Author Journey (March 28, 2022)
I’m still sticking with my plan from last week and making preparations for quarter two of 2022. This year is flying by and I need to grab it by the horns before it gets away from me. I’ve got a good feeling about this coming quarter.
March 28, 2022
Hot Topic
I don’t have anything exciting to speak about this week, but I have been working towards my plan to stop covering seasonal shows after finishing the three I’m currently watching. After that, I will return to my roots as a binge-watcher and spend more time working on my fiction. I’m excited about the possibilities, but I’ve still got to get my head down and do the work.
We’ve also had a bit of a warm patch here in Ottawa and a lot of the snow has melted. This is obviously great news for everyone except my rugs as Gus now comes home from his walks wet and muddy as opposed to just wet in the winter. Still, I can’t wait for it to warm up a little more. It makes my air-conditioned basement office that much more chilled!
What have I been watching?
Seasonal Anime
Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been releasing my In the Land of Leadale reviews one week after it aired, posting the morning before the new episode lands. So, each week, I’ve been watching the latest episode and this week it was the finale. That meant that I was in a position to put together the season review too.
That’s right, I have finished the first of my seasonal shows from the last season I’ll cover (for now). In the Land of Leadale is done. I have mixed emotions about this series, which is kind of appropriate as Cayna was a mix of emotions all the way through. It had some good moments, but I came away a little disappointed. You’ll have to wait until next week to see exactly what I thought.
Princess Connect! Re: Dive is just unbelievable. I may be biased as someone that has been playing the mobile game for over a year, but this season has just gotten better and better. Later today, I’ll get to see the final episode and I am excited, and not just to knock off the second of my seasonal shows.
And on top of that, I have been impressed with Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest since episode 20 and once again, the last episode was the best yet. Will the last episode be able to keep up this high or will it slow down? I don’t know, but I do know that I’m looking forward to finding out.
Historic Anime
One more week and this becomes this posts main section to talk about anime, although there will be an exciting development at the beginning of quarter two. I’m going to be covering a manga only series. I have reviewed manga before, most notably in my series of posts focused on Akame ga Kill where I looked at the anime and manga side by side. This one hasn’t received an anime adaptation, but one day, I hope it will. Get your guesses in now as to what series I will be looking at.
- Fire Force
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- The Rising of the Shield Hero
Fire Force shifted gears this week as Shinra was left frustrated that the church was burying his discovery. Luckily, Joker recruited Benimaru to make things right in the craziest way possible.
This is one of those episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood that everyone that has seen it will remember. Absolutely amazing! And to think there are another 54 episodes to go!
When I first watched the second season of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, this was the moment that I knew I would have to go back and cover the entire thing. All the happy feelings and consequence-free victories came back to bite Rimuru hard. The wait was worth it.
And that was the last group of episodes from The Rising of the Shield Hero. This is another show that I’m delighted I decided to go back and cover. I loved it the first time but never got around to writing up any of my thoughts. It would appear that it was worth it as these are some of my favourite posts where I really allowed myself to talk about the elements that spoke to me.
Work in Progress
Ever since we took the decision to reschedule our vacation, I’m felt the pressure lifting. The change in my plan has also opened up so much time for me to get back to writing. I look at the spreadsheet that I use to track my progress to the plan and quarter two is already looking amazing.
Without any seasonal shows, I have got five volumes of the mystery manga series left to do and then the quarter is finished except for Fire Force and my weekly updates. Of course, I’m going to push on with quarter three, but at a calm and considered pace.
Basically, I will have a lot of time to dedicate to my writing and that all begins on Friday once Arifureta has finished. That’s thirteen weeks in which I only have to watch one episode a week and read five mangas. Of course, I will probably do more, but the pressure is off and the freedom from the seasonal shows is invigorating.
I’ve still got lots to do and talk about here, but seeing my schedule clearing up is amazing. I’ve been getting lots of new ideas while walking Gus lately too, so my mind is definitely in early preparation mode.
The Plan
The day job kept me mildly busy and there were some family real-life events that chipped into my time, but I kept everything moving along. It would have been nice to have the whole of quarter two’s historic posts wrapped up, but I have this week to attempt to get that finished.
At some point, I will need to pick up Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood again as I’m currently at episode 24 and am watching them in spurts. There’s no hurry though and with this schedule, I can dip in as and when I have time and also use them as a reward for completing work on my fiction. It’s all coming together now.
Posts
- Quarter One
- Author Journey – 13/13 (+1)
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Seasonal Anime – 34/36 (+3)
- Bonus Posts – 18/18 (+1)
- Quarter Two
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Historic Anime – 34/39
- Seasonal Anime – 1/3 (+1)
- Bonus Posts – 0/13
- Quarter Three
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Historic Anime – 9/39
Basically, I can work at my own pace from here on. If I have time, I can jump into a series for a while, but at the same time, I don’t have the pressure to watch an episode and write a post every week times however many shows I’m watching. I’ve bounced back and forth over time, but I am a binge-watcher. I love to immerse myself in the world and the story and often enjoy them much more that way.
Writing
- MSR (Paranormal Harem Rom-com)
- Plotting – 49/58
- Writing – 43/58
- Editing – 42/58
- Artwork – 0/9
- Valiant Lineage (Epic Dark Fantasy)
- Plotting – 41/41
- Writing – 0/?
- Editing – 0/?
- Artwork – 0/?
- Black Death (Post Apocalyptic Shoujo AI)
- Plotting – 0/?
- Writing – 0/?
- Editing – 0/?
- Artwork – 0/?
- Asteroidea (Horror Science-fiction)
- Plotting – 0/?
- Writing – 0/?
- Editing – 0/?
- Artwork – 0/?
There was no work on the fiction other than the ideas I’m getting on my walks with Gus again, but that was what I had planned for this week. I’m focused on getting everything set up so that I can really dedicate the time I need for this side of things.
Final Thoughts
I managed to survive a week without drastically changing my plan so that makes me think that I’m heading in the right direction. I’m also feeling far more optimistic about it too and can’t wait to get back into it. I’ve had a real stop and start relationship with my writing for a couple of years now, although I’ve no idea why – it’s not like anything big has been going on!!!
For now, I’m going to try to wrap up quarter one and if possible, get quarter two done too. I’ve got a busy week planned, but it’ll be worth it to start the next quarter without anything hanging over me. Will let you know how it goes next week! Thanks for reading and stay safe.
Sounds like skipping a season will give you a ton of time! Wish that would work for me. Unfortunately, where I am right now, I get a lot of interruptions. If I dropped season anime reviews, I could not put that time into novel writing. The interruptions are too frequent to hold a novel’s plot in my mind.
In fact, since I’m applying the proofread edit to book 1, working on the second draft of book 2, and writing book 3, I’m finding subtle inconsistencies. So I’m going to have to widen by series bible. Glad I found those issues before I hit publish!
Only a really observant reader would catch it. But those are the best kind of reader, and I want to reward them with a consistent, well-constructed world!
I’m looking forward to reading some of the reviews that come out of your binge watching. Looking forward to the fiction, too!
I get a lot of interruptions too, but I also find waiting for episodes to drop to be quite a blockage. If I know an episode will come out on a particular day, I find it hard to get into anything else until that’s here.
I almost have all my posts ready for quarter two and everything I’m currently planning for quarter three I can work on whenever. Just having that freedom to react to the free time better will help.
I really needed to try something different as I’ve had too many false starts of late. Once, I have a good routine running, I may look to slowly introduce the seasonal stuff again, although I do generally prefer shows when I binge them.
Either way, it’s all about fiction at the moment. I just need to get the words flowing.
I’m looking forward to picking up a copy of your books too. I also need to put together a series bible as mine currently resides in my head…
Can’t wait to see what I can do with a clear schedule for thirteen weeks.