Author Journey (October 24, 2022)

The Otaku Author Journey October 24 2022

Well, that was the most productive week I’ve had in a while. I watched anime, read manga, listened to audiobooks, and wrote more words in a week than I’d done in ages. It feels good when everyone… I mean everything comes together.

October 24, 2022

Hot Topic

Last week, I wrote eight chapters of my book – The Beach (placeholder title) which took me to the end of the first arc. It felt good and not just because I had originally started writing this story back in 2015 as the first in a series of short stories. The draft I found in my folders was just under four thousand words. Since my attempt to make serialised short fiction work back in 2018, I have decided to work on longer stories. This one should work similarly to light novels where there is a more episodic feel to things. There are probably another four more episodes before it all comes together.

So, the short story that was almost finished at four thousand words is now just over thirteen thousand words. It’s far more risque than anything I’ve written before, but I think it has a good balance of humour and smut. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the story turns out. It could still end up occupying all my writing time throughout the whole of NaNoWriMo. It’s going to be epic smut!

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 40 Young Hohenheim and the Dwarf in the Flask
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 40) – The Dwarf in the Flask

What have I been watching/reading?

And I got back to watching anime this week. I started watching a new series. I’m six episodes in and so far I’m loving it. As much as I have loved reading a boatload of manga, I have missed watching as much anime. This week was more balanced and that’s on top of the bumper writing week. I only read five manga volumes, which is still good as I’ll be releasing four reviews a week in 2023. As long as I read and review four every week, I’ll keep moving forward.

So, here’s what I posted last week.

I loved the final episode of Record of Ragnarok. Absolutely loved it!

Mieruko-chan just gets better and better. So creepy!

This is the sort of huge reveal I’ve been waiting for with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Of course, it just raises more questions.

This was as far as I got on the first time I tried to watch Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen. It’s not that I hated it, but I find the tonal shifts so infuriating.

It’s festival time in My Wife is the Student Council President! so grab your yukata!

That’s right, we’re entering the Sankarea: Undying Love takeover as I now have weekly episode and volume reviews, plus there will be bonus posts and discussion posts every couple of weeks.

Sankarea Episode 5 Ranko acting sweet
Sankarea: Undying Love (Episode 5) – If She’s a Zombie… That Means…

Work in Progress

I managed to write every single day and even got an extra session in on Monday. That meant I finished the week with eight chapters or almost nine-thousand words. I’m really excited with how well this went and am loving the story so far. It’s definitely at the far end of the ecchi scale, possibly even drifting into the forbidden zone – hentai! Don’t worry, there are no tentacles though.

I really wasn’t expecting this first arc to be this long and am excited to see how long the entire thing ends up being. This is a story that I think I would look at putting into Kindle Unlimited or even Vella if they make it available in Canada. A longer book will do better in Kindle Unlimited, especially if it has re-readability.

Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba Yuukau hen Episode 2 Zenitsu Tanjiro and Inosuke
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen (Episode 2) – Infiltrating the Entertainment District

The Plan

As I try to balance out my weeks, I’m looking into coming up with a set of weekly targets. They won’t be hard targets but more as an indicator of how well the week went. I think it’s too easy to give yourself a hard time when things don’t go as you’d hoped, even if things were still very productive. As a rough idea, it will likely be around my ability to keep my progress alive. That would involve watching nine episodes of anime and reading four volumes of manga each week. Plus, I want to keep the writing going. A chapter a day would be ideal, but I already know that’s not always going to work.

Posts

  • 2022
    • Author Journey – 43/52 (+1)
    • Review Posts – 247/247
    • Review Pages – 131/131
    • Inktober – 5/5
    • Specials – 0/2
  • 2023
    • Quarter One
      • Author Journey – 0/13
      • 08:00 Posts – 59/78 (+6)
      • 14:00 Posts – 33/52 (+4)
      • 20:00 Posts – 39/39
    • Quarter Two
      • Author Journey – 0/13
      • 08:00 Posts – 15/78
      • 14:00 Posts – 2/52 (+1)
      • 20:00 Posts – 3/39
    • Quarter Three
      • Author Journey – 0/13
      • 08:00 Posts – 0/78
      • 14:00 Posts – 1/52 (+1)
      • 20:00 Posts – 0/39

So, I might have scheduled a post for quarter three of 2023… lol!

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 – 12 (+8)
    • Words – 13,337 (+8,774)

That’s the sort of progress I want to see every week. A chapter a day would give me five or six novels a year!


Final Thoughts

So, I bounced back from the disappointment of the prior week in style and hope to keep that trend going. I am aware that I have had a bit of a yo-yo effect going lately so my focus will be on maintaining progress this week and any growth will be a bonus. Now, if you don’t mind I’ve got another smut-filled arc to get on with. I’m going to need a very long cold shower when this is finished…

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

My Wife is the Student Council President Episode 14 Rin is getting angry
My Wife is the Student Council President! (Episode 14) – Late Summer Festival with the Disciplinary Committee Head


Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

4 Comments

    • EPIC!!!

      I plugged the numbers into my rough plan and it’s telling my it’ll be around 150k words… I think I may break that into three books. That’s a lot of smut… maybe even too much!

What did you think?