This week was productive. I got the revision process well underway, taking a good look at my antagonist’s arc first. I feel like it’s important to start with the antagonist, because if you don’t have a good antagonist to challenge them, how can your hero shine? If you look at a lot of stories’ structures, you’ll notice that for a good chunk of the first two acts, the hero is reacting to the antagonist, so if that character’s actions and motivations are muddy, it can really weaken your plot.

Also, I learned that if I want to properly motivate myself to clean my apartment, all I need to do is have coffee after 5 PM (which I normally NEVER do). By the time 9 o’clock rolled around, I found it entirely too difficult to sit still and settle down, so everything got dusted and scrubbed until I finally felt like I could sleep. It took a couple hours.

I’ve also managed to do a pretty decent job of eating actual meals so far this year and less microwaved junk, as per my resolution, so I’m feeling good about January. As long as I can keep up the streak one more week and the revising also continues to move forward steadily, I will have actually made it one month with both my resolutions.