Author Journey (March 20, 2023)

With a Real-life Family Event that was scheduled to occupy my week, I decided that I would try to have a week off. No, really. I tried! In reality, I think I just set myself up for a pretty busy return week!

Author Journey (March 20, 2023)

I was away from home for an entire week which was nice, but also kind of hard. Anyone that suffers from the same need to be productive as I do will no doubt understand the pain of being away from their laptop for so much time. Sure, I had my phone but it is not the same. If anything, that just made things worse as I could still watch anime. A lot of anime…

The Weekly Recap!

Now, luckily I planned on doing almost nothing when I set my goals last week so that made things a little easier. However, I had a bit of downtime in the evening and with my knee still some way off feeling like normal, I lay in bed watching anime on my phone. I got into a bit of a groove too. It was one of those just-one-more-episode sort of situations. By the end of the week, I had steamrollered my way through twenty-four episodes. Take that, goal!

That sounds like a good thing, and it was, however, there is a downside and I’ll get to that shortly. As to my manga reading schedule. Well, this was the first week this year that I didn’t read a single book. It’s a shame to break that streak, but I have a nice little buffer of manga reviews and don’t see any reason to get down on myself about it.

So, here’s where the problem with watching so many episodes of anime raises its ugly head. I managed to write up reviews for two of those episodes… that’s right, I now have a backlog of twenty-two posts to write up and that’s no doubt going to impact how much I can watch this week. Anyhow, those two posts plus this one meant that I beat that goal too.

I did read some more of my first drafts from my series but haven’t yet pulled my thoughts together in the form of an outline. I am genuinely excited by the story that I’ve already drafted and believe with a little bit of polish and some careful foreshadowing it could be amazing. Of course, I would say that, but for now, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

I also didn’t do any drawing, but then the days were very busy and there wasn’t a moment to even think about grabbing a pencil. I do feel relaxed and ready to get back to my usual routine and my knee is definitely heading in the right direction. Should be able to start driving again soon which will be nice. Anyhow, I set fairly light goals and pretty much did as expected.

Tasks	Goal	Completed
Anime Watched	0 Episodes	24 Episodes
Manga Read	0 Books	0 Books
Posts Scheduled	1 Post	3 Posts
Chapters Written	1 Book Outline	0 Book Outlines
Artwork Completed	Some Doodles	0 Sketches

Aspirations for the Week!

This week will see another Real-Life Family Event fall into my lap and will probably slow things down during the day. Luckily, I have a load of episode reviews to write up so that’s where I’ll be focusing what little time I can scrape together. Of course, I will probably watch some more shows further increasing the backlog, but what am I supposed to do? I can’t just not watch anything!

Watching Anime

If I was being completely sensible I would plan on watching no more episodes until I’d caught up. We both know that isn’t going to happen, but that’s what I’ll plan for.

Goal: 0 Episodes

Reading Manga

I need to get to work on my manga reviews for quarter three… and I’ve got a lot of series to continue. I’m going to plan on two books, but I do need to slowly bring it back up to four a week in the near future.

Goal: 2 Books

Posts Scheduled

The highest number of posts that I’ve scheduled in a week this year was sixteen. I’m going to try to up that and aim for nineteen. That would only leave four posts rolling into the following week. Should be a challenge.

Goal: 19 Post

Chapters Written

I’m going to stick with this goal until all of the outlines are done and I’m ready to sit down and write this thing.

Goal: 1 Book Outline

Artwork Completed

I’m going to get back to sketching as and when I can. It’s been a couple of weeks and I’d like to warm myself up before attempting to pull some of the elements for the RIP Tide cover together.

Goal: Some Doodles

Final Thoughts

Last week, I almost ran headfirst into a challenge that would have been all-consuming for the rest of the year. Have you heard of Dean Wesley-Smith? If not, he’s an incredibly prolific novel writer and one of my favourite people to listen to talk about the business. He is utterly inspiring and while his advice isn’t for everyone, it really does get you thinking. Anyhow, Dean Wesley-Smith is starting a challenge on April 1st to write one million words by the end of the year. He’s made a contest of it which is split into two challenges. Can you beat him or can you write more than half as much as him? There’s an entrance fee, but you get it back in teachable credits if you lose and more if you win. You’re basically gambling on your ability to write words.

Now, I love a challenge and based on my words written for 2022 I should be able to do the half challenge, especially as blogging counts and I can split my time between blogging and writing fiction which is what I’m trying to do anyhow. Part of me really wants to dive into this challenge, but I also know that I need to get the outlines done for my books first. If I rush into things, it’ll be the same as last time where something comes up and I don’t end up finishing what I was planning. I will be keeping a tally of my word count from April 1st to see how I would have done, but I need to do what’s right for me right now.

It’s just not the right time for me. I would have loved to do it and I may even hit the word count necessary, but I can’t commit wholeheartedly and that’s the thing that matters to me. If I’m doing it, I need to be all in. How do you feel about challenges and have you done any good ones lately? Anyhow, I’ve got another week-long Real-Life Family Event to get back to. Thanks for reading.

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