourite fandom of all time, The Lady of the Camellias. I watched the beginning of the Bolshoi version of the ballet yesterday and never have a seen a Nanina who was as in lesbians with her mistress than that Nanina. She was also quite young for the role which is normally danced by a character dancer (40+) and it just gave me a massive plot bunny for a story where Nanina, after Marguerite's death and having handed over her diary to Armand, travels back to the village she hears her sister was from to try and find this sister and make her tell her about Marguerite as she was before Paris, because she wants to know the whole person, now that she has nothing of her left, except her memory. It could be an interesting story.



I don't know why I write about death that much these days, though??? Apparently that's just a thing that happens for me right now. Something to consider?

Or something to enjoy. It's such a bittersweet topic and always, always relevant.

friday.

We deep-cleaned the apartment after K. got home from work. Then, I made ribeye steaks pan-fried in garlic-infused butter and with oven-baked potatoes as a side, plus some fried tomatoes and mushrooms as a topping. It was super delicious and we sat at the table for literal hours, just chatting, about writing, about fandom, about her work... I wish more days could be like this, but that "everyday feel" seeps into it a lot, because work drains her and day to day is hard for me, too. So it's mostly on the weekends we've got time and energy for these types of deep-immersive conversations. I enjoy it so much. I really love her a lot and it's not like it surprises me, but it resurfaces like a pleasant reminder every now and again.



Author sign-ups went up for smallfandombang and I've signed up for possibly two fandoms. Napoli, I'm definitely going to write about, but if I have spoons and a little courage, I might sign up for a second fic, too. Maybe write that Lady of the Camellias thing I had in mind, with Nanina and Marguerite... We'll see. I might also just stick to the Napoli one, everything indicates it'll be novel length, so.



I really wanna get started on the second chapter tonight, but at the same time I'm (understandably) very tired and should probably do something a bit gentler for myself. Watch something. So many versions of Lady of the Camellias are available on YouTube, it's just a matter of picking and choosing. I could also rewatch Napoli... Choices, choices. This is where being tired never helped me, I was never very good a choosing what I wanted. My ideas change too much, too often. Even I can't quite follow suit.



Most likely, I'll end up editing something in the previous scenes of the fic, maybe start writing more on the Napoli welcome note for my future artist. Actually, that would be a good, relaxing idea. I might do that.



I have a wonderful cup of chamomile tea and some relaxing, lo-fi tunes in my ear. Life is starting out just right for September.