Author Journey (March 18, 2024)

Well, that was a week! The day job just wouldn’t leave me alone and then something I heard on a podcast got into my head and messed with my writing. So, even if I had some time, I got nowhere!
Author Journey (March 18, 2024)
Favourite Moment!
With the way I recently changed how I watch anime, I’ve come up with a plan to capitalize on that, and I’m quite excited. To begin with, I like covering seasonal shows episodically and the setup I have now works so, I’ll be sticking to three shows each season. Then, I’m going to pick a bunch of other seasonal shows and watch them in blocks of four episodes at a time. I’m not going to write up reviews for them individually, instead, I’ll just put together a progress post every four weeks covering everything I’m watching. Once the season ends, the season reviews will begin, and depending on how many I get through, will run until the next season. I believe I can watch fifteen shows this way each season, which is going to be a lot of fun.
Now, admittedly, I started a little late with the current season so it’s going to be a mad rush to get there. There are two weeks left for most shows, however, I would only have needed to finish one show each week. It could get messy, but I’ve already watched eight episodes of four seasons. I guess this coming season will be the trial to see if and how it works, but I’m pretty confident it will go well. I’ve already picked the three shows I’m going to focus on. Bet you can’t guess which ones!

Writing!
This is the danger of listening to too many podcasts. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there and some of it will sound good at different times. The latest piece of advice that’s had me thinking is about first drafts. I tend to write fairly clean first drafts. Sure, there are some typos and some repetition, but they can be read and understood. The latest piece of advice was about writing really basic first drafts and then having a second pass that rewrites everything. Now, the idea of writing a first draft that is basically he did this, she did that, it was dark, etc sounds interesting because I often find there are things I want to include but the flow of the story doesn’t want to let it in. Reworking that in the revisions can be a pain.
Writing it almost like a script would allow me to put these ideas in and then revise it all into something readable once I know everything that needs to be there. It sounds appealing, but at the same time, I know that I find it hard to go back to something I’ve already written, which is why I write clean and why I try to keep the momentum going. Anyhow, it got in my head and I’ve been wrestling with the pros and cons of both all week. Plus work has been insane, so I’ve not had any time to write anyhow.
Anime!
Now that I’m not focused on writing up a review for every episode I watch, I’m back to just enjoying shows and seeing what happens. Of course, I’m noticing stuff to talk about as I do, I can’t switch that off, but not feeling the need to write about the most mundane things is refreshing. Not every episode has something worth discussing. So, anyhow, my quest to binge lots of the Winter 2024 season continues and it’s going well. I started three new shows last week.
Catching up on my To-Watch List
Valentine’s Special (NSFW)
Winter 2024
Manga!
It was a better week for manga, but that was because I spent a lot of time running stuff for the day job and waiting for replies. Waiting is the worst part because you’ve no idea how long it’s going to take so starting something that requires some focus is hard. At least, with manga, I can jump in and out as I need to.
Tasks | Goal | Completed |
---|---|---|
Anime Watched | 6 Episodes | 21 Episodes |
Manga Read | 3 Books | 4 Books |
Posts Scheduled | 10 Posts | 10 Posts |
Words Written | 5,000 | 0 words |
Artwork Completed | 1 Piece | 0 Sketches |

Aspirations for the week!
This week has already been claimed! Most of my time will be dedicated to a real-life family event and there’s no getting out of it. I may have some time in the evenings, but it’s going to be incredibly tight. So, rather than beat myself up about it and try to squeeze in what I can when I can, I’m going to take it easy. If I meet any of my targets, I’ll be surprised. It couldn’t have happened at a more inopportune time as well as it’s the season finale of Chained Soldier and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Hopefully, I’ll at least have time to watch them and write up the posts when everything is back to normal.
It’s going to be an interesting week at least. Hopefully, I won’t fall too far behind on everything, but sometimes, you’ve just got to go with the flow. I’m sure I’ll come back stronger! Anyhow, thanks for reading.

“Anyhow, it got in my head and I’ve been wrestling with the pros and cons of both all week.”
Was it Fitzgerald who would stare at a page for hours, then lay it down letter perfect?
I’ve tried that mad-dash approach, too. It crippled me for years. Literally — years. My writing tends to build one detail on the next. Without those details, I was a wreck. only after I returned to what I see as threading the fabric one chapter at a time, I didn’t make any progress.
That said, I know that’s just my experience. YMMV. But it sounds like you write the way I do. At least, based on your reaction to that advice and the impact it had on your throughput, that’s how it seems from the outside.
I hadn’t thought about it, but that’s a danger of listening to so many perspectives. Some creators are really passionate and persuasive — while at the same time not keeping in mind that theirs is a single, limited perspective. It’s easy to get into a mode of trying other wildly different approaches. Of course, if I listen to no other opinions, I’ll miss tons of opportunities.
Good luck this week — sounds like you have a tough one lined up!
Yeah. Sounds like we have a similar process. The hardest thing is that I can see the benefits of doing it both ways. I might try to make it part of my revision process where I map it out as I do the first read through.
I’m reminded of Dean Wesley Smith and how he had two short stories published and then decided to research the craft and didn’t get anything published for years. He only started getting stories published again once he undid all the learning he had done.
I often wonder about the revision process and think how much better will it really be if I spend another week rewriting a paragraph considering someone will read it on a couple of seconds.
It’s frustrating that I let this get to me the way it did. Maybe this week will give me a chance to clear my head.
Chris Fox talked about that — about how much to spend on writing versus rewriting. I thought about some the advice Dean Wesley Smith gave, too.
He gave me the idea of reading the last chapter I wrote the day before out loud. It helps me root out problems with flow, and it immerses me back into the world so I’m ready to start writing. My official rewriting stage now takes half as long as it did, with better results. I think you’ve mentioned before how reading aloud ban help. This approach bakes it into the process!
You mentioned Dean Wesley Smith and having to unlearn to relearn. I’m in constant fear that I need to do that — but really, at some point, don’t we just have to move onward? At least absent any evidence that we _need_ to relearn?
That’s not a rhetorical question, either! We only inhabit one universe, so A/B testing is a bit of a challenge!
It worked for Michael Anderle! That said, I have his first book on my phone from not long after he first released it and I don’t think I’ve got past the third chapter. However, it obviously worked out for him. It just goes to show that story is the most important element which makes his minimum viable product plan work… well, it did back then.
I tend to just read the last couple of paragraphs else the urge to start fixing stuff takes over. My process before was first draft, second draft to fix flow and obvious errors, have my computer read it back to me, I ran it though a tool that I made that looked a sentence length and repetition, and then read aloud again looking for typos and awkwardness. Because I was only working with ten to twenty thousand word projects, I could usually do one full editing stage a day.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. You start out prepared to try anything but as time goes on, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the advice that comes out. I recently read a list of ten things you shouldn’t do to start a series and could find plenty of examples that proved that list to be useless.
Haha! Imagine a bunch of authors discover the multiverse and only use it to test which cover and blurb works better!
It is always interesting to read your writing approach! I hope your real-life event goes smoothly!
Thanks. I’m sure at some point in time historians will look back and say “WTF was he doing?”
I’m sure it’ll be fine. It just requires all of my time and energy. Everything will be back to normal next week.