Author Journey (October 18, 2021)

Now that I’ve got my schedule running smoothly again, I thought it might be fun to reflect on how far I’ve come. Get ready for a brief journey through time… oh, and there will be statistics. Buckle up!

October 18, 2021

#Blogging

I’ve definitely lucked out on my return to seasonal anime as the three shows that I am now covering are all looking to be a lot of fun. Crazy to think that two of them weren’t a part of my original plan. Well, we’re two weeks in and I’m glad that things have worked out this way. Just in case you weren’t sure, these are the shows:

• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
• Takt Op. Destiny
• The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat

I was looking to cover The Faraway Paladin but after one episode, I think it’s going to be one that will be best viewed in a binge session. That’s fine as I have enough posts for one a day with the other half of my schedule. Those are shows from previous seasons. Some I’ve seen before and want to rewatch and talk about them and others are shows that I wanted to catch up on because I missed them when they aired. The current lineup is as follows:

• Heaven’s Lost Property
• How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω
• Jujutsu Kaisen

It’s a good mix as Heaven’s Lost Property is one that I have seen before and loved. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω is the second season of a show that I also love (although the second season isn’t going so well). And, finally, Jujutsu Kaisen was one I missed when it aired and thought that I should see what all the hype was about. The best thing about covering seasons that have already aired is that I can work on future posts. Full disclaimer, I have finished all of those seasons and have begun working on the next three.

This allows me to fully immerse myself in the shows when I’m watching and reviewing them. I can also be more flexible with my workloads. If I find I have a little more time than I’d originally planned, I can watch the next episodes and get back to work (I say work, but this really is playing). It helps me feed my need to be productive and reduce the pressure of trying to keep up with a full lineup of seasonal shows.

At present, I have sixty-four posts scheduled and it feels pretty good. For my non-seasonal posts, I am working on posts for February 2022 and beyond. One of the things, I really like about the new schedule where I cover a mix of older and current shows is that it gives me a bit of balance. I’m free to keep working, but I also get to talk about current shows and watch them alongside other bloggers. I had missed the discussions that watching seasonal anime creates.

So, after almost two years (and several more on my old sites) bouncing back and forth between seasonal and non-seasonal shows, I think I have the setup that will allow me to keep the posts coming, remain current, and spend time diving into shows that mean something to me. It really is the best of both worlds.

Believe it or not, I actually have all of 2022 mapped out… It does change fairly frequently, but that also plays to my strengths – Futuristic and Strategic. If anything, I think this new schedule plays into all of my strengths from the Clifton Strengths test I completed in February.

#AmWriting

The week before, I managed to edit fifteen chapters, but sadly this week has been a bust. Rather unsurprisingly, it has coincided with my busy period at work in which it takes up a lot of my time in the day and the evenings. One of the downfalls of my work being cyclical. My reports are at the end of the chain as well so any delays get piled on to me because everyone still wants it as normal regardless of what happened before me…

So, as I haven’t much to report, I thought it would be interesting to have a little look back at how far I’ve come as a writer. One of the reasons that I started blogging was to give myself more time to write and develop some good habits. One thing that I think shows off this progress is the weekly reports from Grammarly. It’s an editing tool similar to spellchecker but with more functions.

As you can see (although it may be a little small), I have written for 83 weeks in a row. Don’t worry though, that 7,381,854 words checked is for a much longer period. Annoyingly, Chrome did something and the plugin was deactivated for a week so it broke my previous streak. Those words are from blog posts and fiction. I write pretty much every day now and split my time where possible. I’m happy with the habit and feel quite odd when I don’t get to sit down and write.

In other news, the author I was originally working on the Black Death trilogy with has put together his part of the story and is releasing it as a standalone novel. It’s got me thinking about doing the same with my part. The hardest thing with the collaborative novel was trying to get the timings in the story to work so fixing it up as a one-off should be far simpler. It would need some changes to the final part, but it shouldn’t be a ton of work.

Once I have my current project finished, I think I’ll revisit it. It would be a shame to let it just sit there and collect digital dust. I’m hoping to have my evenings back next week so expect some more editing. Anyhow, thanks for reading and stay safe.

---

---