Author Journey (July 24, 2023)

Last week went pretty well. I caught up on some work I’d been putting off and decided to make some changes to the way I’m doing things around here… again… Sorry, not sorry! I think it’ll be better for everyone!

Author Journey (July 24, 2023)

I had been building towards the big change in my posting schedule for a while now and after three weeks, I think I’m going to change it again. Now, I don’t necessarily think my plan was a bad one, but I do think the change may have been too drastic. I went from covering ten shows a week, admittedly, mostly older ones, to one show a week. It was nice to focus on one series and really talk about what I liked and why I thought certain aspects worked or didn’t work. I think the problem is that I went from one extreme to the other and soon found that I would be trying to come up with something to say about a show instead of thinking about my stories.

The Weekly Recap!

One reason that I think I was so open to changing things once more was the fact that Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead was out and as a huge fan of the manga and zombies, I couldn’t stay away. As a result, I watched the first two episodes and will be continuing to cover it on a weekly basis just like Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation. That helped with my anime watching along with another ten episodes of Fairy Tail. So, I got through thirteen episodes in total.

Last week, I stuck to the script with my manga and read three volumes. Two I really enjoyed and one I was kind of underwhelmed by, but that’s not a terrible ratio. That leaves me with just five more books from my library to get through… Although, I may have some more to pick up this week… I know. I have a problem.

So, I’m changing things up again. I have added Zom 100 to my regular schedule and did a bit of catch-up last week. That gave me a couple of extra posts and I’ve also changed the plans going forward. I’m going to cover two seasonal shows episodically and also have a full-season review of an older series each week. That helped clear some of my backlog. Everything that I”ve already scheduled will continue and if I watch a show and feel the need to write more, I’ll do just that.

I decided early in the week that I would focus on RIP Tide and that went well. I’ve now outlined the full story with two POVs and am ready to get writing. I’ve had a tough time getting back into the swing of things so I’ve decided that I’m going to give myself daily goals for writing. In the past, when I was writing daily, it was so easy to jump straight back into the story, even if I ended up missing a day here or there. So, I’m going to keep it simple with five-hundred words a day.

Even though I’ve been having some good weeks, I still can’t find the time to sit down and draw. So, sadly I have nothing to report here. Hopefully, this week will work out a little better.

Tasks	Goal	Completed
Anime Watched	12 Episodes	13 Episodes
Manga Read	3 Books	3 Books
Posts Scheduled	8 Posts	9 Posts
Chapters Written	Outlining	Outline complete
Artwork Completed	1 Sketch	0 Sketches

Aspirations for the Week!

This week’s going to be interesting as my wife will be away for work for most of it, which means it’s just me and the boys. It could work out very well or it could turn into a disaster. Unfortunately, we won’t know until next Monday so here’s hoping it’s the first option. I don’t foresee any problems and work should be fairly quiet too, but I know better than to make grandiose plans. I’m just going to take it as it comes.

Watching Anime

So, I now have Mushoku Tensei and Zom 100 episodes to watch and I’ll plan on another ten episodes of Fairy Tail. Of course, with my new change, the longer series are going to be more challenging, but I can add them every once and a while. Still, I have no regrets about starting Fairy Tail either as I am really enjoying it.

Goal: 12 Episodes

Reading Manga

Given the unpredictability of this week, I’m going to stick with three books as my goal. I’d love to clear the five I have from the library so I can pick up the new ones with a clean conscious, but that might be too much.

Goal: 3 Books

Posts Scheduled

So, with the change, I cleared a whole bunch of posts that I was planning but hadn’t written. If I’m completely honest, I’m not sure they were going to be the best ones anyhow. I also found that I was spending too much time trying to either come up with a topic or how best to approach it. This was all valuable time that I could and should be putting into my own work. Doing two episode reviews a week instead is far more structured. So, I have two episode posts, a season post, three manga posts, and an Author Journey post. Seven it is.

Goal: 7 Posts

Writing

As I said earlier, I finished the outline and am ready to dive into the second draft. I’m setting myself a daily goal of 500 words. If I do more, I do more, but every morning the goal resets so I have to do at least 500 every day. There is no carrying over words from yesterday. I’m determined to build a habit so I need to do it daily.

Goal: Complete Start Second Draft of RIP Tide (3.5k words minimum)

Artwork Completed

The tablet is not here yet, but it won’t be long. That said, I just want to draw something so I might try to fit something in today. Maybe, I’ll try to make it a thing with my boys one evening. They like to draw so it could do double duty.

Goal: 1 Sketch

Final Thoughts

It feels good to finally finish the revised outline for RIP Tide, especially since I’ve added a second POV and changed a few things around. I think it’ll be a stronger story as a result and as such, I’m going to write the second draft without looking at the first draft again. I’m not looking to copy lines across as that often breaks the flow. I’m just going to go for it. Then, I’ll be able to compare the two and see if there is anything I missed. Either way, I’m starting the second draft and I think it should end up somewhere around fifty thousand words so it could take a little while at five hundred words a day, but my experience has been that once I get the ball rolling, I’ll quickly increase my output. However, it’s best to start small and build from there.

So, I’ve changed things up and hopefully, this will work out for the best. I do know that the engagement on my Zom 100 posts were a huge improvement and it’s something I’ve missed. Watching new shows with others and exchanging ideas and opinions is a rewarding part of writing episodic reviews. Now, I don’t want to slip back to doing too many again, so two a week feels like a good compromise, especially if I’m watching an older series too. My to-watch list grows at an astounding rate so I need to try to get that under control too. Anyhow, I’ve got things to do. Thanks for reading.

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