Author Journey (October 31, 2022)

I was half expecting a comedown after the previous week’s productivity and I was right. However, some habits are starting to form, making it a tiny bit easier to keep going in the face of adversity.

October 31, 2022

Hot Topic

At least one of the kids was home from school every day last week. Sure, it’s nice having them around and I’m not going to send them to school feeling ill, but it doesn’t half impact things. However, it was not my first rodeo so I was prepared. This is where insane preparations come in. Currently, I have 226 scheduled posts. That is not a typo. The number is actually two-hundred and twenty-six. That means I can afford to slow down from time to time.

However, I had a great week of writing and am now on a fourteen-day streak. The more I write, the easier it’s becoming to jump back in. I’m averaging 1,200 words a day and I’m delighted that I kept that going even with the kids being home. Admittedly, I didn’t watch any anime, but that was a reasonable sacrifice. This week, the kids should be back at school and I can look at increasing my word count, especially as NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow!

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What have I been watching/reading?

As I mentioned above, I didn’t watch any anime this week. That means that I am still halfway through a series that I’m really enjoying. Hopefully, I’ll finish that this week. I have been able to keep up with my manga though. That’s a happy byproduct of the day job and working from home. I work in data analytics and consequently, there’s a lot of my day where the computer is busy working away and I have to wait for it. Working from home means I can pick up a book and read. In the office, I had to sit there and stare at the screen until it was finished. I read five books, taking my total for the year to ninety-three. I love working from home.

Anyhow, here’s what I posted last week.

I published my season review for Record of Ragnarok. It had some great moments and some not-so-great, but I’d definitely watch more.

This was the episode where Mieruko-chan took its game to another level. Absolutely staggering.

Some great lessons in this episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. There’s a lot to learn from this show in general though.

This was a great episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen. See, they can portray emotions without going over the top. More of that, please!

Time to introduce a new girl in My Wife is the Student Council President! Well, why not?

Just three posts dedicated to Sankarea: Undying Love this week… An episode review, a discussion post, and a manga review. If you want to know about Sankarea, you’ve come to the right place.

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Work in Progress

Even with the pressures on my time, I managed to write every day. I added seven chapters at just over eight thousand words and that took the total word count for the draft to over twenty thousand words. That’s a nice landmark, especially as RIP Tide was only eighteen thousand words. Of course, this is a novel and RIP Tide was a novella, however, in The Beach I’ve just introduced the mentor figure which is usually at the end of the first quarter.

That means I should be looking at around eighty thousand words for the complete first draft. So, with NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow, I think I’ll be tracking my progress with this story as I attempt to finish the first draft. Then, it’ll be time to go back to RIP Tide and begin the editing phase. It feels great to have this side of my work really going again.

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The Plan

If I can keep up with NaNoWriMo’s pace, I’ll be doing a chapter and a half a day through November. Admittedly, I don’t tend to stop mid-chapter so I may get a little more out of it. Maybe, I’ll try for three chapters every two days. That might work.

I’m also getting close to completing my new set of posts for quarter one of 2023 focused on manga. I’ve currently read and reviewed thirty-six first volumes. I have another sixteen to go and then I’ll get on with the second volumes where applicable. I realise this will take forever to finish certain series, so things will adapt as we go. For now, I’m throwing myself into as many stories as possible.

Posts

• 2022
  • Author Journey – 44/52 (+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
    • 14:00 Posts – 36/52 (+3)
    • 20:00 Posts – 39/39
  • Quarter Two
    • Author Journey – 0/13
    • 08:00 Posts – 15/78
    • 14:00 Posts – 5/52 (+3)
    • 20:00 Posts – 3/39
  • Quarter Three
    • Author Journey – 0/13
    • 08:00 Posts – 0/78
    • 14:00 Posts – 1/52
    • 20:00 Posts – 0/39

Blogging continued at an acceptable pace. There’s nothing quite like being flexible!

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 – 19 (+7)
  • Words – 21,555 (+8,217)

I’m still going strong, still enjoying the process, and most importantly, still enjoying the story.

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Final Thoughts

I mentioned the yo-yo effect in the last post and I was mostly joking. Glad to see the universe has a sense of humour and made me eat those words. Jokes on the universe though as I continue to maintain my posts and get through more writing. The good habits are forming. Now, I just need to see if I can increase the output, provided I don’t have any more Real Life Family Events to contend with this week. Oh, and happy Halloween.

Anyhow, don’t eat too much candy and thanks for reading.

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