Tag: am writing

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Why I Love Having Multiple Works in Progress

With the exception of this month (because my NaNoWriMo project has absolutely dominated my book time), I always have at least one WIP in the writing stage and one in the editing stage.

But I’ve never really explained why.

Partly because I’ve learned that I can, and since I have a tendency to push myself to the fullest of my capabilities, that means maintaining multiple WIPs.

But it’s also to keep them all fresh and exciting.

It sorta helps to keep the “oh look, a shiny new WIP” syndrome at bay.

No matter what mood I’m in, I have a WIP to suit it. I can pick and choose which one to work on, day by day, hour by hour.

So if I sit down to do some book stuff and don’t feel like fantasy, I can jump into sci-fi instead. If I just don’t want to edit, I can write instead.

That means that I can always make some sort of progress.

And at the end of the day, all that matters is that progress of some sort was made.

Of course, I’ve made an exception for NaNoWriMo, as many writers do. This month is basically the month where a ton of writers collectively lose their damn minds, and for once, I’m not exception.

I’m giving it a go, and my NaNo project has sucked me in.

But even so, I plan to try and sneak in some editing this week. (Because deadlines are a thing, even in the self-publishing world.)

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Work in Progress: Updates and Quarantine Goals

Hi, guys!

Well, I’ve officially joined the ranks of the “unessential.” I work at a tire factory, and several car manufacturers shut down for a short time. So, we stockpiled until our warehouse was full, and now we’re laid off for a couple of weeks.

Which means I now have a shit ton of time to work on my books.

As such, I’ve set a couple of goals for myself over my two week lay-off. Since the original purpose of this blog was accountability, I’m going to share these goals here, and we’ll see how it goes.

  1. I want to finish my first draft of my current WIP, officially titled Allmother Rising. I’m currently sitting at roughly 56,700 words, up 3,300 from last week, and have about 6-8 chapters left.
  2. I want to finish this round of edits on Where Darkness Leads. I have 85 pages left, but it’s basically a rewrite. It’s an older WIP, and I’ve learned so much since I wrote that one.
  3. I want to make some serious progress on my TBR pile. It’s gotten unreasonable of late, and I have so many worlds to jump into.

As of last Monday, I had a fourth goal for the shutdown, which was to complete another full round of edits on A Heart of Salt & Silver (official title).

But I started it that night, and burned through the entire fucking thing over the course of 4 days.

Yes, it’s a more recent work, so I made far fewer mistakes. (Still made some, don’t come at me. I know I’m not perfect. Just fewer mistakes than with older WIPs.)

But I also got sucked in.

Like…I gave myself a proper book hangover. Honestly, I just want to go back and do another round of edits on that one right now, just so I can be in that story again.

The fifth goal I was going to set for the shutdown (deciding on a cover option for A Heart of Salt & Silver) isn’t necessary anymore, either. I had a couple drafts prepared, sitting on my computer. But I was so caught up in that story that I ended up coming up with a new one from scratch that I love even more than the previous variations.

So, I’ll only have three goals for the next two weeks. Finish writing Allmother Rising, finish this round of edits on Where Darkness Leads, and read an absolute fuck ton.

I should probably restrain myself from doing yet another round of edits on A Heart of Salt & Silver until after those are complete, but goddamn.

Lol.

Now, it may seem crass or impolite to be so wrapped up in my own story. But you know what…I don’t care.

We need to be proud of our books.

We need to be confident in what we’ve done.

I know it isn’t perfect. That’s why I’m editing it.

But I fucking love it. Just like I love all my books. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t fucking publish them. I’d hide them away and pretend they never happened. They’d just be weird files on my computer, buried in a file within a file within a file within about four hundred levels of file inception.

But they’re not.

I like them enough to share them with others, which is saying something because I’m not typically a confident person who shares what they’ve made with others. I never have been.

So, while I’m certainly not bragging or saying my work is better than anyone else’s (because I’m not saying that), I’m excited with how all of these projects are turning out so far and with the growth I’ve made over the past few years.

Editing Where Darkness Leads alongside A Heart of Salt & Silver has shown me just how much I’ve learned and how far I’ve come.

So, to all my fellow readers, let’s knock out our TBR piles.

To my fellow writers, let’s be more confident in our work and the progress we’ve made, all while getting tons of stuff done over quarantine.

To people following along for the sake of my books, first of all, fucking thank you. Second, I fully intend to get all of these books out as quickly as I can, while still striving to produce quality work.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even have time to make some progress on The Regonia Chronicles during this lay-off.

For now, though, I’m going to jump into some edits.

Feel free to share your goals in the comments.

Keep reading. Keep writing.

Be fucking proud.

Later.

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How to make it as an author

Hi, guys!

Not only is it a new year, it’s a new decade. (Sick of hearing that yet?) Let’s start this shit off right.

Everyone has dreams. Or at least, everyone should.

But so many people give up on their dreams or spend more time fantasizing about the dream come true aspect than they do actually working for it.

Humans love short cuts and easy little tricks to cut the work load in half. We love the idea of things just happening for us even better.

But.

(Yeah, I know, I’m a terrible person for this next part.)

That isn’t how it works.

Not unless you’re in the 1%.

For the vast majority, making your dreams come true takes time and effort. It takes work.

That’s it.

That’s the big secret, the little trick.

Effort.

Actually. Fucking. Trying.

Some parts will be easier than others, of course. Some parts will be so hard that you want to smash something to bits.

But you still have to put in the time to get to the “dream come true” part.

Now, I’m not 100% there yet. I’m not living my dream, and I admit that freely.

But I intend to, at some point.

As such, even with family visiting for the past couple weeks and the stress/busy nature of the holidays, I’ve still spent time on my books.

I’ve made it through a third of the final round of edits of World for the Broken and put together promotional materials. I did promo stuff for The Gem of Meruna and rereleased it. I even managed roughly 3,500 words (idk exactly, I don’t remember what my word count was a couple weeks ago) on my new WIP and started working on a cover. I know that’s not a lot of words over two weeks, but alongside all the stuff for my other projects, it’s decent.

Basically, even through the holidays, an author’s work never sleeps. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the worlds I’ve built for these stories and want to share them with you.

That means spending time in those worlds, in the minds of those characters. (Which certainly isn’t a bad thing.)

And eventually, that time and effort (spent doing something I love) will lead me to my dream of being a stay-at-home author. Yes, I’m going to daydream about what it would be like to already be there.

But I’m also going to do the work necessary to get there.

That means that when I want to relax, I explore the worlds of my stories more often than the worlds of the video games I used to sink months’ worth of play time into. When I get off a 12 hour shift on a Sunday night and want to go to bed, I still do my blog. Every week. So that I can post it early Monday morning before I go to sleep.

Your schedule will obviously be different from mine, and you can adjust it as need be. But the effort has to be there.

At some point, you have to stop talking about it, stop daydreaming, and just do. Take a step.

No tricks.

No short cuts.

Because that isn’t how life works.

So please, whatever your dream is, give it the time and effort it deserves. “Life” is not an excuse to set your dreams aside. Your shows will still be there after you do some shit to make your dreams happen. So will the closet you keep telling yourself you’ll clean out, so stop staring at it, thinking of what to do with it just to procrastinate. That won’t help you reach your goals.

Life is always going to happen around you. You just have to make things work.

Because when life steps aside, it’s too late for dreams.

Now, that got a little darker than I expected when I started this blog…but what the hell? That’s pretty normal for anything I write.

In short, don’t fucking slack. DO YOUR SHIT.

K, thanks.

Lol.

Keep reading. Keep writing.

Later.