I’ve always preferred the ease of sheet cakes to the hassle of un-panning, stacking, and fussily frosting layer cakes, but I’ve figured out that if I make the layers, top-frost one in its pan, and wrap-and-freeze the other, not only do we not have to race to eat a ton of cake before it gets stale or soggy or everyone’s tired of it, but there’s also an emergency no-bake dessert ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice. So now I’m a fan of multiple small round cakes.
Which is to say, I made a carrot[efn_note]I didn’t have remotely near enough carrots, so I supplemented with a shredded sweet potato. Kiddo also had a minuscule amount of leftover crushed pineapple in the fridge, and although I’m generally anti pineapple in carrot cake, I threw that in to get rid of it. At this point, it should rightfully be called Fiber and Spice Cake, but whatever, it’s delicious.[/efn_note] cake for my birthday (and one for later!), and it was glorious.
Road trip! Road trip! Road trip! I think the allure of a fictional road trip for me is that every real long-distance journey in my life has been an absolute misery, so having an amiable companion and working together en route to a shared destination is the stuff of fantasy. I mean, Heroine and Hero are going to have a couple of near-death experiences and bicker some along the way, but they don’t hate each other when they get where they’re going.[efn_note]Lol, what a wild story that could never happen in real life! What an imagination![/efn_note]
Also, for storytelling purposes, travel is an equalizer. “On the road” is nobody’s home turf. Even a nomad, despite being well accustomed to being in constant motion, can’t claim the space they’re passing through. They might know there’s a stream beyond that landmark but not that it hasn’t rained since the last time they passed through months ago and the stream is dry. It’s not theirs to monitor. They’re not connected. When there’s no clear “I’m in charge because I have insider knowledge,” there’s not a power imbalance (or the power imbalance comes from elsewhere). Everybody’s observations of the environment may be important. Everybody’s skills may be necessary. Everyone is equally vulnerable to the dangers.[efn_note]The danger may manifest differently! A predator may only be interested in the smallest member of the party, but if a mountain lion eats the pint-sized ranger, the hulking palace guard is going to forage something poisonous and shit himself to death the next day. One keeps the other alive to keep the other alive and around we go.[/efn_note] Teamwork is nonoptional. Bonds must be forged and strengthened. What’s not to love?
There was an exchange I wanted to move to an earlier scene, and rather than do that while I was revising the earlier scene like a sensible person, I decided to cut and paste when I got to its present location. I realized I’ve gone way past where I thought that present location was. Turns out, it was dumped at the end of the previous draft, where I’d either written it originally because I wasn’t sure where to put it or where I’d cut-and-pasted it because it didn’t belong wherever I’d written it originally. And the moral of this story is: Leave detailed notes for Future Me because her reasonable assumptions rarely align with the convoluted nature of Present Me’s plan. Anyhoo, fixed now, and one less go-back-and nagging at me.
Made myself a challenge to “remind people of the physical space once per page.”[efn_note]”Physical space” including but not limited to tangible environmental elements, light, temperature, noise level, their clothing, et cetera and so on. Something like “she turned her face to the breeze” or “she tilted the letter so the weak light fell fully upon the words” can easily replace a lackluster speech tag while reminding readers of the surroundings. I just don’t think in those terms by nature because I realized at an early age bodies are a liability and ignore mine as much as possible. Makes writing sensory detail a bit of a challenge, but we persevere.[/efn_note] Not as something to be graded because “once per page” is going to shift depending on how it’s being read, but because I tend to grudgingly do my obligatory physical description at the beginning of a scene and ignore it thereafter because I DON’T CARE. Since I’m a (warning: made-up statistic pending) 2% minority among readers, I should probably do something about that if I’m serious about leveling up. Accordingly, commence Operation Interact with Setting on Every Page.
Fuel an author!