So I’m not going to lie. I’m getting the Bilbo Baggins “butter scraped over too much bread” tired level today.

Still, I couldn’t leave you wondering what adventures befell me on Day 3 of the ProWritingAid conference.

So we’re speedrunning this. Clearly that’s the only logical choice here.

Day 3!

• Started with an author interview with Rachelle Atalla. Chatting about her book, set in a bunker. Has a lovely cover, even if it doesn’t sound quite my style. She actually reminded me of one of my creative writing teachers…
• Next was the World Anvil Software Demo. I got a Word Anvil account ages ago but haven’t used it much. The timeline function looks like it could save me an age of headaches though, considering my controversial decision to include multiple dimensions and time travel in the same WIP (muffled bookmarkedone villain laughter…what have I done?). Couple of other cool features on there too…it probably deserves another look. Also the panelists had a black cat that kept jumping into Forbes’ lap and being unceremoniously plopped back on the floor before it could steal the chat’s entire attention.
• Samit Basu author interview after that…had internet troubles again so missed a lot of this one, and was tired enough that I had trouble focusing on what was going on when I was there.
• Skipping over the fact that I crashed out after that and slept through the networking event…it’s been a week for your blogger, m’dears.
• I did channel Bilbo Baggins vibes again when I woke up. If you recall in the Fellowship, I think, he says he has the remarkable habit of waking up just in time for a meal. I snapped awake again six minutes before Save the Cat Writes Science fiction. Weird, but weird in a nice way because I didn’t want to miss that one.
• Save the Cat Writes Science Fiction! (see? I told you there’d be cats). If you are astute and read between the lines of my posts, you may have gathered that I am not a “planner” writer. I balk at outlines. I resist them to my core. But–in the spirit of applying a form retroactively…Save the Cat is brilliant. It makes so much sense to my weird writer brain, like a code, a formula for writing the perfect book. And I like codes and formulas. You can build puzzles with them far too intricate for any but the cleverest to hope to unravel. And then have the sticky notes app delete half your notes on the panel because it is spiteful and cruel…
• Last was “How to Craft the Perfect Dynamic Between Your Protagonist and Antagonist.” Had to attend this one because my relationship with writing antagonists is…complicated enough to warrant a post of its own. It was good, but not “Save the Cat” good.
• One of the moderators also has both a tabby cat and a little dog that were glimpsed in the background today. I think it’s a challenge for the chat to see who gets to say Everyone look there’s a cat pretty cat tell us it’s name first. No, I have not attempted to win this challenge.
• And there’s a Discord now! Apparently has been since the first day, but I just didn’t know about it. It’s nice, because the lively chatting was one of the things I really missed from LTUE–Zoom chat isn’t the same.

And…yeah. That’s all I’m going to say about today. Short little post, so thank you for reading. More interesting things happening tomorrow, so tune in again then.