Author Journey (September 23, 2024)

I’ve put together a good streak in the exercise department, completing ten kilometres every day for twenty days in a row! Now, I just need to have the same sort of breakthrough with my writing…

Author Journey (September 23, 2024)

Favourite Moment!

So, the goal I set myself was to complete ten kilometres a day (6.2 miles in the old currency) and I’ve achieved that for twenty days. That may sound crazy, but the reality is even better. My average over those twenty days is 11.81 km. I’ve started increasing my speed on the treadmill, so that number should slowly climb which is pretty exciting. On top of that, I’m already starting to crave my running sessions and that makes it much easier to keep going. There were two days when I knew that I would struggle to fit three sessions in because of family and work commitments, so I did one session just after midnight. That’s right, I was running and watching anime in the middle of the night more than once…

Tracking my progress has always been a big factor in anything I’ve succeeded in and this is no different. Seeing those numbers going up as the streak continues is a huge motivator. I do the same for the amount of anime I watch, the volumes of manga I read, and even the blog posts I write. I was doing the same with my fiction writing back when I was writing more than fifty thousand words every month for more than half a year. I know I can do it. I just need to actually start which seems to be my biggest issue. I’ve had a couple of failed starts, but once I find one that sticks, I can see things falling back into place again. Don’t worry, I’m not about to give up anytime soon. I’m too stubborn to quit!

The Week That Was…

I kicked off the week by diving into The New Gate which seems to have borrowed ideas from Sword Art Online, Overlord, and many other VRMMORPG-style shows. Overall, it wasn’t terrible, but there was a lot it could have improved on. I’m hoping to have the review for that ready this week. I used the first thirteen treadmill sessions to watch part two of Spy x Family and thoroughly enjoyed that. After that, I decided to finally catch up on season two of The Rising of the Shield Hero. I’m two-thirds of the way through and I’m not enjoying it as much as I had hoped… After finishing The New Gate, I jumped straight into As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World. That leaves five seasons from Spring 2024 that I planned on watching before I move onto the Summer 2024 schedule which has mostly finished.

I’ve been struggling to build much of a buffer of scheduled posts, which leaves me mostly working about a week ahead. That doesn’t fill me with ease so I’ve been trying to work on that. As such, I read six manga volumes this week and plan on trying to do the same again. Having a nice big buffer will allow me to do other things without the pressure of having to get blog posts written in time. I’ve also got a lot of books that I haven’t read and with the way the new releases keep coming, I’d really like to catch up so that I can review new releases somewhat close to their release date.

My last moment of success in writing came when I did NaNoWriMo a few years back and had all my posts scheduled for the month, allowing me to focus solely on that. I’m not planning anything quite so elaborate, but having a month’s worth of posts would definitely free up my mind to write and draw. And I’ve just proven to myself again how well my mind works with small frequent tasks. Hopefully, it’ll all come together soon.

Anime!

• Re:Monster (Season One)
• Delicious in Dungeon (Season One) – Dungeon Meshi
• The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases (Season One) – Dekisokonai to Yobareta Motoeiyuu wa Jikka kara Tsuihou sareta node Sukikatte ni Ikiru Koto ni Shita

Manga!

• Parallel Paradise (Volume 3) – My Last Moon…
• Free Life Fantasy Online: Immortal Princess (Volume 2) – Let Me Be Your Ruler
• Kaiju No. 8 (Volume 6) – An Incredible Next Generation!

Goals

Tasks	Goal	Completed
Anime Watched	3 Episodes	34 Episodes
Manga Read	3 Books	6 Book
Posts Scheduled	7 Posts	10 Posts
Chapters Written	2	0 Chapters
Chapters Edited	2	N/A
Artwork	Cover	N/A

Aspirations for the week!

Before my extended summer vacation, I was regularly putting together ten-plus blog posts a week, but since returning, this was the first week I hit ten. That’s something I need to change in order to build a nice secure buffer of posts. With the way the day job is going (with the time-wasting partial return to the office) and the volatility of real-life family events, having a buffer is going to be crucial to my mental well-being and without that, there’s no way I’m going to be able to write or draw.

I also have an anime series that I’d like to start doing episode reviews for so I’m probably going to start putting those together. At the moment, I’m thinking of releasing two of those a week and one season review, but that’ll change if I end up getting too far ahead. With all my running, I’m getting through twenty-one episodes a week on the treadmill and I’m bound to keep watching before bed as well, so I should have plenty to work with. Plus I want to really get through some of my books. I have way too many that I haven’t read and with all the preorders slowly coming in too, I need to make a dent in that.

Basically, I have a lot to do to find a calm place that will allow me to get creative again. I have some plans in place and the exercise is definitely helping. Maybe it was the piece that I was missing. I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve always been incredibly active so losing an entire year to injuries was a big blow. Anyway, I’ve got loads to do, so, as always, thanks for reading!

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