Author Journey (January 29, 2024)
Two snow days in one week took a pretty big chunk of time out of my week. However, I still managed to make some good progress. I’ve also had a bit of a revelation with my series that changes how I look at it!
Author Journey (January 29, 2024)
Favourite Moment!
I’ve started running again after a year of injuries. Admittedly, it’s more like fast walking at this stage, but I have to start somewhere. While on the treadmill, I only have access to Disney+ or Netflix so it’s limiting which anime I can watch. I decided to start Bastard!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy since I figured it would be a nice easy one to watch while working out. It was. However, in the end credits, which appeared for the first time in episode two, I realised why I hadn’t been making any progress with my series. Much like how I was trying to make a novella series into a novel series, I was trying to make it an epic fantasy when it was most definitely a dark fantasy. Not just a dark fantasy though. It’s a heavy metal, dark fantasy. Now, I can fully embrace that without holding back for fear of alienating readers. I need to find my fellow fans of heavy metal and dark fantasy.
Writing!
So, yeah. I now know what I’m doing. After a couple of weeks of coming to terms with the length, the fact that I want to write pulp fiction, and that my series is a heavy metal, dark fantasy series, I feel like I’m finally standing at the starting point. I’ve begun to mark out the plot points for the first four volumes and that’s exciting. The fact that I already wrote first drafts for twenty-six volumes puts me in good stead. I do plan on rewriting all of them before finishing off the second half of the series, but almost everything will get reused in some way. It’s slowly but surely coming together.
Anime!
Now that I’m watching Bastard!! as I work out you would have thought I would have watched much more. Unfortunately, the two snow days at the end of the week took the shine off the week. As such, I only managed to hit my goal instead of destroying it. Maybe, this week will be even better.
Catching up on my To-Watch List
Winter 2024
Manga!
Again, I read just two volumes of manga, keeping up with my posts on Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs and My Dress-Up Darling. I’m going to try my hardest to move things forward this week as I’m currently reading the volumes the day before I should be publishing the post. It feels like doing my homework the night before when I’ve had weeks to do it. I definitely need to rebuild my buffer.
| Tasks | Goal | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Anime Watched | 6 Episodes | 6 Episodes |
| Manga Read | 3 Books | 2 Books |
| Posts Scheduled | 10 Posts | 11 Posts |
| Words Written | 5,000 | Breakthrough! |
| Artwork Completed | 1 Piece | 0 Pieces |
Aspirations for the week!
So, same as last week except this week I’m going to get my writing going. I’d imagine it’ll be slow, but that’s fine. I can build on slow, I can’t build on nothing. The habit is what I need to rediscover. I’m working on a few changes to my lifestyle at the moment so it’s very much a case of slowly adding in little changes and waiting for them to become the new normal. I think it’s working and believe that it won’t be long before I’m writing fifty thousand words a month again. I think I should be fully up and running by the summer.
Well, I’ve just got to keep pushing forward while trying not to let the roadblocks hit me too hard. There’s still room for improvement, but if there wasn’t I’d be worried that I was just being complacent. Anyhow, thanks for reading.
“I realised why I hadn’t been making any progress with my series.”
Isn’t that among the greatest feelings in the world? That “click” is just so cool! And equally unpredictable.
“I think I should be fully up and running by the summer.”
Also very cool! I think it’s going to help that you know the change will stick gradually. I remember too many times myself that my expectations for rapid progress derailed me!
Heavy metal, dark fantasy? I’m looking forward to reading that!
Yeah, it was a strange feeling. I was just at the end of my run and the ED started playing and I just went “ah!’ It all makes sense now.
It’s almost as if I’m trying to recreate 2017. Thankfully, I track everything so I know how that went. Just need to put it into action now.
How is pulp fiction different from “regular” fiction? How long are the books in the series you’re writing? 26 volumes sounds like a lot. Are you secretly James Patterson.
When I say pulp fiction I’m referring to the serialized fiction from the 1930s to 1950s. It was action-packed and full of twists and turns. Probably pretty similar to James Paterson’s books.
Each of my books is around 20k words long so they fall into the novella category. Think of them more like episodes of an anime or TV series.
And no, sadly I am not James Paterson.
20k words each is still impressive. You’ve basically written six and half full-length novels if you add them all together. How long did it take you?
It was six months total, but it’s all first draft quality so lots of work to make them ready for publication. I plan on starting that shortly, although it’s going to be a full rewrite as I wrote them in 2017.