Author Journey (February 26, 2025)
After making some big changes to my posting schedule, I started to see the benefits almost immediately… And that is exactly what the universe is waiting for. As soon as you’re feeling confident the big hit comes in from the blindside!
Author Journey (February 26, 2025)
What happened?
All right, so it wasn’t exactly a big hit and it’s not outside the realms of normalcy at the moment, but it was incredibly frustrating to see a week’s worth of buffer vanish so soon after completing it. At least, I know that it will be possible to build a good buffer. I just need the Real-Life Family Events to slow down. Anyhow, this is the first of the fortnightly Author Journey posts and it was originally supposed to come out on Monday, but as you can see that didn’t happen. In fact, Tuesday was going to be the next possible day and that didn’t happen either. Basically, I’ve had one Real-Life Family Event-free day in the last two weeks. It’s been a little overwhelming.
How is it going?
1. Health
As you might expect, things haven’t quite gone to plan here. I have had four days over ten kilometres in February, however, my average for the month is currently sitting at eight kilometres. My daily average for the year has increased a small amount, but I need to start pushing things harder in order to meet my goal. Despite the Real-Life Family Events, I have been sleeping more, which should be considered a win. However, my Apple watch has highlighted something which explains why I’m not waking up refreshed and relaxed. The amount of Deep Sleep that I’m getting is not even close to enough. Weirdly, I find I get more Deep Sleep if I wake up, move around for a little while and then go back to sleep. Maybe, I need to consider biphasic sleep where you wake for a couple of hours, do some stuff and then go back to bed. I could certainly think of some things to do.
Goal: 10 km daily average, Current status: 7.9 km daily average.
2. Writing
I finished listening to Story by Robert McKee and enjoyed it enough to dive straight into the sequel – Dialogue. This one is much longer and obviously all about dialogue. The examples have been fascinating and it’s made me want to rewatch some classic movies and TV shows. My biggest problem I have is that he’ll say something interesting, I’ll remember a part in my stories that uses a similar method and then I’m lost in thought for a while instead of listening to the audiobook. I’m probably going to have to listen to them again. Anyhow, I’ve not done any writing, but I have been back in all of my worlds reliving my favourite moments and I can’t wait to get back to writing… as soon as I’m able.
Goal: Publish a book, Current status: Pretty sure I know which book to start on!
3. Art
I was sure that I would find a little more time once I switched my weekly schedule to a fortnightly schedule, but that didn’t work out this time. Maybe I’ll have better news next time!
Goal: Complete artwork for my book, Current status: Desperate to draw!
4. Watching
Well, the drought has ended again, however, I only managed to watch one episode in the last two weeks. I’m so far behind with all the seasonal shows and there are a lot I want to catch up on. I need to watch more, maybe during the ‘Watch’ which is what they used to call the gap between periods of sleep in medieval times.
Goal: Watch more than 629 episodes of anime, Current status: 3 episodes watched
5. Reading
Reading continues to be my best area as I read nine volumes of manga over the last two weeks. I finished Gunbured x Sisters and read all that is available for Parallel Paradise, Dandadan, and Honey Trap Shared House. So, for the next while, I’ll be keeping on with How Not to Summon a Demon Lord and I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet while adding back an anime series. Hopefully, I can push on and build a nice buffer again. Maybe, then I’ll look at adding extra days back in, but at the moment, that’s a way off.
Goal: Read more than 159 manga volumes, Current status: 27 volumes read
6. Blogging
In my last Author Journey, I revealed that I was going to spread my usual schedule, which was one week long, over two weeks going forward. It was definitely the right call given how crazy things got. I was relieved to not have as much pressure from this side of things for a while. My plan is to one day add more days in again, but I also need to make it an easy process. I’m not going to overload myself again, especially as I need to be writing more.
Goal: Publish 365 posts, Current status: 48 posts
What are you planning?
I’m going to keep things as they are on the blogging front with four posts a week with one Author Journey every two weeks. I was pleased with how it went even if this post got a little delayed. After the recent tax-free period in Canada, I have increased the size of my personal manga library so I have a lot to get through before I can buy any more without feeling guilty. So, I hope to keep reading at a good rate and build a nice comfy buffer of posts. Once I’m far enough into the future, I’ll start adding other days rather than going too far. Of course, that is providing there is a balance with my writing. As a result of the audiobooks I’ve been listening to, I have a real drive to rediscover my stories and push them to be the best they can.
It’s been a far from perfect start to the new routine, but it is definitely more manageable. It’s shown me that I can keep the blog going without pushing myself too hard for too long. Hopefully, things will get calmer in my day-to-day life which will help me to do more of the things that I want to do. Things that I need to do for my sanity. Thanks for reading!
Nice post 🌅🌅
Many thanks!
Hope your sleep can be improved – it’s rough without good sleep, huh?
Thanks. I’m prepared to try almost anything. I’m sleeping for longer but its not good sleep sadly.
Hope there’s been an improvement. (Longer isn’t quite as good as deeper sleep sadly, yeah)
Thanks. Still working through some things, but I think it’s slowly getting better… maybe!
Sounds like things have been tough. I’ll second ashleycapes’ observation about sleep. A few years ago, even if I slept 8 to 10 hours on a weekend, I’d feel exhausted. Turns out sleep apnea’s a real thing! With the way my life is (RLFEs and all!), I only get 6 hours of sleep — but with the CPAP, I can function. I’m not refresh, necessarily, but I don’t almost fall asleep driving.
They can be tiny machines now, too. Much better than the monsters that used to rumble by the bedside!
It sounds like your new schedule gives you flexibility, which you’re putting to good use. So, that’s good!
I’d say it’s been harder than things were during the pandemic, but only just. I’m getting way more sleep than I used to but feel more tired. I’ve noticed that when I wake up to do something like let the dog out and then go back to bed, I get a second block of deep sleep. I only seem to get it immediately after falling asleep, then it’s a mix of REM sleep and waking up. I’ve got my watch tracking my sleep for apneas and I have done an overnight monitoring session before but they found nothing.
I do have a little more flexibility with the schedule, but I still feel like I’m missing out by not posting daily. It’s clearly some sort of mental condition… Anyhow, hopefully, I’ll get things sorted soon. Thanks for the advice.
[…] a writer, too! We’re at similar stages of our journeys, and we often exchange ideas. In a couple of recent posts, he mentioned Robert McKee’s books Story (affiliate link), Character […]