Author Journey (January 17, 2022)
Last week was another one focused purely on survival. Thankfully, I don’t mean in the literal sense. My main goals were to keep the kids entertained and fed, the blog ticking over, and maybe get a couple hours of sleep…
January 17, 2022
Hot Topic
If all things go to plan, in-person school will resume today (edit: a freak snowstorm has forced virtual school to go for at least another day). That will leave me with just one child at home and with the possibility of a nanny on the horizon, I could return to almost normal by this time next week. So, with that in mind, I didn’t plan on doing any fiction writing last week. I didn’t do much more than keeping up with the seasonal shows and trying to do the day job in the dark hours. It’s good that I’ve spent years perfecting my ability to function with little to no sleep!
I’ve had a lot of time to think about how I’m going to publish my books this week and I’ll be sure to get into that a little bit later in this post. There’s been far more change with my anime reviews so I’ve got more to talk about there. I could obviously talk about my writing plans forever, but that’s mostly theoretical at this point. So, let’s dive into my anime reviews.
What have I been watching?
Seasonal Anime
Last week was the first week of the new season for this site and I think it went pretty well. In the Land of Leadale was the first to show up and it gave me BOFURI vibes. I don’t think it’ll end up that way as I think it’ll end up being even more chilled. I know, right! Anyhow, it was a fun first episode and I think it did enough to keep me interested and relaxed. We all need to relax so this is a good thing.
I was also delighted to be reunited with the cast of Princess Connect! Re: Dive and this first episode of the second season was everything I hoped it would be. Not a bad start from the first two shows I covered. That, of course, left Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest season two which started off better than the first season. The bar was incredibly low and so were my expectations so I was glad that it managed to surpass them. It’s too early to say with any certainty, but it’s so far so good for Winter 2022.
Historic Anime
I mentioned last week that I started to cover season two of Fire Force with Yomu from Umai Yomu Anime Blog, so that has become a bit of a bonus Monday post. The next one will be out later today. However, the big news was that I started to look at That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. I first reviewed this series on my old site as the first season aired. I enjoyed it but my opinion of it faded over time. I’m not sure why, but it made me put off watching the second season. So, when I finally got around to doing that I ended up being completely in love with it by the mid-point. That made me stop, go back to the very beginning and rewatch the entire series all over again.
This is the first series that I’m covering on this site four episodes at a time. It means that I won’t be talking about it for at least forty-eight weeks, which I wouldn’t have minded, but I thought I would try something new. Each post focuses on a different topic relating to the series and those four episodes in particular. I had a lot of fun writing these posts and I hope you’ll enjoy reading them.
Last week also saw my season review of Jujutsu Kaisen. That means that I have a new show to talk about this week. It’s a fairly prominent figure in the anime world and a show that I’ve never seen. The first post will be on Thursday. It’s entirely possible that I am the last person to watch it and am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on this classic!
Hundred still has another five weeks worth of posts until it’s finished so we can enjoy that for a little longer. I do actually have the posts for the series that will follow it already written up. But then that shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve read last week’s post.
Work in Progress
So, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been thinking about the publishing opportunities for my current and future projects. Originally, I was thinking of posting the chapters here and on a couple of web novel platforms before releasing it as a book across the various retail venues. I was pretty set on this idea for a while, but then doubt set in and I started to consider going the Amazon exclusive path, which would make my books available to the Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
In independent publishing, the concept of going wide or exclusive has been a constant topic. There are those on either side that will champion their way. In truth, there is no definitive answer and it generally comes down to risk and personal preference. Having all your eggs in one basket is not something that an independent business should be looking to do. Over the years, I have flopped back and forth with my views.
I think I’m actually swinging back to the first plan. Releasing the chapters as a web novel will give me the chance to build a following (potentially). It would force my hand into going wide as Amazon exclusivity includes stuff like web novels and that would be an instant disqualification. I prefer the idea of having my books more widely available and free to places that don’t have access to the main channels.
Piracy is always an issue and even that can cause the overzealous Amazon bots to terminate your account. I’d rather create a place where those that want to read it for free can do it here without the fear of Trojans and other viruses. It will be a longer process, but that’s fine. I’m in this for the long run. I do want to get my full first draft and several editing passes completed before I start publishing. If it works for light novel authors then it can work for me.
The Plan
I said earlier that this week was mostly about keeping up with the new seasonal shows so that is where you’ll see most of my progress. I did do a bit of site admin such as tidying up some posts and putting some new fields in place for my automated social media sharing to look at. It’ll take a while before I can update all of my published posts, but it is something I can work on in small chunks. It’s now week three of quarter one so let’s see how things are progressing.
Quarter One
- Posts
- Author Journey – 3/13 (+1)
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Seasonal Anime – 4/36 (+3)
- Bonus Posts – 11/16 (+1)
Having the entire quarter’s historic anime posts done takes a lot of pressure off when I have weeks like this. The Author Journey and Seasonal Anime are time-dependent and as such, they will always be a weekly focus. The only space for improvement is with the Bonus Posts which is Fire Force season two and getting one done is enough to maintain the status quo.
- Writing
- Plotting – 49/58
- Writing – 43/58
- Editing – 42/58
- Artwork – 0/9
There has been no change to my writing as I didn’t do anything. Having the first two-thirds of the book written helps here, but I don’t want to rest on my laurels for too long as it will inevitably slip into the next project’s time. Of course, I’m hoping for a slight change to my circumstances as of next Monday, I just need to get through this week and then I can give it the time it deserves.
Final Thoughts
Last week, I joked about how my mind was wandering and wanted to increase my projects by adding a web novel. Well, it looks like it may have found a way to do that without increasing my workload. Sometimes, the solutions appear all on their own. Anyhow, I’m currently focused on getting the seasonal posts done. I don’t see my boys allowing me to have any extra time to work on stuff, but the day job should slow down a little towards the end of the week. It would be a good time to catch up on some sleep, but that’s not how I roll!
Do you read or write web novels? If so, do you have any advice you think I should know beforehand? Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay safe.
