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.
Location: Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Australian Insects: An Unknown Caterpillar eating Grevillea flower buds

-
Image
So, this little guy nearly bought it when I caught it eating the still-forming buds on my Robyn grevillea, but then I thought I might like to see which particular butterfly was responsible, so I took some pictures and decided to keep an eye on it, so I knew when it pupated. The first shot - caterpillar happily nibbling on flower buds:  Yup - definitely nibbling: And here's another view. Note the little yellow lumps near its back end. Same day, but it was one of those cloudy days with variegated light. And it kept nibbling for quite some time: Stretching out to get the more tasty tidbits, and using its hind feet to keep a firm grip on the branch. Eventually it looped back on itself... ...and headed into denser foliage. It didn't always move in a straight line... How come caterpillars have more feet than butterflies? Eventually, it got into some much thicker growth (well, for a young grevillea, anyway), meaning it was somewhat prot
Read more

PokemonGo Tips - Earning the Berry Master Medal

-
Image
Another relatively easy one to earn, but it takes time. Main tip? Feed Them All. Well, okay, it's a bit more like this: Only the berries you feed to a pokemon in a gym count. You can only feed berries to pokemon in a gym that belongs to your team. You can feed up to a maximum of 10 berries to each pokemon. You can feed any pokemon that belongs to a team member, as well as your own. You can feed your team's pokemon from home, as long as you have a pokemon in the same gym - as last week's post showed. It's interesting, but really annoying if you accidentally feed a golden razzberry to a pokemon in a gym... just sayin'. Sometimes, not having a berry on hand to help catch a pokemon is also annoying - especially when you've just fed all yours to your team's pokemon - so think about that before you go all out stuffing their faces; the medal is pretty, but catching stuff is cool, too. Also, pokemon are little piggies when it comes to berries. And that&
Read more

NEW RELEASE: AUTUMNAL THREAT

-
Image
An alien autumn. An unseen predator. Deadly burrowers and an oncoming winter. And bugs big enough to ride. Joaquin only wants to warn his daughter of a new danger. To keep her safe. To make her understand her mother isn’t coming back, while keeping her alive. But what if he’s wrong? What if Mariam really did survive? What if, when everything looks like it’s going wrong, it’s really going right? Autumnal Threat is Joaquin's story. It is a father's story...and the story of a husband who misses his wife, and wants to keep his daughter safe from a new threat on their frontier world. It's a story of hope, and not giving up, and of family, as well as an exploration of what an alien eco-system might look like. It was a lot of fun to write. You can find links to this newly released, stand-alone, science-fiction short story on this Books2Read page: https://books2read.com/u/mgyopK or read an earlier version in A Collection of Lost Ships and Colonies .  
Read more