Hello again. With the second quarter a third gone — good Lord, time flies — I thought it was time for an update, a progress report, a spillage of beans, the release of the cat from the proverbial bag . . . y’all get it.
First off, in my last blog post, I discussed the need to reorganize my schedule because of the abundance of time afforded me by working from my phone. Well, in this post, I’m happy to bring said new schedule. But, there aren’t any major changes from my last reshuffle of work — which was fairly recent, haha — so don’t expect any life altering stuff.
I’m still separating my weeks by project — two weeks are dedicated to Echoes in Reed House, while one week will alternate monthly to work on the second book in Our Holy Mother and the collection of short stories in volume one of Project Apocalypse. However, with my increase in time, I’ll test myself by striving for four chapters a week instead of three. The daytime will see the first drafts written, while the following mornings will see them edited to draft two on my walks. If I can’t finish editing the chapter by the end of my walk, I’ll set it aside to finish after I’ve drafted that day’s chapter. This means Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be dedicated drafting days (baring emergencies, of course).
With my weekends now blown wide open, I plan on filming at least one video for my YouTube channel (the one I’ve been planning on doing for a year but haven’t touched? Yeah, that one) every Saturday. Video editing can take place throughout the weeks in my spare time (‘cause I’ve got plenty, obviously) possibly Sunday afternoons, or Monday evenings after I get off work.
The drafting days will be flexible. Because I’m not dedicating an entire day for editing, anymore, It actually gives me Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays as optional work days, meaning I have some wiggle room. I.E., If I have burnout on Thursday, I’d allow myself to work on other things besides drafting — making a blog post, writing character bios for the site, etc. — but Friday and Saturday then become dedicated drafting days to compensate.
And that’s it.
I’m still giving myself the freedom to choose which week is dedicated to the secondary project — whether I start the cycle with the project, squeeze it between ERH (Echoes in Reed House) weeks, or end the cycle with it. I’m still editing each chapter I write in the same week it’s written, I’m just editing it the next day and adding one chapter load to the week.
If this works — because, I’ll readily admit, this is still just an experiment and could change very quickly — then it’ll increase my chapter count from nine to twelve per cycle and take off a good deal of work in the final cycle before my seasonal job, The Hippo Events.
O God . . . it’s the end of May . . . that means the end of ERH is only a couple of months away. I was so wrapped up in my scheduling I didn’t even notice the dates. My baby is almost ready to walk . . . y’all, I don’t think I’m ready for this . . . hold me, haha.
But, setting writing aside for a moment — my Lord, what madness is this? — let’s chat about filming YouTube videos on Saturday.
Filming doesn’t equal uploading — I had to pound that into my own skull for months. I plan to film the first video next Saturday (promises, promises) and edit as I go, but I won’t upload videos until I have around ten edited and ready to go.
This is to make sure I, 1) get into the flow of filming, and 2) generate a stockpile from which to grab so I don’t have to film, edit, and post the same video all in the same week. If I tried that, I’d get no writing done, and I might as well become a lets-player or something. Not the worst thing in the world, but not my passion either.
If anyone has ideas for things that would make for interesting, writing related video content, leave a message and let me know I’m the only one on here.
* Picks up writing and cradles it * I’ll never set you down again, baby — no I won’t. * Stares at y’all * what? Don’t y’all love your children?
. . . in . . . other news. I have something exciting to announce! I must’ve eaten something that imbued me with the glorious power to give names to my work, because OHM b2 now has a working title! May I proudly introduce y’all to the book formerly known as Our Holy Mother book two, Our Holy Mother: Secrets! Or, OHMS for short.
It’s so good to finally have a name for this thing, especially considering it’s around half finished — it saw an increase in chapters from thirty to forty, so it’s still around half finished despite the progress, haha. Now, all my most important babies have names! (Don’t worry PA, you’ll get a name one day . . . eventually . . .)
And, last but not least, I have an update on when exactly I’ll be adding the lingo info and character bios to the site . . . I don’t know. That’s a sucky answer, but an honest one.
The reality is, it takes a long time to create detailed character bios that don’t give away the juicy bits of their story, the devices I use to cast my characters through the plot, or the dadgum plot itself. Couple that with a cast of six POV characters and something like five important secondary/side characters in one book in a series of four — each introducing someone new — and that I plan on making art for them all? It’s quite a bit of work for me to get done in just my spare time (there’s quite a bit of things I’m relegating to my spare time . . . I won’t have much of it if I keep that up.) It’s work I’m happy to do — I love worldbuilding more than writing, sometimes — but I am only one person, and I only have so much time.
That being said, character bios and lingo pages will be created/updated, but slowly. Some will be finished, others half so, and some will be completely blank until I can get around to drawing and typing up everything. It’ll be slow at first, but I will get it done — one way or another — with the amazing assistance of my friend Shelby, who’s helped me with my website from day one . . . literally.
Tech support, alpha-reader, idea-bouncer, hangout pal, a girl that helps me improve this site every time I ask — Shelby, you’re a cool cat. I hope you read this, haha.
Alright y’all, I think that’s everything I had to unload today — if not, I’ll vomit it somewhere else, haha. Stay creative, keep up the good work, and never beat yourself up for your shortcomings — we all have them (I have the most, but that’s my opinion) so don’t feel alone in failure. We’re all failures at something, so who cares? Just stand back up and try again. If the inventor of peanut butter can fail to make a lightbulb one-hundred-something times and still persist with a positive attitude, so can we.
Bye!