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Blog Update: All The Writing Things Edition (WIP Update #6)

Oh hey. It’s a non-video game post. Some of my regular readers may be back for this one.

I know that I’ve done a lot of video game content recently. This is partly because it has been pretty mentally challenging to go through quarantine for me. I talked about it in a post recently, but to say things have only gotten worse from there for me mentally would be an understatement. I’m doing a bit better now than I was in mid-to-late April. That said, it’s still been a challenge to write non-video game posts. As while those posts can be long and involved to write, they’re not the same mental effort as writing my other posts.

I do, however, want to write a post to share a bit about what all I have going on from a writing standpoint. As you’ll see, it’s quite a lot, which may lead to some changes on the blog during the coming weeks and months.

First off, I’ll give an update on my work in progress. The book started going through beta reads in early March. Pre-COVID, my intent was to have all of the beta reading feedback done by May 1st. That said, I’ve shuffled that deadline around a bit thanks to everything going on with coronavirus. My new intent is to be able to work on edits coming out of beta reading in early June, though that too may shift slightly for reasons I’ll get into later in this post.

Additionally, I do have a title for the book as well as a cover artist on commission to create a cover for the book. My goal is to be able to share both the cover and the title at the same time, hence holding off on sharing the title at this point. I’m very excited to show off the cover art once it’s done, as I really like the idea that’s going to be turned into a cover with this book.

My original timeline for getting the book to market was late fall (October/November) of 2020. With the delays I’ve had leading up to this point, I may end up pushing it back. I’d rather take a bit of extra time going through my own post-beta reading edits with my editor and do it well rather than try to rush things out. That said, I’ve also considered querying and/or doing PitMad. Both of those ideas are kind of terrifying to me, especially since I know I could self-publish the book and get it to have some support there. I’ll decide more on that side of things once the beta reading edits are done.

Moving on to that whole point about why my timeline may shift — my editing business has picked up a bit over the past couple of months. This means that I’m actually having to limit new projects I take on for the first time in a long time. If you’re in need of resume editing services, I’m still open for those inquiries at this point in time. That said, all of my other audio and print editing services are currently on hold due to active projects I have, plus projects that are queued up over the next few months.

Between the increase in editing work I’m getting and the next couple of items I’m going to talk about, there may be a decrease in blog posts over the next few months. I’ve almost finished up the My Pokemon Gym series (two to go), but there will be a Pokemon or Fire Emblem post at the beginning of each month still — as I quite like writing them. That said, we’ll see how much I’m able to write up beyond that. My day job has gotten significantly more time-consuming and stressful since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak1In particular since self-isolation started., meaning I’m busier than ever on that front. With that said, it’s also very important for me to prioritize writing work that’s able to make me extra money for when me and my family need it at this point. If I need to cut stuff I’m working on in order to stay sane, this blog will be the first place cuts are made. This includes no post next week (May 18th). That, along with the fact that I already don’t post on the fourth Monday of the month, means that the next post will be on Monday, June 1st.

Shifting gears for a second, I know that many folks who follow this blog also follow the nightly choose your own adventure story I run on my Twitter. Since I wrote my post about the story in February, I’ve started putting the story’s finished chapters up on Wattpad.

The story has gotten a small following on that platform, but due to Wattpad’s banning of mature-tagged stories from public ranking pages, it’s not getting the footing it otherwise would. If you know folks who use Wattpad (or you do yourself), encourage them to follow the story on there, as well as to like the chapters as they read. Even if you don’t have a Wattpad account, I would encourage you to still give the story a read on there. It’s the only place where the story is currently housed, more or less, in its entirety. Wattpad does have the option to write paid stories for them…but the program is currently invitation only, meaning that the best way for me to get involved in the program (aside from application submission, which I’ve done) is to get readers for the story.

I’ll be continuing the nightly polls for the story on Twitter until the story comes to an end. Basing this off of how long each of the story chapters are taking, I’ll estimate this means we’ll get to the ending(s) of the story sometime in the August-October range. That said, since there are seven different possible endings to the story, I’ve already been asked if I can write all of the endings for those who want to read them. I will be doing that eventually. That said, what I’ll likely do is to write the main ending that gets selected as part of the CYOA narrative, then take a bit of time off before writing the alternate endings.

Speaking of Wattpad, I’ll be doing a new story on there that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Last year, I wrote a short story for this blog called Meeting Charlie Madagan. This is a short story that I’ve had bits and pieces of in my head since the summer of 2012. I finally wrote an outline for the story in March of this year and will be publishing monthly chapters for the story starting in June or July of 2020. The timeline is still a bit up in the air due to a couple of IRL things I need to finish up first. That said, I’ll be doing monthly polls on Patreon which will give patrons some light input as to what happens in the story. The first poll will be up for patrons in June 2020. In that poll, patrons will have the option to choose the Wattpad cover art for the story — as I don’t really feel there’ll be a ton of input that will be able to be given in the first chapter.

Finally, you may have noticed that giving my Patreon patrons the ability to help me with my story is a new development. I revamped my Patreon tiers at the end of April, adding in the aforementioned Wattpad story voting as the lowest tier reward for supporting me. For those not aware, you can get a few different rewards for supporting me on Patreon, including signed pictures of not me (signed by me), a monthly bonus blog post (which will likely be WIP related…oh…and patrons already know the title for the story), and a monthly bonus podcast from me. If you have the financial situation to do so, I’d encourage you to support me on Patreon. You’ll get cool shit.

1,300 words later and all of my writing updates are out of the way. So um…yeah?

What’s Coming in 2020

With the beginning of the year upon us, I wanted to give a quick update as to what will be coming down the line of this blog in 2020. I’ll be reviewing 2019’s blog goals next week, as well as discussing why I won’t be doing a new set of blog goals in 2020. That said, I wanted to lay out a bit of what this blog is going to look like in 2020, as well as why.

Let’s start with content, both in terms of typing and frequency. Up to this point, I’ve been doing a post every Monday. This is the schedule I’ve followed for around two years now. While I don’t want to change that schedule too much, posting every single Monday might be a bit aggressive of an ask for most of this coming year. I have a few projects coming down the line that are going to take up a significant amount of my time, meaning I want to be able to give myself greater flexibility in when I write for the blog. Starting in February, here’s what the structure for the posting schedule will look like.

  • First Monday of the month – Video game-related post (This will be the My Pokemon Gym posts through August)
  • Second Monday of the month – TBD
  • Third Monday of the month – Writing-related post (WIP updates, original short stories, etc)
  • Fourth Monday of the month – Break week
  • Fifth Monday of the month, if applicable – TBD

You’ll notice that I have two different weeks that are currently listed as to be determined. In the case of the fifth Monday of the month, this is because such a situation only occurs four times in 2020 (March, June, August, and November). Considering how infrequent that is, I think I’ll just play that by ear. As for the second week of the month, I want to keep that week open for posting things that don’t fit under one of the two other categories I’ve listed up there. This would include things like new editions of Every Internet Recipe Ever, long-form posts1The long-form posts could end up being about video games or writing, though aren’t necessarily. I know for sure one of the ones I’m currently working on is video game related, but we’ll see beyond that., my year-end book review posts, and the occasional random post that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Beyond that, there are a few posts that will randomly go up when it makes sense for them to do so. This would include quarterly podcast announcement posts, other Patreon announcements, or charity-related items. I’d love to get back into doing author interviews, but we’ll see if I have time.

You may have noticed the shift in layout of the blog back to a simpler layout. Part of why I’m cutting down the blogging schedule is to be able to spend more time on the writing/editing projects that I do work for as noted on my Audio and Print Editing Services page. Historically, I’ve only been able to keep this updated roughly once every six months or so, though my hope is to change that going forward. I’d also like to build out a portfolio of stuff here, so there may be some backend rearranging that isn’t noticeable on the blog itself, but will allow for some new things to be rolled out later this year.

I will continue to follow my current Patreon reward schedule for those who support me there. Patrons receive various rewards, including a monthly podcast, a monthly bonus blog post, and a monthly signed picture that isn’t of me, depending on what tier they support me in. If you’re interested in becoming a patron and helping me be able to do the work I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

2019 Writing Goals – Q3 Review

Finally. We’re starting to get back into the nice weather part of the year. Just don’t tell Ohio that. When I wrote this on the 30th of September, it was nearly 90 degrees. Because we can’t have nice weather.

In going to write this post, I noticed I was a bit of a failure in my Q2 goal post — in that when I copy/pasted the post from Q1 to get my formatting, I completely forgot to change the opening paragraph away from what I had written in Q1. So um…oops?

If you want to go back and read the original goal post, you can find it here. That said, I’ve also put something of a summary of the goals in with my progress on each of them below. This is mostly for those who are lazy and don’t want to click back to the post, but it’s also for me and ease of copying when I write posts later in the year. Because deep down, I was the lazy one all along.

Goal 1: Blog Growth?

I’m not going to bury the lede here. It’s been a great year for my blog’s traffic. The blog recently crossed the 12,000 hit threshold for the year. It’s on track to more than triple my traffic in 2018. I’m overwhelmed by the support I’ve gotten on this blog, particularly for the video game posts I’ve written, along with the short stories that have been my bread and butter since this blog started.

As for more specifics for Q3, see the chart below. I’m hoping to say we’ve broken the 15,000 hit threshold by the end of the year, though we’ll have to see how that goes as we get closer.

Q3 2019 Site Stats

Goal 2: Finish a Second Draft of the WIP by July (WIP Update Section)

Since I finished this goal prior to July, I’m going to use this post to give a short update as to where I am with my current work in progress. I’m technically on draft four at this point, though this is a pretty recent development. I sat the manuscript down and didn’t touch it for nearly two full months. In mid-September, I picked it back up again and am currently reading through it and making minor changes here and there to wording, flow, and other grammatical things — as well as the occasional continuity error I find. Once I get my feedback from my editor, I’ll be working on that, as well as trying to frame out my entire plot visually so that I make sure I’m not making any massive continuity errors as I write. I think I’ve done a pretty good job with that to this point, but I’m sure I’ll catch something as I’m working through it.

Update: I’ll be talking about this goal in a bit more detail later this month.

Goal 3: Take on Four New Freelance Projects This Year

Much like Q2, this is a good news, bad news entry. I actually have three major projects lined up to work on in the future — including one I’ve read a very early copy of and am excited to shout about from the rooftops once it’s published. The down side is that at least one of those projects has been pushed to 2020 for sure at this point. I’d much rather not make this goal personally and have the writers I’m working with turn out the best version of their projects. It’s still a tad saddening though, as I like hitting goals.

How are you doing on your 2019 goals? If you’re a blogger, podcaster, YouTuber, or other creator, I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Sound off in the comments.

Like the work I do? Want to help me make more, better-written content? Consider pledging your support on Patreon.

2019 Writing Goals – Q2 Review

Happy July! Did you know that no one noticed I forgot to change this opening paragraph for three months?

If you want to go back and read the original goal post, you can find it here. That said, I’ve also put something of a summary of the goals in with my progress on each of them below. This is mostly for those who are lazy and don’t want to click back to the post, but it’s also for me and ease of copying when I write posts later in the year. Because deep down, I was the lazy one all along.

Goal 1: Blog Growth?

The easiest of my three goals to put hard numbers around is the growth of my blog in terms of visits. I took a month off from writing in June, so I fully expected this to get off pace. Let’s check in and se…

Q2 2019 Site Stats

Oh. Well then. Um. That’s great! For context, through the month of June, I’ve had a total of 6,359 visits to my blog in 2019. I only need 907 visits to surpass my blog’s entire traffic total for 2017 and 2018 combined. While I had what I felt were pretty aggressive growth goals in 2019, I certainly didn’t expect this. Maybe I need to rethink this goal in the second half of the year.

Goal 2: Finish a Second Draft of the WIP by July

I’ll share a lot more about this goal in next week’s post, however I do want to address it for a moment in this one. Technically speaking, I finished the second draft of my book in late April. With that said, the way I’m looking at drafts is much different now than when I originally wrote this goal in January. What I was then defining as my second draft has become my third draft in practice. I got started on said draft in late May with a lot more rewriting to undertake in one draft than I was initially expecting — admittedly all for good reasons. At this stage, I’m done with three drafts of the book and am hoping to start working on draft #4 in the near future.

I’m going to consider this goal itself as done (as we’re now in July), though I likely will still share something related to my WIP in this space in Q3 and Q4.

Goal 3: Take on Four New Freelance Projects This Year

This goal is a bit of a mixed bag at this point. On one hand, the projects I have coming later in the year are drawing closer. Additionally, I did get my first new freelance project of 2019 in April. The down side is that I’m still trying to chase down payment for said project. While it wasn’t for much, it’s frustrating that it’s happened yet again after some issues with it in 2018. While I’m behind pace on this goal, I still feel decent about it, if for no other reason than I know what’s on the way.

How are you doing on your 2019 goals? If you’re a blogger, podcaster, YouTuber, or other creator, I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Sound off in the comments.

Like the work I do? Want to help me make more, better written content? Consider pledging your support on Patreon.

A Short Hiatus

Hi all.

I’ll be taking a short hiatus from the blog for the rest of the month of June so that I can continue to work on getting my work in progress novel ready for beta readers. While I’ve tried not to take too much of a break from blogging and my other writing while editing, the draft I’m working on right now will require a lot of writing. As such, I want to make sure I can focus on that. It’ll also be my first sustained break from blogging in well over a year, so I feel like the breather is well warranted.

When the blog comes back in July, you can expect the following posts (plus more).

  • The next edition of the My Pokemon Gym series (Fairy type)
  • My Q2 writing goals update
  • A work in progress book update
  • Chapter 9 of The Worst Fire Emblem Awakening Playthrough Ever
  • A special patreon selected post

I’ll still be getting my Patreon rewards out during this time. Additionally, patrons will get to pick the topic for one of my posts for the month of July. If you’re interested in getting to choose what I write about, there’s a post up on my Patreon now where all patrons can vote to choose the content of said post.