Priya SridharOur first question, as always, is how are you doing? What is bringing you joy? #writephant
I did work today (normally I have Mondays off) so I feel accomplished and also wiped. Making a present for the baby nephew is bringing me joy. #writephant
ElektraHowdy!
Today my joy is coming from anticipation. [Damn it--I just gave myself an earworm. I'm going to be humming Sweet Transvestite the rest of the night]
Our visitor kitty, Fuzzbutt, is going into general population tomorrow. His vet check worked out--hopefully he'll get along with the gang. We're still not sure what his owner's illness is . . .
Also, I found a local Mah-jongg event I look forward to investigating.
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist#Writephant 2026.0326 — Ok Day Questions 1-4 Answered En Masse
Our theme, since it is OK Day, is being ok and okay! Who feels ready to talk about both?
Sure, I'll give it a go! Sorry. Late. Gathering tax document. Good excuse, huh? 🤪
Our first question, as always, is how are you doing? What is bringing you joy?
Writing. Been making progress both adding story and revising the WIP. Getting "incomplete" completed.
A1. To you, what does it mean to be okay? Or ok?
Able to think clearly, not hurting or ill, not being down on myself, energy to do stuff.
A2. Are okay and ok the same? Or different? Why?
No, they are different. Literally, 4 letters vs 2. As far as meaning, they are the same. Usage-wise, "okay" is more formal. For use in SF literature, either are ok [pun intended], but if the story is making a point about language, or the language is not actually English, "ok" is not okay because "ok" is literally the sound of the letter O and the letter K transcribed; if those sounds aren't available in the language being spoken… Enough said. In my WIP, I use "all right" instead, and in fantasy I'd definitely use "okay" instead of "ok" to escape sounding too colloquial. Better yet, I'd use "all right." Of course, it is never ok to use both spellings of ok and okay in the same work, unless you're discussing diction and semantics. Like now. I consider consistency a virtue.
A3. We always ask how you are doing on Mondays; how are you doing in general? Would you say you’re okay?
Today, pretty okay. I'm ever so slightly mind fogged, which is okay. Starting to feel yesterday's workout. Psychologically, I'm more okay than average since I realized something important recently. Stretching and exercise multiple times a week is important to my general health, since I'm in my late 60s, and whilst doing it I used to also listen to my phone reading back my recent chapters. Because I'd be tempted to stop an exercise to correct errors as I heard them, an hour of stretching and exercise could easily stretch to three with the interruptions. So I stopped listening. Buzz! Wrong answer! I realized I felt progressively divorced from my stories, worried whether what I wrote was any good. Yesterday, I decided I really wanted to listen. Wow, those last two iffy spicy chapters turned out more perfect than I could have hoped. Instant high. Sometimes intuition is…
Wait for it…
More than okay? 😋
A4. Excluding a million dollars before taxes and not having systematic hate affecting our lives, what positive change would help you be more than okay?
I'm getting things done that I had been putting off. ("Don't wanna" sound familiar?) I'm getting more writing done, and completing the current project and beta read edit done would be good. These require discipline and I'm working on that. Okay?
But, I sense, that's not the question here. The question is more of a wish-it-were-true…
I really want my spouse's structural health to be better so we can go traveling again. That'd be a real boost.
Self-promo time!
No publications, per se, so I'll highlight these posts I'm very proud of.
Discussion of the Odyssey and how it relates to story telling by a bard at the inn in your fantasy story: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116275516114434935
Understanding the word "Indoctrination": https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116275099039503403
An amazing picture I took: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116270102419678635
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Thank you. I studied folklore and mythology at university and the story came up a lot. I did have to look up the details. The Odyssey is an example of epic poetry that could be chunked down so that the facts of the story, the plot, and the characters could be memorized such that a bard could use formulas to generate the poetry for the retelling the story to an audience, maybe with musical accompaniment. It was a living. If you ask then wasn't the story different at each retelling? Yes. *The poetry was.* The Odyssey we consider canon now is essentially a snapshot taken of a living oral tradition that existed solely in the minds of generations of live storytellers. Like a bear mounted in a natural history museum, the Odyssey in print is now equally as dead and immutable as that bear. #fantasy #writers should take heed and provide that level of verisimilitude when depicting a night at the inn. #writer #author #writingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #RSessay