Author Journey (January 11, 2021)
So, how’s 2021 working out for you? Pretty much the same as the last year! If anything, it’s looking a little bit crazier. Anyhow, let’s not get into that too much and focus on my writing… Someone has to!
January 11, 2021
I know I talked about setting a weekly goal for my writing in my last update, and I even mentioned that my son would be doing virtual school, it’s year-end for reporting in the day job, there’s a new anime season, etc, etc. Basically, I’ve not done much work on my NaNoWriMo project, but I have been working on the blog and editing the Black Death trilogy. There are some lessons learned from that last item too.
As you may or may not know, I have been working on a post-apocalyptic trilogy called Black Death with a co-author. There was originally three of us, but one pulled out. To make up for the missing story from the third author, my remaining co-author put together a third story arc and dropped them into the books for me to edit and build on. That was fine. It was a good addition to the overall story. However, upon reading through the three books, I discovered that the timelines weren’t quite aligned.
The third story arc takes place over a much shorter period of time than the two original story arcs. If I was to put it in as it is, it wouldn’t start until the middle of the second book. So, I’m working through it now, trying to stretch it out so that it fits the other stories. I knew something was up when I read the first book, but it wasn’t until I had read the whole thing that I became completely apparent what the issue was. So, my lesson from all this is before you start editing, read the whole thing through. There’s nothing more annoying than editing something to find out that it needs to be edited a different way at a later date.
With the reviews, I’m still working my way through Harukana Receive, KonoSuba, Goblin Slayer, and Record of Grancrest War and am having a great time doing so. I’m working into the future as this means that I can use my time more efficiently. I can write a review in smaller blocks of time, but with writing fiction, I like to lose myself in it for a good chunk of time.
As a surprise this week, I posted full season reviews of Chivalry of a Failed Knight and Killing Bites which I had been reviewing episodically for Ecchi Hunter. These were some fun shows to watch and write about.
So, the new season has started and I’ve already seen the first episodes of The Quintessential Quintuplets, and The Promised Neverland. Those reviews will be out later this week and I’m excited to get back into Dr Stone, which airs later this week too. It was my favourite series in 2019 and I’m excited to see all the characters again, especially Kohaku. I find the hardest thing when the new season begins is not instantly watching everything that pops up, and this season there are a lot of promising shows. I’ll just keep adding them to the binge-list for the end of the season.
So, it’s another disappointing week for my writing, but editing got a big boost as did my scheduled posts. I have several goals to work on so as long as something is moving, it’s all good.
- Jan 4 – 0 words
- Jan 5 – 0 words
- Jan 6 – 0 words
- Jan 7 – 0 words
- Jan 8 – 0 words
- Jan 9 – 0 words
- Jan 10 – 0 words
A couple of weeks back, I mentioned that I had a surprise coming and you may have seen me mention it on Twitter, but if you haven’t, I was a guest on the Web Light Novel and Manga podcast which was released on Friday. You can find it on most podcast platforms or watch it on YouTube and would you believe it, here it is.
Well, I hope I didn’t sound like too much of a nerd, although it’s kind of hard when you are one. Anyhow, I had a lot of fun talking with Zeke Changuris about writing, anime, and reviewing. You’ll discover that I’m British, if you didn’t already know, and grew up in a time before streaming anime… a time before the internet even!
As to this coming week, it’s going to be more of the same. Schools are remaining closed here until January 25 and I can see it being extended well beyond that, so it’s going to be a struggle, but I’m just going to keep chipping away at all my goals. I’ll get there by the end of the year for sure, but I really need, and I say need, to get Black Death finished. We’ve been working on it for far too long as it is and it feels like a cloud hanging over me, blocking out all other creative ventures.
