Author Journey (March 7, 2022)
I spent the week expanding on the outline I pulled together the week before, filling in details, pulling together the foreshadowing, drilling down to the specifics of my magic system, and working out where to add the bath scenes!!!
March 7, 2022
Hot Topic
I don’t think I have any big news this week other than keeping on keeping on. I did start watching two new shows that I am going to move into my schedule for the future. Originally, I was thinking of adding them in as bonus slots to my release schedule, but then I realised it was a trap. Sure, it might seem fairly inconspicuous. Just add another series here and there, but before long, I’ll be posting three times a day again and while I’d love to do that, I need to guard that extra time for writing.
I haven’t written a single word towards any of my stories this week, but my mind has been focused on one. The outline I wrote the week before has occupied my head at all times. I’ve been going through each scene and working out whether it does anything or whether it needs to be cut. So far, they have all survived and I’ve got a much better understanding of what I need to foreshadow and when.
What have I been watching?
Seasonal Anime
It was a good week for all of the shows I’m currently covering from the Winter 2022 schedule. I can’t believe I’m already approaching the end of the season. With three episodes left in each, I imagine they are all going to start to build towards the big finish. Some will be bigger than others, although I have high hopes that all will stick the landing.
In the Land of Leadale was technically the weakest of the three as it killed the penguin kaiju in a sudden flash of electricity. However, Cayna actually met up with some other players and didn’t try to kill them. She did threaten them, but that’s a given.
Princess Connect! Re: Dive is building towards what I believe will be the dark before the light. This episode showed Pecorine crying because she was so happy, but this feels like false hope. Things are going to come crashing down soon. I’m just hoping they can turn back around so that this season doesn’t end on a sad note.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest again managed to deliver an entertaining episode where the characters acted like real people and the plot moved along nicely for a change. Will it end up being too easy for Hajime? Possibly, but it finally feels like he’s earned it.
Historic Anime
So, I got sucked into two more shows and plan on reviewing them in my historic section as none are current seasonal shows. Plus, by the time a slot opens up in my schedule, it’ll have been a while since they aired. As I said, I was looking to add them in, but it makes more sense to stick to three seasonal and three historic a week. Fire Force is the current bonus series and I don’t plan on keeping that slot once it’s over.
- Fire Force
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- The Rising of the Shield Hero
In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Edward and Alphonse read a lot of books and looked at maps. It might sound kind of dull, but it was oddly engaging and time seemed to fly by.
For my series of posts reviewing That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, it was time for the first two OVAs. There are five in total and the last three are all connected so splitting them this way made sense. These are the two more gratuitous OVAs.
It’s almost time for the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero, which is absolutely not why I decided to revisit this series. All right, it is, but it’s still a great series and I’m really pleased with how my thoughts are coming together in the posts.
Work in Progress
Part of me wanted to keep going with the outlining and jump straight into volume two or even one of the other stories I’m working on. However, I decided that I really needed to spend some time with this one and get a few things sorted before moving on. In reality, I think I need to write it before moving on, but having an eye on future events is not a bad idea. Maybe I need to come up with five points for each volume going forward.
Anyhow, I have been thinking about the story a lot, even when I’m not walking Gus, although I am most definitely thinking about it then too. I’ve stopped listening to podcasts on the walks so that I can listen to music and completely zone out. It’s pretty effective.
One of my main thought experiments has been working out how to make the things that happen at the end the natural conclusion. I don’t want there to be any ass-pulls for want of a better term. I’ve come up with a lot of good ideas that will solve these problems before they occur.
Another thing that I’ve been focused on has been my magic system. I had a reasonable idea of how it worked from the novella series, however, I’ve written up a load of backstory and history from the world that fleshes out how it works. It makes more sense now and has quite severe limitations that play into the story and the world.
Another thing has been working out how to get a bath scene into the volume. When I wrote the novella series, I had a running joke that my main character would be naked at some point in every volume. In one, she was naked for the entire thing, which I think added to the horror of the situation. Anyhow, I want to keep that going as a personal joke. I don’t mind if no one else notices.
The Plan
Even with the lack of actual words written, I’m pretty happy with how last week went. I think it was good that I realised what I was walking into with the bonus posts and was able to stop myself. My goal at the beginning of the year was to post daily, which is enough. There are loads of shows that I want to talk about, but I’ll get there. If I get really far ahead of myself, maybe I’ll reconsider.
Posts
- Quarter One
- Author Journey – 10/13 (+1)
- Historic Anime – 39/39
- Seasonal Anime – 25/36 (+3)
- Bonus Posts – 16/18
- Quarter Two
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Historic Anime – 26/39 (+1)
- Seasonal Anime – 0/39
- Bonus Posts – 0/13
- Quarter Three
- Author Journey – 0/13
- Historic Anime – 5/39 (+5)
- Seasonal Anime – 0/39
So, I only scheduled one more post from quarter two, but I did schedule five for quarter three. I have four anime episodes and nine manga volumes to review and that will be the historic posts for quarter two done. The bonus posts are Fire Force season two and since I’m watching that with Yomu, I can’t just binge them all. Need to keep the episode fresh in my head so we can discuss it fairly.
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/?
As I said earlier, no words in any measurable form, but some good work focused on worldbuilding and story mechanics. I know I had some pretty interesting goals for this year in terms of fiction writing and while I haven’t completely given up on that plan, I do want to spend a little more time getting the foundations right. Everything will benefit from that.
Final Thoughts
The series I’m currently focused on is going to be epic. Even when it was a novella series I had planned on there being fifty-two volumes. Now that I’m rewriting it as a novel series, I’m expecting that number to drop a little… maybe. Either way, I currently have the first drafts for the first twenty-six volumes and ironically, I don’t think it would be that much of a stretch to work them all in.
Remember that work doesn’t always have to be tangible. It’s fine to think about something and call that work. Theoretical scientists do it all the time. Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay safe.
That’s been me with my school work. Many of my classes are essay format and sometimes you just have to accept that outlining and just thinking of how you want to approach things is progress!
In my day job, I work in analytics so not having something tangible to measure is hard to get my head around. I agree, though, it all counts towards the bigger picture.