Writer’s Diary #1: What I Have So Far

I’ve talked a lot about writing books. It’s been my passion for many years now. But I’ve yet to fully publish a complete story of my own. The closest I have is my Energia series, which you can read right here on this blog every Sunday. But I’ve never actually finished and published a full book.

My main problem is motivation. I’ll always get burnt out or distracted. While I do love what I do, I often find it difficult to see it through to the end.

So, to try and fix that, I came up with this. A little series of progress reports on the projects I’m currently working on. Think of it as my attempt to guilt-trip myself into actually working. Plus, as an extra little bonus, you guys get a little sneak peek into what I’ll (eventually) be releasing! Like a little preview!

It’s not a perfect solution. But hey! It’s something!

Currently, I’m working on two projects. The first, you’re (probably) already aware of: Energia. I have a few chapters written and ready to publish. But aside from that, I’ve put that one on the shelf for a while. Don’t worry: I’ve got the story mostly planned out, save a few details. When I need a break from my other project, I’ll get back to that. I should have another batch ready by the end of the year.

The other project, which I’m focusing much more heavily on, is coming along nicely. It’s a much more traditional kind of book; you’ll only get your hands on it when the whole thing is done, unlike Energia. When that’ll be still remains to be seen; as good as progress has been, it’s still a long ways from being done.

The first major factor in that is the length. With this project (I hesitate to call it new; I’ve technically been working on it since my high school days), I’m experimenting a bit more with the structure and length of each chapter. Some of them are only about ten pages long. Others reach around thirty or more. Balancing the pacing of these has proven a fun challenge, ableit a time consuming one.

Another one has been the characters. At this stage in production, very few of them are properly planned out. Many of them are still in a sort of metamorphosis phase. I have loose plans for all of them, which I’m figuring out more and more as the story progresses. Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to do a lot of editing when the rough draft is finally finished. Like… a metric fuckton.

But if I can translate the ideas I’ve got for this one properly onto the page? This could be my best work! Or it could fall completely flat on its face partway through.

At this current stage, I don’t have much to give you guys to create intrigue. I don’t want to make promises that I won’t be able to keep. Still, given that you’ve read this far, I don’t want to just leave you with nothing. So, at the very least, I can tell you the title of this new project. That title being: Threads of Reality. What does that mean? You’ll just have to read it and find out.

With both those projects in mind, I have two goals this year. Goal #1: have the rough draft of the first Threads of Reality book done by the end of the year. That one takes top priority for me. Goal #2: finish another batch of Energia chapters and begin uploading sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. If I can’t accomplish both, for whatever reason (mostly cause I can be depressingly lazy at times), then I aim to at least have one of them done.

One step at a time. Even if that step is so small it’d make a baby feel confident.

And that’s about all I’ve got for this update. I won’t do these too often; I’ve still got plenty of books I want to review (as soon as I get off my lazy ass and read them). If I’ve ever got a big update, I’ll put one of these together lickity split.

Unless I forget about this, too. Hopefully I won’t.