Author Journey (May 8, 2023)

2023 05 08 The Otaku Author Journey

Last week, I had lots of time to think. Then I watched a series that revealed some things that I already knew but for whatever reason had pushed to one side. I was not expecting a wake-up call from Domestic Girlfriend of all things.

Author Journey (May 8, 2023)

I’d love to be able to say that I spent the entire week resting my sore back, but alas that was not the case. I ended up with both kids off school with a nasty cold so not a lot of recovery time was afforded me. It wasn’t all bad, however, as I took a week off work and had no real plans on how I was going to spend my time. That meant I had a lot of time to think, and think I did. There have been some things that I’ve been struggling to come to terms with that benefited from this forced break. Then, the most unexpected thing happened…

The Weekly Recap!

I had set myself zero goals for the week and that was a good thing. It allowed me to relax. I think that’s what got my mind working away, but it wasn’t until I watched an entire season of anime over three nights that I saw the light. That anime was Domestic Girlfriend and it may have just changed my life… I know, crazy right, but if you’ve not seen it then I would absolutely recommend it.

So, for a week with zero targets, I ended up watching thirty-three episodes of anime. Sleep was not easy with a herniated disc in my spine so that’s pretty much what I did at night. I watched two whole twelve-episode seasons and my kids wanted to start watching One Piece so we got through some episodes of that. Good times!

I had also planned on reading no books, but I couldn’t help myself. Once the kids went back to school on Friday, I curled up in my Lazyboy and read one manga volume. More good times. That chair is ideal for my current situation, so I may use it more this week.

I didn’t do any writing or drawing, but I did put together six posts for the future, including this one. That was more than I imagined when I created my plan for the week while the pain of being in the hospital for fourteen hours was still fresh in my mind. It’s been an interesting week, but it’s the revelations that were most profound.

TasksGoalCompleted
Anime Watched0 Episodes33 Episodes
Manga Read0 Books1 Book
Posts Scheduled0 Post6 Posts
Chapters Written0 Book Outlines0 Book Outlines
Artwork Completed0 Sketches0 Sketch

Aspirations for the Week!

I’m not going to set any goals again this week as I’m still not sure how things are going to pan out. I may end up taking more time off from the day job as I can’t sit at the desk for long. I can’t stand for long either, so I’m forever shifting and moving in the hopes of finding a comfortable spot. Also, thanks to Domestic Girlfriend, I have some changes to make to my long-term plans which will impact my weekly goals.

Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World Episode 7 Roxanne has an idea for Michio

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been following this site for a while you’ll be aware of my struggles to find balance between blogging and writing fiction. A long time ago, I only used to do season reviews. Then, I got caught up in the episodic reviewing format and that pretty much took over. Admittedly, I was struggling with my fiction writing so it was the perfect escape as I could keep writing… just not fiction. Then, Domestic Girlfriend hit me with the truths that I’ve been avoiding. Basically, the main character wants to be an author but he gets caught up in his own head. Well, that’s been me for the longest time now.

So, after binge-watching two seasons in a week, I have come to realise that I need to get back to that. I need to watch more without the need to write up everything. My compromise is going to be that I will write a season review and some analytical pieces about things that grab me. That way, I will keep this site chugging along. However, once the existing backlog of episode reviews is published, I will be moving away from episodic reviews. Maybe not forever, but for now at least. My book reviews will continue as normal.

It’s a tough decision as I’ve spent a lot of time working on this site in this format, but I think it’s the most effective way to get the best of everything. My favourite posts to write have been the analytical ones that I did for My Dress-up Darling, Reincarnated as a Slime, and Shield Hero so it’s going to be good to do more like that. It’s going to free up more time for me to write fiction and draw, which is what I really need.

Big changes are coming soon. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.


8 Comments

    • I enjoyed it for the obvious reasons too, but I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head. It’s been a week and I’m still thinking about it. There were some fantastic moments of clarity for me like it was holding up a mirror and forcing me to look at myself.

    • One reason I liked it was that it looked like an honest attempt to see what a harem story might look like if it wasn’t a comedy.

    • It does a great job of showing just how messy a real-life harem would be. Poor Natsuo didn’t know how to react half the time. The stress of it all must have been unbearable. No wonder he broke so many times.

    • I liked how he treated that one girl who cut herself for attention. She said she needed to just be able to sit down for dinner with someone and he made her dinner and sat down with her. I thought that was touching.

    • That was one of my favourite moments too. I showed that he could be considerate and reasonable which also showed how his love for Hina took that away and left them making bad decisions.

  1. Sounds like a tough decision, but one that’ll help you hit your goals.

    My wife has suggested — several times — that I curtail my blogging to make more time for novel writing. The trouble is, I write the blog (partly) because I need to fill times when I cannot guarantee, or even optimistically hope for, uninterrupted writing time. And for me at least, to keep the novel’s threads straight, I really need uninterrupted time.

    During the times I’m writing a single blog post, I might get interrupted a dozen times.

    Now, to my wife’s point, I’ve allocated any uninterrupted blocks to novel writing. I never write blog posts from 10:00 to noon on weekends.

    Still, it would be nice to have more control over my time.

    I’ll be interested to see how your decision plays out!

    • It was and it wasn’t, if you know what I mean. I’ve been doing episode reviews on this site since 2019 and for a while before that on my previous site. However, when I ask myself if I want to be the person that reviewed tons and tons of anime episodes or the person that published a hundred books, I know exactly which one I want to be. There’s no question in my mind. No hesitation with the answer.

      It’s hard because I’ve been doing it for so long and put so much time and effort into the site that it feels like I am turning my back on it, but I’m not. I’m just evolving the content to allow me to work on my main priority. I’m going to do enough to keep this site ticking over nicely because I love it and want it to continue. I just had to change some things around.

      I’ll admit the uninterrupted blocks of time are a problem for me too, but I’m going to do my best to get over that problem. I think my plans will help. I know that when I was at my peak for fiction writing, I was writing 3-5 thousand words a day Monday to Friday without fail. I just need to rediscover that.

      Hopefully, I’ll have a lot more to report in my weekly updates. Of course, that’s once my back is feeling a little better. Can’t sit at my desk for too long at the moment, but I’m sure things will be better soonish.

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