The Writings on the Wall #22

Making new plans

Sep 06, 2023

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I wish there were some way to slow down time...

I mean, seriously, it’s already September! Three more months and it’ll be Christmas. How depressing is that?

Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but it feels like the last one was just last month.

Anyway.

In other news, it’s been yet another frustrating month where I didn’t get to do most of the stuff I wanted to do. What’s my excuse this time? I couldn’t even say. Procrastination, I guess. Born from frustration. Frustration because I messed up my outline and it screwed up my plans for “The Evernow Canticles.”

I’d intended to write and publish the final three volumes in that series before the end of the year, but now it’d be a miracle if I got even one done.

So what happened? Well, I’d structured my outline for Book 2 last year, planning to do 200 scenes at an average of 600 words, for a total of 120k (Book 1 has 114k).

The thing is, I’ve learned since that my comfort zone is in the 800-1000 range. So it’s what I got used to doing in all these months. And when I started writing “Everday,” I totally forgot that I was supposed to aim for 600!

It’s only 40k words in, when I noticed I hadn’t even done a quarter of the book, that I realized my mistake. Such a stupid one. I could kick myself.

I talked about it on Notes a few weeks back and have been sulking ever since.

Well, maybe not sulking, but I’m definitely frustrated—thus the procrastination.

Mind you, I haven’t been totally inactive. I’ve been working on my Screen Views blog posting reviews and published two TV-related books (with a third on the way). I also realized that, if I wanted to publish another novel before the end of the year (and I do!) I needed to shift gear and focus on something else. Because while I think I’ve found an okay solution to fix the series, it’s gonna take me a while to rework my structure and outline.

So I’m prepping a thriller I’ve had in mind for a while. And while I do this, I’m soon going to start writing Book 3 of Through the Stars, Darkly. Those are usually easy and fast to write, so I’m confident I’ll get this one done within the month. By then I should have the thriller’s outline finished and I’ll start writing that.

And, hopefully, by the time I’m done with that, I’ll be ready to pick “Everday” up where I left off. Crossing fingers.

Coming up this month

This month continues the adventures of Hatash as he tries to find wisdom. Before his quest is over, he will have to face trolls, ogres, villainous elves, and a mad king.

If you missed the first three episodes of “What Paths Men Take,” you can start here.

Up next:

Sep 13: Chapter 4.
Sep 20: Chapter 5.
Sep 27: Chapter 6 (final installment).

“Write 6 Books in a Year Challenge”

Update #8

So yeah, not gonna make it.

I’ve only completed one novel so far this year. TTSD2 will make two. The thriller should make three. And maybe, maybe I can finish “Everday” by Christmas and thus have four done.

Mind you, it’d still be a record for me… It’s just frustrating, because I know I can do more. But when life gets in the way (not to mention my own stupidity), there’s not much you can do.

And that’s all I have to say for now.

See you next month!