Progress Report: Week 1, June 2017

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I’ve just been focused on getting a regular publishing schedule up and running, and making sure I complete my final year of university. I’m on mid-semester break, now, so this is the one time I can make sure I get that schedule to a point I don’t have to worry about it over second semester, or the exam period.

At the moment, I have everything written through to mid-November, but the publishing is only on track through to mid-July, so I have a bit of work to do to keep that running smoothly. The goal, for this week, is to complete the publishing through to the end of July, and make a start on August. August is going to take some work. I have one 100,000-word novel, and two collections that I want to put out that month, and those are major editing and formatting tasks, even if they are already written. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

In addition to that, I have the writing to keep up with. Going by estimated word count, I should have finished the second release for November, but it needs about 4,000 more words, which means I’m aiming at finishing that this week. The early December project will take a little longer; it probably needs around 20,000 more words. Once that’s done, the pressure’s off for next semester—except for class prep, assignments and exams—and, at that point, I can start working towards being a full six months ahead on things. I have a lot of writing to do, which is a good thing, given the way the job market is, at the moment. Going full-time at this is starting to look like the way forward, even with my qualifications.

End of May Totals

New words produced: 11,057

Outlines and Notes: 4,546

Works completed: 0

Works edited: 4

Covers created: 4

Works published: 4

Works submitted: 0

Competitions Entered: 0

Bloggery: 18,584 (year to May)

University Prep and Assignments: 3,168

June Progress

New words produced: 11,203

Outlines and Notes: 889

Works completed: 1

Works edited: 0

Covers created: 0

Works published: 0

Works submitted: 0

Competitions Entered: 0

Bloggery: 24,626

University Prep and Assignments: N/A

Writing News

This week I completed Army Boots and Stilettos the YA novel scheduled for release in October, and almost completed the first-round edit of Freeman’s Choice, a science-fiction-fantasy novel, scheduled for release in August.

June-July Challenge: Babes in London

I started work on this on June 1st, as scheduled. After looking over the project, I decided it was going to need more time than I’d allotted, but that it could still be completed inside my break. To be honest, I really wanted to get a jump on a few of the other projects coming due before December, but there is only so many times things can be put off. This project will be worked through to completion with a July 31st deadline.

I needed to give the project more time, because I hadn’t been able to go over it prior to starting, and it had lain fallow for quite some time. I also needed to re-familiarise with the rules as I went. Giving the project more time meant I could do both, but it also meant I needed to change how I fit it into my daily routine. Instead of a straight 2,000 words, I gave it an allotment of either two hours a day, or 2,000 words, whichever came first. This means I won’t fall behind on my other commitments, but I will still complete this little monster within the assigned time-frame.

So far, it has received a solid two hours of time every day. This will change over the coming week, as I finish the revision, and start writing again.

Editing has led to a few word changes, and a couple of spots of revision:

Act One, Preparation: I added a note on maps – basically, there aren’t any. GMs are going to have make their own from the descriptions. I also made some changes to preparing for the PC dragons appearing in Scene Two, allowing for different alternate forms, rather than assuming everyone would choose human ones, and suggested quick play dragons that can be personalised later for last-minute new PCs.

Act One, Scene Two: adjusted the APL on the imps and their mounts.

Act One through Act Three, Scene 1B: edited, with minor adjustments.

All completed scenes have been added to the blog roster, but I've been trying to keep the chunks to a readable length, so you'll be catching up over the next few weeks. The plan is to be able to add the new writing as soon as it's done so you don't have to wait for it.

Ingress Updates

Nothing new to report.

PokemonGo Updates

Nothing new to report

Other

Worked my way through my started titles and roughed out a publishing schedule to cover the next few years.