LIFE SHOULD BE IN FREE VERSE.

Things have been hectic, but are going well. Overall.

I have written a lot on the project K. and I are doing together.

Currently, I'm working on background material for the character of Marcel who most likely won't appear even just by name in the final novel, but whose presence is fundamental to K's character, JL, and thus we have to work out a lot of backstory for the two of them, Marcel and JL, in order to actually be able to eventually write the epistolary novel between JL and my other character, Marie-Claude.

So, I'm writing a lot of short stories, flash fiction and drabbles to define that backstory. And having a lot of fun with it! Marcel is one of my most favourite original characters and he's been extremely important to my creative writing for more than 10 years now.

So far, I've written 13 full short stories, plus an X-mas calendar of 24 200-word stories, plus a drabble of varying lengths for every day in October. It's been a ride.

I wrote his kinda "origin story" over summer, in a novella called "Only When It's Over" (after the Stromae song, Alors on Danse) and I love the result, so much that I've now made it my November project to translate/rewrite it into Danish. I've reread the story over the past weeks and made notes on what scenes to keep or change/scrap, so I'm ready for when the November writing madness begins next week.

K., although not as active writing-wise as me - mostly due to other obligations, such as work and piano practice, has been extremely supportive and read absolutely everything I've put out, chatted scenarios and set-up with me at all possible occasions, plus just made me realize how special a collab work like this can be.

Writing has always been a part of our relationship, but this is the most "serious" we've ever been about producing something more concrete together. I look forward to bringing it to fruition, but even if we never do? The process has been wonderful so far.

She surprised me yesterday when she got home from work.

She'd picked up a package from the post office on the way, and I thought it was something for herself, because she does a lot of online shopping, but when I turned around after putting away groceries, she held out this beautiful little Paperblanks notebook to me. It was in the design called "Holland Spring" and I had squeed about that little book just weeks earlier on Plurk, because I really wanted it for my Marcel translation/rewriting project.

Marcel has spent a majority of his life living in Amsterdam - and he is of Dutch heritage, although born and raised in Luxembourg. That was one reason that specific design seemed fitting. Another was that the naive style fits his always kinda simplistic/childish world view while I also kinda like the grit of him, the tattoos and the gunfire, contrasted by this cutesy, glittery cover.

It was perfect. And she was perfect, getting it for me, although I honestly already have too many notebooks, several mostly or totally empty ones that I could've used. I felt so seen and understood. I felt so encouraged and loved.

The feeling sits with me still.

October - or preptober as it's known in my usual writing circles - is over soon. Before that, I have at least one more Marcel short story to write (which I scribbled down the dialogue for today at open mic night), seven drabbles and a write-in to attend on Sunday for my Discord writing group's local writers.

And I feel on top of all that. Not just do I have energy for it, but I enjoy it right now. I know this can change very quickly, but until then I'm just basking in actually functioning relatively normally.

Hoping it will last all November. December can be whatever, but please let November be good. Writing God, I beg of you...

Past couple of weeks have been eventful, to say the least. K. has been sick, so I've had to tend to her a lot, which is fine, she deserves to have the burden of the practical stuff taken off of her when she isn't feeling well. However, for some reason, it's also meant I've been incredibly productive writing-wise. Maybe because the stress of being in charge of all chores and such had to go somewhere. Amount to something.

I've begun writing for K.'s and my original universe and I've written a lot. In a week and a half, approx., I've written:

2 Marie-Claude stories, each about 20 pages long
3 Marcel stories, each about 3 pages long

That's almost fifty pages in all, in two weeks. That's insane, even for me. I don't think I've ever written that much before, not in English, but this is my first time writing in Danish for a while and my writing speed might simply be different in my native language. The process of writing is definitely easier overall. Especially the Marcel stories, I pretty much just spit those out one a day.

I have two more stories lined up, I'd like to write here over the weekend. Both of them Marcel-centric, because that's the mood I'm in, apparently. It does help that K. is very enthusiastic about them and keeps asking me if she can read, whenever I've finished a new one.

I'm glad I can do something to take her mind off her situation right now.

We'll see how much writing time it amounts to today. We have to clean the apartment for the weekend, when K. is getting a friend over... tomorrow, I think. It's a friend we have in common, I've become friends with her through K. who's known her since kindergarten. So that'll be nice, but it does require some practical stuff done which, again, is on me at the moment.

So, I have to watch my energy. But hopefully... more writing.

Long story short, some drama happened in the roleplay circles I frequent and I have had to pull out of it a bit. I was sad about it for a couple of days, mostly because it triggered my old bullying issues from school, but it has also yielded some fruit that's actually very good, so now I feel better, haha.

My gf suggested than instead of RP, we should begin writing something together again, just the two of us. We have a slew of RP characters to choose from, and our talk naturally led us to picking two of the oldest ones, Jean Louis (gf's) and Marie-Claude (mine) and just having a lot of fun with discussing the epistolary novel we're going to write with them. In Danish.

This is the first time in years, I'll really be writing in Danish again. I think it'll be easier now that I don't have RP (in English) to distract me, so I can just focus on this other project. Also, writing with my gf always helps me keep up my motivation.

I'm excited.

While we get our ducks in a row for the novel, prepping and stuff, I've started writing a short story set in the same universe with Marie-Claude, and I'm having a lot of fun trying to capture her voice and speaking patterns in Danish, which makes her sound very different from how she's come to sound in English, but still meaning to give off the same vibe and show the same personality. It's a challenge! So far, it's just two scenes, written as a text exchange, but I have more planned and I like the pace I'm striking. Writing in small enclosed enclaves of time has always been difficult to me, I vastly prefer just working for hours at a time, but it's not good for me at length, so being able to work like this now is good.

Besides writing more on this short story, I also have plans of having some poems by Anise Koltz copied over into a document for a girl I know who's agreed to translate the original French into Danish for me, to use in the letters from Marie-Claude to Jean Louis. I love Anise Koltz and will probably make a separate post about her work later. Her vibe is very much the core of who Marie-Claude is as a character, so I use her writing a lot.

My gf has a lot of plans today, so I have to keep myself entertained. I'm going into town later to buy some stick-it notes and other office supplies, and then I'll be turning in some books that are due to the library.

Then, I'll write.