Today was a slow day. Got to get up late – 7am – because I had to go to the doctor’s for a physical and some bloodwork. Stuff I needed for the new job. Got that done, then off to work. I got there about 10:30. Work is…a little confused right now. But the folks there seem nice, and I’m giving things a little while to settle down. Trying to learn what I can about how they do things; it’s always a little different everywhere.
So I was there until about 3:30pm, then headed for home. The drive took over half an hour, and I got in a bit after four. Was tired and a little out of sorts (from the rather disorganized day), so I hit the computer for email and a little surfing. Talked with my wife about getting the Rome: Total War 2 deal. I’m fond of the series – nice blend of strategy, tactics, and long term planning. And the deal I’d seen for about a quarter off with the first expansion free was still running, even though it was supposed to have stopped when the game released September 3rd.
Yeah, I like computer games sometimes. I try not to spend TOO much time playing them, but they’re a fun diversion.
So I got the green light to buy the game, and started it downloading. About halfway through the VERY long download, I ran out of steam. Just too tired to stay awake, so I napped for a while while my wife made dinner. She woke me up just before it was done, and I served everyone.
By the time dinner was done, it was around 7pm, and I was back upstairs, talking with Susan and trying to get the game to load up. I loaded it. It crashed. Hard. Rebooted my computer. Loaded it again, got to play for a short while, but it crashed as I was entering my first battle. Again, had to reboot my desktop. Guessing I have something set too high for the computer to handle, and I’ll have to turn the settings down. My computer isn’t some sort of gaming monstrosity; it’s just a decent desktop. So I’ll fiddle with it another time. Checked into Kindleboards briefly, and then watched some TV with my wife for an hour after getting the kids to bed at 9pm.
At 10pm, I started writing, and got an hour in. Oddly, I found I had to do some quick research in the middle of the writing. That’s unusual for me, but I realized I knew darn little about the African campaign in WW2, and that I needed at least a broad frame of reference for the story. So I spent maybe half an hour getting the general overview. I’ll do more in depth reading later, and make corrections in the text if I am off on any specifics. But mostly I am shying away from specifics – the story is set in the modern day, so all I need are broad strokes from the war.
All in all, I got a little over a thousand words done. My lowest wordcount yet. But I’m still doing a good job, overall, for monthly count. I am noticing a trend of downward movement in daily fiction counts, though, so it’s something I want to keep an eye on. Need to get the work done, even if I’m coming home a little tired. That’s the challenge, of course!
Totals for Day 4
Daily Fiction Wordcount: 1000 words Month to date fiction: 9450 words
Daily Blog Post Wordcount: 595 words Month to date blog posts: 3328 words