Author Journey (June 5, 2023)

That was not the week I was expecting. It wasn’t awful, but a lot of things all came together at the same time in a perfect storm sort of scenario. And just when I was starting to think the universe would let me be…

Author Journey (June 5, 2023)

I’ve spent a bit of time lately working on my daily routine and trying to optimise my time so that I can be productive on all fronts. That’s involved working around the various injuries that I’ve suffered so far this year and the day job that has become more and more volatile as time goes on. It’s not a bad job, but there are a lot of things that I can’t control that seem to be taking longer and longer and all the slack ends up being used before me. It’s made me even more determined to get this writing gig back on the roads again.

The Weekly Recap!

This week I actually have some goals to check on. Firstly, I had planned on watching eleven episodes of anime which would have finished the current season I was watching. Well, I’m pleased to say that I managed to do that. Not only that, I managed to start another series and am already four episodes in. That’s right, I watched fifteen episodes, smashing my weekly goal

Next up was manga. I had planned on reading four volumes because I had four in the same series and really wanted to get through them. I did that too. But not only that, I read another one. Admittedly, I had just picked it up for a second to check the first couple of pages and before I knew it I had breezed through the entire book. I only need to read three books a week to keep up even though I planned on doing four, so getting through five was a nice boost.

In the near future, I will be back to publishing one post a day so I only need to write seven posts a week. Of course, I had planned to read an extra book so set myself the goal last week of scheduling eight posts. I did manage eight which is fine, but only because I read an extra book. I met my goal, but I still feel like I should have done more.

Unfortunately, the one that I feel like I really need to step up my game with was the one that suffered this week. I had planned on organising things in my writing world so that I could start to prioritise my work. In truth, I have a lot of unfinished stories that I really want to complete and then release into the wild. The hardest thing is working out which one to start with. I think the obvious one is RIP Tide as that is a complete story. It needs a lot of editing, but it is the furthest along. Hopefully, completing one will start the snowball effect. Momentum is vastly underrated.

And finally, I was planning on completing five sketches and somehow I ended up with eight. I spent a lot of time working on faces and hairstyles this week. You wouldn’t believe how ridiculously difficult it is to decide upon a hairstyle for a made-up character. The thing is you know when it’s not right. You can just see it, but envisioning the correct hairstyle is impossible until you see it for real. Anyhow, these are all from Princess Connect! Re: Dive.

Tasks	Goal	Completed
Anime Watched	11 Episodes	15 Episodes
Manga Read	4 Books	5 Books
Posts Scheduled	8 Post	8 Posts
Chapters Written	Preparation	Nothing
Artwork Completed	5 Sketches	8 Sketches

Aspirations for the Week!

I’m quite confident that this week should be a little more relaxed which will allow me to tackle all fronts. Admittedly, I didn’t do too badly with all the things happening last week. It was nothing serious, but I lost one whole day to one Real Life Event and large chunks of the other four days to another one. Anyhow, let’s set some goals.

Watching Anime

So, the new series I started at the end of last week is only ten episodes long so that won’t take me long considering I’ve already watched four of them. The next series that I’m planning to watch is a long one, coming in at twenty-five episodes. I’ll definitely start that next and it’s one that I think I’ll get hooked on so it might not take long, but best to air on the side of caution. I’ll plan for eighteen total.

Goal: 18 Episodes

Reading Manga

I only have three library books out at the moment and I have a couple waiting for me to pick up, so I’ll focus on finishing the three this week and save the others for next week.

Goal: 3 Books

Posts Scheduled

I’m going to stick with the same goal as last week because I will finish one season and I do still have some other posts to catch up on.

Goal: 8 Posts

Writing

All right, I think I convinced myself earlier in this post so I’m going to begin the editing process for RIP Tide. To start, I’ll need to read it and then turn it back into a plot to ensure that it makes sense. That’ll help me put more foreshadowing in and beef up the themes. I’m fairly confident I can get through that and then start the second draft.

Goal: Begin the second draft of RIP Tide

Artwork Completed

Got to keep the momentum going, so one sketch a day for five days minimum. Got some ideas for an alternate cover for RIP Tide. It’s only going to be a novella, but I would like to have a handful of images for inside too.

Goal: 5 Sketches

Final Thoughts

It was a weird week for sure, but I still hit most of my goals. And, while I didn’t hit the writing goal, maybe, just maybe, that’ll light a fuse that will set off an avalanche. I’ve been kind of overwhelmed by all the different stories I have at various stages and I think picking one and finishing it should help me to push forward. It helps that it’s a shorter one and mostly done, but a win is a win. I’ve got to start somewhere.

The goals were back and I continued where I had left off which was nice. Hopefully, I can hit a bit of a run now and start to get my writing back to where it was six years ago. I think looking at bite-sized tasks will be better for me else I end up getting sucked into making ridiculous plans that span years and years. There’s a place for those, but I also need to look at the short-term plan, much like I’ve done with my goals. Let’s see if this makes a difference. Thanks for reading.

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