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Author Journey (August 5, 2024)

Author Journey 2024 08 05 The Otaku Author

And, I’m back! After four weeks in Europe, I’m ready to get back to work and have a revived desire to put my focus back on my writing.

Author Journey (August 5, 2024)

Favourite Moment!

I’ve had a lot of time to think over the last four weeks and that’s helped me realise where my priorities need to be. Luckily, I was already working towards it with the shift I made so that I could keep posting while I was away. The next five years will be huge for me as I focus on following my original dream of making a career as an author.

Reading, Writing, Watching!

I’ve continued to read Mushoku Tensei and am closing on the end of the third volume. It has definitely given me a lot to think about as I focus on my stories. I’ve struggled with perfectionism for a while so seeing a story that breaks so many rules and isn’t necessarily well-written (or translated) has reminded me about what is important – characters and story. Of course, I’m not advocating for poor spelling and grammar. That needs to be as good as possible, but obsessing over a sentence that someone will read in a fraction of a second really is a waste of time.

Anime!

Manga!

Aspirations for the week!

My initial goal is to get a five-year plan sorted out that covers everything that I want to achieve. On top of that, I need to get back into the swing of things with this site. I have a couple of posts to take care of urgently and I’m also back to work with the day job. That said, I’m recharged and refreshed from my vacation and ready to get on with things. There’s lots to do but I’m excited about the possibilities. Thanks for reading.

Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header
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8 Comments

  2. “but obsessing over a sentence that someone will read in a fraction of a second really is a waste of time.”

    Have you ever read Chris Fox’s Write to Market? He mentioned an experiment he ran. He paid a ton for proofreaders for one book; on the next, he paid considerably less. To your point “I’m not advocating for poor spelling and grammar,” he wasn’t willing to just let stuff slip; but he wanted to see if they increased spend would translate either to sales or a higher rating.

    There are a ton of variable, of course. But he concluded that an emphasis on perfection didn’t increase sales or reader satisfaction — just as you suspected. I thought that was very interesting!

    And welcome back!

    • That reminds me of Michael Anderle’s early books. He was all about minimum viable product. He ignored the rules and wrote them how he wanted to. They were a little too minimum viable product for me (I couldn’t get past the head-hopping) but he obviously did very well.

      And the thing is we can hire all the proof readers in the world and still end up with a typo on page one. I’m talking about Mushoku Tensei as that’s what I’m reading now, but it’s certainly not the first traditionally published book that I’ve seen typos in.

      And thanks, it’s good to be back!

  4. Welcome back and may you’ll be able to make your characters and story come to life within those pages. I too also must not lose confidence seeing how worldbuilding (though that’s sometimes an important writing element) and tropes aren’t exactly original in my ongoing series. I’m also trying to make the characters and story be as interesting as it can be though that depends on the subgenre my series has.

    P.S. My younger self would never expect my current self writing such subgenre because it might’ve been an unenthusiastic one for her and that I’m not exactly a dedicated gamer irl.

    • I know how you feel. I never would have expected to write rom-com, but I’ve got one in the works and several more ideas for them. I take the same approach to writing as I do to watching and reading. I’ll give anything a try. And to that point, if you get the characters right, you can tell any story you want.

What did you think?

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