I managed to write about 10,000 words towards the first draft of my new novel this weekend. That's very good progress. I'm not trying to write the chapters in order but jumping back and forth to different spots based on my outline and writing different scenes. It's not ideal, because it means I'll have a lot more material I'll have to throw out and write anew in later drafts. But it's important to get this thing rolling and stop wallowing in hopelessness. For the final draft I've set a personal due date of March 1, 2024. This will give me about one year from when I started writing the first draft. I think that's a reasonable, practical goal.

I called in sick to work on Thursday night. I work nights, and I work a four-day week of ten-hour shifts. I called in sick because I was having trouble sleeping. I call in sick a lot less than I used to, this was just the first time I've called in sick this year. The last time I called in sick to work was in August of last year. That's not counting a couple of days I missed in December because I couldn't drive to work due to snow. Because of my substantially improved attendance, my income last year was significantly higher than the year before. I'm hoping that trend will continue.