Just a short note this evening. I think my writer’s block of the last couple of months is finally starting to come unstuck, all thanks to the Muses.

Over the weekend I managed to finish a chapter of the Silmarillion fan-fiction novel I’ve been poking at for a long time. Might be able to push that forward a bit more smoothly in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been fairly successful in using FATE to rework the plot of The Curse of Steel. I’m using the game as a structure to work out setting, characters, and plot, and it seems to be effective. It’s unabashedly a brain-hack, something to keep my creative mind focused on actually producing story rather than slipping back down the rabbit-hole of purposeless speculation and world-building. A little more work on that project and I may be able to re-write the first quarter or so of the draft novel without pause.

Every evening I try to set aside an hour or two before bedtime to make some forward progress. Cross my fingers that it keeps coming together.