Author Journey (November 29, 2021)
As we speed towards the end of yet another crazy year, I’ve decided that enough is enough! So, for all of December, I shall be planning for 2022, which is going to be my best year. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
November 29, 2021
#Blogging
This week was an odd week which didn’t give me the usual chunks of time that I can really dedicate to much, so it turned into an admin week. That entailed cleaning up some pages, changing some links and tweaking some of the behind the scenes stuff on this site. It’s not as glamourous as watching anime, but it needs to be done every once and a while. Of course, I did keep up with my seasonal shows. I wasn’t that busy!
Seasonal Anime
- Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
- Takt Op. Destiny
- The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat
Sigh! Takt Op. Destiny is basically over for me and I’m just going through the motions. I just cannot get into it and every week it seems to do something to pull me further out. There’s bound to be people out there enjoying it, but alas, I am not one of them. That’ll teach me to jump on the week one hype, especially for a series that I had not shortlisted before the start of the season, and I shortlist a lot of shows.
There’s always Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, though, to keep things lively. Luckily, I also have The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat which would have easily been my favourite series had I not been watching Mushoku Tensei at the same time. Regardless, I’m loving both and will be sad when the season is over for these two. Not so much for Tact Op. Destiny…
Historic Anime
Heaven’s Lost Property returned to what it does best – bizarre festival games with obscure literary references. You might not enjoy harems or fan service, but this series is a lot more than that and I would recommend anyone give it a go. There’s so much variety, you’re bound to enjoy some of it, if not all. I know I said that Jujutsu Kaisen was about to get crazy a couple of weeks back, but now, it’s taking it to another level. This series is amazing. And also, how can I forget Hundred. I love that show and will continue to champion it well beyond what might seem normal. It just makes me feel good, which is exactly what I needed when I rewatched it.
#AmWriting
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I was preparing for December to be my month of planning for 2022 and this week, I got a lot of that ready. Similarly to my blogging, I only had small blocks of time to work with so this fit in perfectly. I have a pretty good handle of the four books I intend to write in 2022, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make extra sure.
They are all rewrites or unfinished works so I know the characters inside and out. Well, at least I used to… Since they are rewrites, I am planning on changing a number of elements to make these stories bigger and more satisfactory. They were fun as shorts and novellas, but I always felt that they needed more space to grow into.
On that note, I’ve got a rough idea of the intended length of each book which should give me a good idea of exactly how much time I’ll need to write and edit them. Also, as I’m probably going to be talking about them for the next year at least, I’m going to give them all working names by which to refer to them. First is the paranormal rom-com which is going by MSR which is an acronym for the actual title. If you can guess what it stands for, I’ll send you a free copy as soon as it’s finished.
Then, there is the epic fantasy which I will just call Valiant for now. The actual title is still undecided, but that’s a nice short one that I think hints at the genre. Next comes the rewrite of Black Death which I am going to give a new title before releasing, although Black Death will work for now. The final book is the science fiction monster horror story based on my short story, Asteroidea. I shall call that one Crawford which was the name of the protagonist in the short.
#Planning
Now down to business. As you might guess, there’s a lot of work that goes into planning a trilogy, let alone four. It occurred to me that I should build up a system that will force me to record details about the characters and the story as it progresses – a series bible. That will help me to dive straight back into each story as I bounce between them.
Before you ask, I know that I would probably be better off writing three books in one series before moving on to the next one. That would make a lot more sense. However, I quite like the idea of stretching myself across genres and this way, I have four chances to grab a reader. It also fits with my insane need to challenge myself.
So, this week I’ve been building the templates for the stories which have given me the number of chapters I will need for each. It’s always subject to change as the story evolves, but the initial estimated word count is standing at two-hundred and sixty thousand words. Great news, I once wrote that many words in half a year. Now, if I can just get the plot finalised over the next month this should be pretty comfortable.
On top of the template of the plots, I have created character sheets for all of the important characters at this stage which gives me nineteen to complete. There will be more characters and I’m certain I’ll add more as I go. In the end, I’ll have a pretty comprehensive collection that will make the process that much smoother. My goal over the next five weeks is to give myself the best start possible for 2022.
And as I have all these templates on Google Docs, I can access that anytime anywhere because I always have my phone on me and can quickly type some notes down without having to run to my laptop. I can even do it on my walks with Gus… if it weren’t already below zero here. At least Gus loves the snow and will not let me miss a walk.
Eventually, once the books start to come out, I’ll look at converting all my resources into a wiki of sorts. Then, if you’re interested, you can see how I put this all together. It’ll be a road map if you want to write four trilogies in three years too… Or, you could just use them to write one… if you want to be boring… just kidding! Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay safe.
