I feel like I’ve stepped into a time warp, but my analytics have proved something about my timing. You see, I set out to draft a book in three months at the start of the year. It didn’t happen. However, I’m at the usual pace of every draft written since late 2020. I average 30K words written a month including blog posts.
So what kinds of things impede actual writing?
Reformatting your computer from scratch - lost a week in January.
Sign making business - random requests to make a design by hubby and then a few days around sign setup and test at a church fundraiser. Now it is figuring out logistics of business and insurance for displaying at markets and such.
Family time because you never know when you won’t have them around anymore.
Cats. This shouldn’t need explaining.
My fault of getting too many emails from various writing groups and people.
Classes and reading craft books because you can’t stop learning how to improve.
Reading books for the fun of it. I honestly don’t do this enough this year. I also find reading helps me write better seeing how other people have done things. It inspires me to learn how to expand my voice and style.
Some fun time with friends in online games since I live in the boonies!
The business side of writing. I have some big decisions to make here.
Council of Light Update
I have 85% drafted, so I got 25% of the book written since my last update. It had a few details to work out with some world building. I also have at least three things to note for when I go into editing phase. One of those is the fixing of gazes, smiles, and other repeated expressions that I always have. In draft mode, I try to switch things up, but sometimes I just need to get the idea down for later massaging. This is where an emotion thesaurus and a guide about look/gaze come in handy for edit mode.
I have a couple of busy days next week, but most of my writing time will be in this book. I’m sure of what I want to do, but I have a couple of what ifs to try out. I’m sure this will be the last book in this series.
It, however, has led to the idea for another book, possibly a series, in Karnum’s future. However, I also have some things of Karnum’s past in the works, or hiding in the archives of old writing ideas, to work on.
I’ve only just begun this writing journey.
Another Serial?
I have a science fiction piece I want to do this with, but I won’t have time for it until after drafting Council of Light. I want to see what I can do with it during the three to four-week break I take between drafting and editing of the book. I know it will need work because it is a rough draft. It’ll get me back into editing and rewriting mode.
May through August
This will include some business changes and working on having a better web presence. I am hoping to have a way to sell direct set up. I also plan ongoing wide by the time I publish Council of Light. I’ve stepped into publishing slowly so I could learn things about it and how I relate to marketing. It might not happen until September because I do not know some of the timing of the pieces involved. I’m also doing a lot of this myself so far.
Conclusions
There is no fear of me not writing stories well into the future as long as I can function to do so. However, yours truly has discovered the truth of her timing and abilities. Not a bad thing. I know what I need to tweak and I can better schedule my time in the future. Most importantly, I’m still having a ton of fun with this author gig.