State of My Personal Union 9-5-2023

Always Writing

Guess what ya’ll. I finally did it. I finally wrote a book not in the Kinetics series (we aren’t counting the fanfiction). It’s heading into a couple months of editing via alpha readers, beta readers, and maybe even a pro editor! I’m flirting with the idea of going the traditional publication route with Victory or Hope (formerly Victory, Death, or Hope) but we’ll see how things play out over the editing process. Other than advertising I’ve kinda gotten comfortable with self-publishing, so we’ll see if I get disgusted with the trad-publishing nonsense sooner rather than later.

Last year I set a goal for myself, to write two drafts a year. A little over halfway through the year and I’m fairly on track. Victory or Hope is technically in its second draft now, and the editing phase over the next few months will take it into draft three. I’ve also begun principle writing on book four of the Kinetics Sequence. If you haven’t seen, the official title for book 4 is Velocity: In Search of Eugene. While I was running merch for my friend’s band last week I wrote the prologue and couldn’t be happier.

I’ve also been jotting down some ideas for a book that’s been on the back burner for a while: In the Mind of the Beholder. God, now that I’ve played D&D I can’t think of the word “beholder” any other way than the cute little beastie. But I’m super excited to work on ItMotB too. That will probably be a next year project though, if at all. I feel like I have to be at a certain skill level with writing to really say what I want to say cohesively with it, but the ideas are bursting out my eyeballs all the time.

Focus

Staying focused on just the one project has been a challenge all its own. Which brings me to some person thingys. I’m getting tested for ADHD next month! Dude I’m 36-years-old and finally trying to figure out why I’m such a dang weirdo. I regret nothing, but still it will be nice to know if certain bad aspects can be treated via therapy/meds. I’d like my life to be a tad easier thanks. I’m doing well to not stress about testing, and instead I stress about the cost. But I think the cost will be worth it in the end.

One of the weird things about working a full time job is trying to find the time to write, and here’s my trick so far. I hate sitting in rush hour traffic. When I get off at 5:30pm on Wed & Thurs, I’ve taken to going to Panera or one of a handful of other restaurants that don’t balk when I show up with a laptop and the urge to write for a few hours. I’ll usually sit for 2-4 hours and by then traffic is either quiet for the night or at least calmed down. I’m sure this isn’t possible for everyone but I wanted to share since one of the questions I get a lot of the time is how do I find the time. I don’t find it. I make it. I carve that time out in my schedule specifically for writing. So consistently I write two days out of the week. Monday and Tuesday are my off days, and barring any plans with friends I’ll usually get a little time in there too. But those are usually also chores and catching up on TV/video games/movies/etc. I’ve gotten a lot of pleasure having dinner at Panera (#NotAnAd) and just working on stuff for a few hours, even on Tuesdays, I’ll slip out and go to my local Panera to work for a bit in the evening. A lot of time, unless I’m really hella inspired, it’s hard to work at home. My cats are distracting, my chores are distracting, my PS4 is distracting. Bridging the gap between inspiration and discipline has been the name of the game this year, because I don’t think I’ve written a full draft of anything in less than a year before. I think my record up til now was a year an a half with book 3 of the Kinetics Sequence.

Happy Reading

Anyway, I’m excited for you all to read Victory or Hope and book 4 when I get it done. I have so many ideas and if I can keep this momentum going I’ll be churning out at least one book a year if not more by 2025.

If you’d like to read draft 2 of Victory or Hope its still available on Patreon. I’ll be removing it from the rolls sometime in the next few months once I am happy with the editing in draft 3 and finally decide if I’m going Trad or not.