Author Journey (October 10, 2022)
I have failed… however, failure gives us the chance to grow, so is it really failing? Well, yes, but I’m going to put a positive spin on this because I’m in a good mood despite that. I also had some successes so, it’s all good!
October 10, 2022
Hot Topic
So, Inktober was fun for a little while. Then, I realised just how much time it was taking up. I also didn’t like the fact that I felt like I had to get something ready faster than I would have liked to have. Anyhow, it was a good experience and it taught me that I still love to draw and I want to do more of it. I just want to take my time and make something that I can be really proud of. I have a couple of book covers that I’ve started working on so I’ll try to give some updates when I have something worthwhile.
I realised just how difficult this was going to be when I learned that my kids had a day off on Friday and that Monday was a public holiday. That would be four days when I would struggle to get anything else done. It became too much. I’m glad I was able to realise it near the beginning of the process and made the decision to step back. I’ve often struggled with that side of things, putting myself through things just to complete them. This proves to me that it’s all right to not finish everything. Plus, I did get a lot of other things done.
What have I been watching/reading?
Last week I talked about watching the Studio Ghibli movie Castle in the Sky with the kids. Well, I did it again. This time we watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and they were captivated. They went to bed talking about giant bugs and toxic jungles saving the world. That was a real highlight of the week for me. Who knows what we’ll be watching in a couple of weeks? I wonder when they’ll be ready for Akira!
My dive into the world of manga continues, reading another twelve volume ones this week. Amazingly, I still have a number of volume ones to get through and some that are still on hold at the library. My currently reading list on MAL has exploded and it’s only going to get longer. I have no regrets though as I have read some incredible books in the process. I can’t wait to start sharing some of my reviews.
Anyhow, here’s a quick look at what I posted last week.
I love this fight in Record of Ragnarok. The last four episodes made the series for me.
Last week, I started publishing a new set of posts for the series Mieruko-chan which is well worth checking out.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood really is that good. I never doubted it, but it’s nice to see it for yourself.
I put together a safe-for-work season review of My Wife is the Student Council President! so you can find out what it’s about without worrying about the ecchi side of things. It was surprisingly good in my opinion.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation finished with the battle between Evil-Lyn and Teela which is how I felt it should have gone. It was a good ending, but the series as a whole could have been better.
I published another episode review from Sankarea: Undying Love and am still surprised with how much more I enjoyed it on the rewatch.
Work in Progress
On Wednesday, I realised that not only was I going to stop doing Inktober but that I had put nowhere near enough planning into Swap Isekai. I had an interesting opening and a great premise, but I had no middle. I knew what I wanted to happen, but no specifics. That was making it hard to dive back in. So, I made a tough decision and put Swap Isekai on hold until I had done more planning. A lot more.
This is where my endless list of projects comes into play. That’s right, I started work on another story instead. This one has a title that I love and a simple premise that should allow me to have a lot of fun with it. I also put together an outline and promptly got to work. I am already three chapters in and with the outline I have, it should just be a case of writing daily. If everything works out, I could be able to finish it for NaNoWriMo.
The Plan
Way back in 2018, I managed to read one hundred and three manga volumes. It was my best year by a long way. Currently, I’m at seventy-five for the year and at the rate I’m going, I should breeze past one hundred. It was probably a crazy idea to add this to my schedule, but I have no doubts it was the right thing to do now. There are so many books I’ve wanted to read but never had the impetus to do it. Now, I do!
Admittedly, I have shifted my focus quite heavily towards manga of late, but that’s just to get things going. I’m going to slow things down to no more than one a day which will allow me to start to catch up on all those shows that I’ve added to my watch list. Basically, things are going great here and the fact that I am writing too is a huge bonus.
Posts
- 2022
- Author Journey – 41/52 (+1)
- Review Posts – 235/235
- Review Pages – 131/131
- Inktober – 5/5 (+3)
- Specials – 0/2
- 2023
- Quarter One
- Author Journey – 0/13
- 08:00 Posts – 65/78
- 14:00 Posts – 23/52 (+11)
- 20:00 Posts – 39/39
- Quarter Two
- Author Journey – 0/13
- 08:00 Posts – 15/78
- 14:00 Posts – 1/52
- 20:00 Posts – 3/39
- Quarter One
I love how varied my selections have been with the manga that I’ll be looking at. I have already tackled loads of different genres and have more to get to.
Writing
- MSR (Paranormal Harem Rom-com)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Valiant Lineage (Epic Dark Fantasy)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Black Death (Post-Apocalyptic Shoujo AI)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Asteroidea (Horror Science-fiction)
- Chapters – 0
- Words – 0
- Out of Time (Time-travel Murder Mystery)
- Chapters – 7
- Words – 7,423
- RIP Tide (Zombie Novella)
- Chapters – 17
- Words – 18,261
- Swap Isekai (Isekai)
- Chapters – 9
- Words – 10,146
- The Beach (Ecchi)
- Chapters – 3 (+3)
- Words – 3,471 (+3,471)
I didn’t want to put Swap Isekai on hold, but the story wasn’t fully formed yet. I’m excited to see how The Beach (working title, the actual one is too good to share just yet) goes.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it. I failed to keep Inktober going, but I have more than enough to be happy about. Things are moving in all directions and I get to watch anime with the kids. With the writing, I’m delighted that I can stop one project and jump straight into another. It helps that I have a folder full of partial projects that I can get back to at the drop of a hat. I really want to get this one finished by the end of November so I can spend a bit of time on the editing side of things in December. It would be nice to have a couple of projects ready to go live in the New Year.
Anyhow, thanks for reading.
