Author Journey (August 15, 2022)
I cannot catch a break! Last week was supposed to be the perfect week to finally get some writing done and in typical fashion, it quickly fell apart and became my least productive week this year. Frustrated!
August 15, 2022
Hot Topic
It was supposed to be just me and Gus for a whole week. Admittedly, it did coincide with my busy period at work, but I should have had lots of free time in the evenings. Should. Have… Everything quickly unravelled and my gift week disappeared. I needed to fly out of town on short notice and couldn’t take Gus. I spent several days trying to find somewhere for him to stay for a couple of nights.
Of course, it’s the summer holidays here so everywhere is booked up. Luckily, I was able to find a neighbour that would look after him. That ate into my work time, which meant my work ate into my evenings and poof… my time was gone. The real kick here is that I was flying out of town to spend two days driving back. That’s right, it was an eighteen-hour road trip over two days. Oh well, maybe this week will be better…
What have I been watching/reading?
I started watching another series. It’s an older show that requires no thinking whatsoever so it was the ideal thing to unwind after the busy and stressful days I had. I only managed to watch four episodes in a week though so that might give you an idea of how crazy a week this was. For the last three weeks, I averaged fifteen episodes a week.
That means I’ve still not finished reading Sankarea: Undying Love which is the main thing outstanding from my scheduled posts for 2022. Admittedly, I do have a good buffer thought with 119 scheduled posts and 69 scheduled pages. I do have plenty of time to play with, so no need to panic yet.
Anyhow, here’s a quick look at what I posted last week.
One of my fears with Record of Ragnarok has come to pass. It’s the second episode and we’ve barely seen much fighting at all. Lots of flashbacks and pontificating, but very little in the way of actual fights…
We got to see the Ishvalan extermination in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it was horrific. Alex Armstong practically broke down and I can understand why!
Finally, the best girl in Fire Force gets some screen time and I’m not saying I dedicated a gallery just to Maki at the end of the post, but I might have…
It’s all about Teela in Masters of the Universe: Revelation and that can only be a good thing. However, I have concerns about the script and the target audience for this series. It looks like Castlevania, but it doesn’t feel like it.
And don’t forget about my super secret ecchi line of posts! Shush.
Work in Progress
I talked about the previous week being a bust in terms of writing and this was even worse as I had almost no time for blogging either. I did grab my first drafts of my Valiant Lineage series that I wrote several years back and stuck them on my phone so I could read some on the plane. It’s 260,000 words long… and that’s just to the halfway point in the story. I’m really enjoying it so far, although the inner editor keeps trying to edit things when it needs a complete rewrite.
After the disappointment that has been the summer so far, my parents are now here and I’m certain will do a better job of occupying the kids. So, I’m cautiously optimistic about being able to write again. I’m not sure what I’m going to work on just yet, but I have enough options that I can play the hot hand when it strikes. I really need to see some progress. Motivation doesn’t come before work, it’s the process that keeps it going.
The Plan
I’ve got more than enough to keep me busy, but I’m going to try to focus on reading Sankarea: Undying Love and writing. My gut tells me that I should get back to work on Valiant Lineage as this will be what I would consider my signature series, but it’s also very long and will take some time to get done. That’s why a quick win like Out of Time or MSR would be a nice way to get the ball rolling. Decisions, decisions!
Posts
- 2022
- Quarter One
- Author Journey – 13/13
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Seasonal Anime – 36/36
- Ecchi Anime – 14/14
- Bonus Posts – 18/18
- Quarter Two
- Author Journey – 13/13
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Ecchi Anime – 39/39
- Seasonal Anime – 3/3
- Bonus Posts – 1/1
- Quarter Three
- Author Journey – 7/13 (+1)
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Fire Force S2 – 9/12
- Ecchi Anime – 39/39
- Bonus Posts – 4/4
- Quarter Four
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Historic Anime – 30/39
- Ecchi Anime – 39/39
- Bonus Posts – 5/6
- Quarter One
- 2023
- Quarter One
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Review Posts – 47/78 (+3)
- Review Pages – 15/39 (+3)
- Quarter Two
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Review Posts – 2/78
- Review Pages – 0/39
- Quarter One
It ended up as a tough week, but I did manage one post a day which means I’m not going backwards.
Writing
- MSR (Paranormal Harem Rom-com)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Valiant Lineage (Epic Dark Fantasy)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Black Death (Post Apocalyptic Shoujo AI)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Asteroidea (Horror Science-fiction)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Out of Time (Time-travel Murder Mystery)
- Chapters – 7
- Words – 7,423
Nothing, but I did do some reading of Valiant Lineage and that’s helping.
Final Thoughts
Well, it’s back to work for me. I’m frankly exhausted from last week and the summer so far, so I’ll be hoping for some real change over the next couple of weeks. The hardest thing is the constant interruptions. I’m determined to accomplish something this year and get my author career going again. Keep your fingers crossed for a more positive update next week.
Anyhow, thanks for reading.
Sorry to hear about the unexpected work demands! I mean, sure, it’s good to have a job. But couldn’t it take it easy for one week?
Like you said, interruptions are the worst. You start to pull the threads together, then an interruption throws you back to square one. Or worse. Because now you’re starting to tire. After the second and third interruption, depending on how well-rested you started out as, it’s over.
And who has the time to ever be well-rested?
I hope this week is better for you!
Thanks. It’s been a tough time for everyone and there just doesn’t seem to be any letting up. It feels like it’s something I’m just going to have to find a way to power through, because I’ll end up waiting and waiting and the perfect time will never come.
We’re in that awful catch 22 situation where you need some time to rest, but then you feel like you’re wasting time that could have been spent on something else, but then you’re also too tired to do it…
Yeah, I’m hoping for a little bit of a break from the norm.