Author Journey (January 27, 2025)

Author Journey 2025 01 27 The Otaku Author

The New Year continues to throw obstacles in my way, making it very hard to get much done, which is incredibly rude since I came up with a list of smaller, more achievable goals for 2025. At least there’s plenty of time to recover!

Author Journey (January 27, 2025)

What happened?

I say plenty of time, but is it just me or is January almost over already? One-twelfth of the year has already flown by and I have very little to show for it. I still haven’t watched a single episode of anime this year, making this anime drought six weeks long. I absolutely must fix that this week. There are a lot of things that I need to work on to bring them back in line with my goals for the year, but then I am still dealing with an ongoing Real Life Family Event that is taking up a lot of my time. I’m hopeful that things will calm down there soon too, but that’s a very optimistic thought. I am starting to get things a little more organised at home, so that’s one area that I will definitely see progress with. The routines are starting to fall into place which will make daily life a little more efficient.

Mother of Goddess Dormitory Episode 9 Koushi cleaning Frey's room
From Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory

How is it going?

1. Health

As I alluded to above, I’m still off work to focus on improving family life. I’m busy reorganising things, doing deep cleans, and generally stamping my ideas on the house. Since no one has been doing it for so long, we’ve just sort of muddled through, which has left things inefficient and disorganised. That is slowly changing and the more I achieve the easier things will get in the long term. I have actually been sleeping more as a result. Anyone who says running a house is easy has never run a house. I’m working more than I’ve done in any job I’ve had before. As for my main goal, I’m continuing to see slight increases in my walking although it wasn’t enough to bring up my daily average for the year.

Goal: 10 km daily average, Current status: 7.8 km daily average.

2. Writing

Sadly, this week did not allow for any writing. I’ve fallen a little behind with my blogging and found myself in the unusual position of having zero scheduled posts. With that situation hanging over me, I can’t bring myself to do anything else as all my free time is going into getting the next post ready. I’m going to try to change that this week and hopefully, schedule in a regular writing block.

Goal: Publish a book, Current status: Writing first draft (717 words)

3. Art

I don’t have anything to show for it, or rather anything that I would like to share just yet, I have been working on the pose for the book cover and I think I’ve decided on how it will work. I’ve also been collecting a bunch of sample images to use as reference material and will start trying to get a first sketch together this week. The image in my head looks amazing, so if I can convert that into reality then I’ll be very happy.

Goal: Complete artwork for my book, Current status: planning the cover composition

Lycoris Recoil Episode 4 Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue at the aquarium
From Lycoris Recoil

4. Watching

This is probably the most frustrating of the goals that I’ve set. This time last year, I had watched twenty-seven episodes so I’ve got a way to go just to catch up with where I should be. Once I get my weekly routines sorted, I’m sure I’ll turn this around.

Goal: Watch more than 629 episodes of anime, Current status: 0 episodes watched

5. Reading

At this stage last year, I had read six volumes so I’m actually ahead of the game, which is surprising. Admittedly, I have planned on doing just manga reviews for the next couple of weeks so that will give me a boost if I can keep up with them. Remember, no scheduled posts so I’m up against it at the moment.

Goal: Read more than 159 manga volumes, Current status: 8 volumes read

6. Blogging

I’m still keeping to my one-post-a-day schedule so all is good so far. However, as I’ve said a couple of times I have no scheduled posts so I need to write one a day at the moment until I can find time to fit more than one in. It’ll come… I hope!

Goal: Publish 365 posts, Current status: 27 posts

BOFURI Episode 16 Maple and Sally relaxing
From BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense

What are you planning?

There’s a lot that I want to do, but I also realise that there are some things that I need to prioritise. Looking after my family and my health has to be number one. After that, I’ll start to fit in the rest of the things because my mental health is also impacted by each of these goals. Writing, drawing, reading, and watching all make me happy and help me relax. The more relaxed I am, the better for everyone in the house.

My overall goal for 2025 is definitely to keep things chilled while also achieving some of the things that I’ve been putting off for too long. So, I’m not going to beat myself up for falling behind, as hard as that is for someone who is constantly trying to do better. Slow steady growth is the way. Thanks for reading!


Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

6 Comments

  1. Wow, 10 km daily average for your goal? Perhaps I can do this during my days off since I’m also conscious with my health since I got ‘health concerns’ but it’s hard to pull this off after my work since I’m already tired. I integrate a lot of walking and standing during work which I guess it helps for me to reach my goals as well, but nowhere near that 10km you set up.

    • I do between 2 and 4 km a day walking the dog and the rest is usually from just walking around the rest of the day. If I can find the time to add a treadmill session in that will take me over 10 km easily plus I’ll watch an episode of anime at the same time. It all adds up, but I’ll definitely need to put some effort in to get over the goal, especially for the entire year.

  2. “Anyone who says running a house is easy has never run a house.”

    Can confirm! It’s like working in the hospitality industry without the commercial grade tools. And once you get a little behind, the work seems to expand exponentially! I hope that you hit equilibrium soon and can begin enjoying the benefits of maintaining the new status quo.

    The backdrop of politics in the US is a real time sink. I’m having to adjust to the idea that we’re no longer the good guys who often stumble and screw up to the bad guys who plan to inflict misery. That’s leaching my energy. There’s nothing I can do about it; gerrymandering has reduced the impact of my vote. And I don’t have the time or energy to advocate, and my previous attempts have failed anyway.

    I guess what I’m saying is that don’t discount the impact of world events on your energy or time.

    • Yeah. As soon as one thing slips everything does. That’s a big part of my problem at the moment as one of my boys is having a hard time staying at school which is having a massive knock-on effect on everything else. Hopefully, we’ll work things out soon.

      I can’t get over what’s happening down south of here. I’ve moved all social media into a folder on my phone so that I’m not tempted to look at them because it really is grim. I just hope the rest of the world doesn’t start to follow their lead, especially as a certain billionaire is busy trying to destabilize everything. Hopefully something will change but I’m struggling to see what or how at the moment.

What did you think?