Blog - Page 6 of 95 - Beth Alvarez - The World of Ithilear

Overplan, but be reasonable

Here’s an unpopular opinion: It’s better to plan more work for a week than you think you can get done.

I know that’s going to horrify some people, but there’s a reason for it, I promise. Part of it is connected to what I said last week–about how plans are flexible and adaptable. If you go into this with the assumption that plans are rigid and inflexible, and that you’re failing if you don’t get everything on a list done in a given week or month, you’re sure to fail.

A lot of people recommend planning small, reasonable amounts of work each week. While everyone works differently, one thing I have found reliably true is that if you set a wide window for a small project, it will expand to fill that time, leaving you nothing left over. Sure, you’re not crunching to get things done, but you’re also not pushing your limits and learning new, more efficient ways to accomplish things. I can give myself a two hour window in the morning to barely hit my goal of 750 words, or I can back myself into a corner where I must get it done in the last half-hour before bed and land pretty close to it every time.

Having less time to devote to something adds urgency. It doesn’t have to add stress, so long as you realize that if you don’t hit a goal or a deadline, it’s not the end of the world. The tasks on your to-do list are like the days of unused phone minutes. They don’t have to expire. Sometimes, they rollover instead. The important part is just keeping it on your calendar. I write it down for this week because I’d like to get it done, but if I don’t get to it, it’s okay. It’ll get done eventually, and eventually it’ll build its own urgency, just because you’re sick of looking at that thing on your to-do list.

It’s sometimes hard to apply that mentality. I know most of what I intend to do has no fixed deadline, but the closer I can get to meeting my self-imposed deadlines, the better. I definitely intend to revise my plans and deadlines for my writing projects this year, because with the looming move, I’m way overbooked. If I didn’t spend half the day doing home repairs and packing, I could probably effectively juggle finishing two books at the same time. But I can’t, so that will need some food for thought, possibly sooner rather than later. I had planned to revise the way I approach things at the end of March, but I may revise them at the end of January instead–or even at the end of this week. Although I’m having fun writing Spectrum Blade and it’s inching forward at a decent pace, I probably need to prioritize Serpent’s Tears and the other books that I intend to see published next year.

Word counts for this week:
Monday: 900 (Spectrum Blade), 406 (Serpent’s Tears)
Tuesday: 846 (Spectrum Blade), 316 (Serpent’s Tears)
Wednesday: 363 (Spectrum Blade), 680 (Serpent’s Tears)
Thursday: 681
Friday: 940
Saturday: 600
Sunday: 334

Total for Spectrum Blade: 4,664
Total for Serpent’s Tears: 1,402

Grand total: 6,066

Editing progress this week:
Just that additional content for chapter one in the word counts mentioned above. Yikes.

January 22, 2019
The adaptability of plans

I like planning things. I like planning way ahead. I like planning for things that may never happen. Right now, I’m planning what to do with a sloped back yard with two large oak trees in it. Not a lot grows under oak trees.

Right now, there’s no guarantee we’ll get the house we’ve bid on. They’ve accepted our offer, but there’s still the appraisal and inspection, and the loan application and approval. Still a lot of steps where things could go wrong. But we’re hopeful, and there’s no harm in thinking ahead to the Encore azaleas and hydrangeas that should thrive in the shady location and acidic soil. Some people think of this as counting chickens before they’re hatched, but there’s an important thing the people who say this overlook.

If you put eggs in an incubator, you’d darn well better be prepared to have every egg hatch.

Just as you always prepare more food than you think you’ll need when you’re having a party, you should plan as if everything you do will result in something. Don’t count on failure–Luck, including bad luck, is not an acceptable replacement for a plan.

No one is saying you should go take out a ridiculous mortgage because you think you might get a good job. You don’t know that you’ll get it. Don’t make your plans contingent on the fruition of other plans or intentions.

But don’t dismiss the importance of budgeting for new clothes in case you do get that job. If you don’t, no harm, no foul–you just no longer have a reason to set aside those pennies.

Plans should all be like that. I treat my writing plans the same way–they’re something I intend to work out a certain way, that I hope will work a certain way, that will result in the best possible outcome if it does. And if it doesn’t, you make a new plan.

The important thing about planning anything is going in with the knowledge that plans can, do, and will change. I outlined an entire year of writing before the year began. Before I knew we would be spending the first month or two of the new year looking for a new house and packing everything to move. Had I known these things would happen, I would have planned differently. I definitely would have given myself longer to do things. But I didn’t know, so I didn’t plan that way, and now I’m doing the best I can to stick with the current plan until the dust settles. We’re only two weeks into January. It’s much too early to reevaluate. After all, I don’t know how long it will take me to catch up.

So far, I’ve hit two major problems with my plans for the year. My plan for daily writing is working out okay. My word counts are okay, too. But Spectrum Blade is going to be longer than I initially thought, so writing 20k words this month, 20k next month, and wrapping up in March isn’t going to cut it. Realistically, the book probably needs another 55-60k words from this point onward, so I probably won’t finish it until the end of March… which pushed back the second book in the series. But I’ll adapt that plan when I get to the end of the book.

The other catch is that all the home improvement and packing and house shopping ate up most of my time, so I’m behind in practically everything. The first thing to get cut? Editing. So while I’m two weeks in and planned to be halfway done with the edit of Serpent’s Tears by now, I’m still in the process of rewriting the first chapter. I went ahead and edited the second chapter, because that helped me gain my bearings and showed me what information could be pushed from the introductory chapter to the next. But with the deep level of rewriting I think the book needs, I probably won’t finish edits by mid-February, meaning I’m already off track on both writing projects.

Oh well.

They take the time they take. Once I hit the end of these books, I’ll see where I am on my calendar and adjust appropriately. I may finish 2019 with seven finished books instead of nine, but that hardly seems like a bad thing. How often do authors finish seven books in a single year? Independent authors have changed a lot of things, but generally speaking, most readers still only expect one title from an author in a calendar year. If I work faster than that, then awesome.

Except for the part where they sit on my hard drive and don’t go anywhere.

Working on that, too.

Word counts for this week:
Monday: 871
Tuesday: 806
Wednesday: 681
Thursday: 759
Friday: 841
Saturday: 611
Sunday: 764

Total: 5,333

Editing progress this week:
Chapter 2
1 page of chapter 1

Looks like I still have a lot of work to do.

January 15, 2019
Lomi’s Playground 20k Giveaway information and rules
Surprise! I still occasionally post doll-related stuff here. Right now, that’s important, because I just reached 20,000 subscribers on YouTube and I decided to celebrate the best way I knew how: By giving away a doll to one lucky winner.

But giveaways aren’t as easy as I wish they were, so I need to include some information, here. The rules are too long to put in a YouTube video description, so they go here instead.

So without further ado, here’s the big, bad, scary rules. Please read, then pop back over to the video to cast your entry. Good luck!!

OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.

1. Eligibility: The DollZone Mini Kitty Giveaway (the “Giveaway”) is open only to legal residents of the United States (excluding its territories and possessions) and Washington D.C. who are at least 13 years of age at time of entry (“Entrant”(s)). Void in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and where prohibited. The Giveaway is sponsored by Lomi’s Playground (“Sponsor”). Employees, family members, or family members of employees of Lomi’s Playground are not eligible for entry into the Giveaway.

2. Prize: The Giveaway allows Entrants to enter random drawings, as described below, on the designated giveaway video shared on the Lomi’s Playground YouTube channel (the “Video”) for a chance at one DollZone Mini Kitty BJD (“Prize”). The average retail value (“ARV”) of the Prize is $350.00 USD. The total ARV of all Prizes is $350.00. THE ODDS OF WINNING THE PRIZE DEPENDS ON THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE ENTRIES RECEIVED.

No Prize substitution or cash alternative is allowed except at the sole discretion of Sponsor. If a Prize cannot be awarded due to circumstances beyond the control of Sponsor, a substitute prize of equal or greater retail value may be awarded. The Winner will be solely responsible for all federal, state and/or local taxes, and for any other fees or costs associated with the Prize received.

3. Giveaway Period: The Giveaway shall begin at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) on January 12, 2019 and shall end at 11:59 p.m. ET on February 2, 2019 (“Giveaway Period”).

4. How to Enter: To enter the Giveaway you must place a comment containing a description of your current doll collection (“Comment”) on the Video (together the “Entry”). Entries must be received during the Giveaway Period. ONLY ONE ENTRY IS PERMITTED PER PERSON.

5. Winning: The winner of the Giveaway (“Winner”) shall be chosen by the Sponsor by random selection of qualifying entries. The Winner shall be chosen within 3 days of the end of the Giveaway Period.

6. Prize Claim: The Winner will be notified within 3 days of the drawing. The Winner may be required to execute an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and (where legal) a Publicity Release (collectively, “Prize Claim Documents”) within 3 days of notification, or as directed by the Sponsor. The failure to respond timely, to the notifications and the failure to provide the Prize Claim Documents will result in forfeiture of the Prize and, in such case, the Sponsor may declare an alternate winner, based on another random drawing. If a Prize goes unclaimed or is forfeited by the Winner, the Prize may not be re-awarded, in Sponsor’s sole discretion. The Winner will be required to provide a valid mailing address. The Winner may be required to provide Sponsor with a valid social security number before the Prize will be awarded for tax reporting purposes. An IRS Form 1099 may be issued in the name of the Winner, for the actual value of the Prize received. Other restrictions may apply.

7. Rights of Sponsor: Sponsor shall have the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to refuse any Entry whatsoever made by Entrants which it finds to be in violation of these Official Rules or which it finds in its sole discretion to be otherwise objectionable for any reason.

8. YouTube Policies:
1. Your participation in and entry into this giveaway must be in compliance with YouTube’s own Community Guidelines. Entries which don’t comply with YouTube’s Community Guidelines will be disqualified.
2. YouTube is not a sponsor of this Giveaway. By entering this Giveaway, you release YouTube from any and all liability related to this
Sponsor:
Lomi’s Playground on YouTube

YouTube Giveaway Rules base form © Lior Leser, Esq. – www.youtube.com/web20lawyer
January 12, 2019
More writing plans for 2019

In addition to all the plans and goals I shared last week, there was one other goal I wanted to mention. When I bought my planner, it came with one large pull-out sheet in the back, which included one line for each day of each month. I looked at it for a while before I decided what I wanted to do with it. But since I got that planner months ago, I decided to wait until the new year to use it so I wouldn’t have any wasted space.

See, it’s perfect for tracking word counts. I typically write down the amount I’ve written on my calendar pages, but that can make it difficult to find room to write in other things, such as dentist appointments. Using one sheet to track my writing all year sounded great. But it also spurred me to create another goal, which is to write something every day for a year.

I don’t know how realistic that is, given everything that’s going on right now, but I figured it would be a great way to motivate me to keep working. Even if I only write a sentence, it’s forward momentum, pushing me steadily toward the lofty goals I set for this year. And that way, I can easily check in every week and share my word counts. But since I track my weeks as Monday to Sunday, and the year started on a Tuesday, my first week’s counts ran from the 1st to the 6th. You can see my progress in the photo there: 4,643 words added to the first draft of Spectrum Blade. Considering everything else that’s happening, that’s not too bad. It’s generally right where I need to be to keep up my goal of 500-700 words per day.

Right now, we’re finishing work on our house to put it on the market. It’s been a whirlwind of scrubbing and cleaning and packing and this is actually one of the first times I’ve had to sit down and rest. I’ll be doing a little writing as soon as I finish writing this post, then I’ll be dismantling kitchen cabinets for refinishing. Fun times. Big job. It hasn’t left me any room to start editing just yet, so I’m glad I gave myself a whole six weeks to revise Serpent’s Tears.

After each writing session, I’ve been trying to spill some thoughts into a journal, too. I’ll likely clean up a lot of them to share here as I go through this process, because I think writing about my progress on my blog each week will be good for me, even if it isn’t exactly riveting content. The older I get, the more I find I appreciate just seeing into other people’s thought processes and what they’re going through. Yesterday, I saw some of my own thoughts mirrored in a blog post written by an author I greatly admire, and I found it incredibly reassuring to know that someone so far above me on the ladder still battles the same feelings.

It’s kind of funny–I’ve always wanted to be an author, ever since I was a small child. But as I get older and I accomplish more, I find myself moving the goal post farther and farther away. Once the goal was to write a book. Now I’ve written 14, and writing a book isn’t enough. After that, the goal was to be a published author. After several books were out, I found the desire became the want to work with a publisher. After I gained experience on the internal workings of a small press, I found my eyes went higher–The Big Five publishing houses and a desire to be recognized by them.

No matter what I’ve achieved, it hasn’t been enough. 14 books. 8 published. Opportunities to work with a small press. It was never enough.

Part of that is because as we advance, we need new goals to keep us motivated and moving forward. We want that onward and upward climb, but at some point, we also have to stop and consider: what do we gain from continuing? How do we know there’s a bigger, better something beyond what we have now? How do we know there’s a next level? We don’t–and we often delude ourselves with the idea that without continually striving toward the next level, we are nothing.

So as I move into this new year, that’s something I want to be more mindful of: the knowledge that I am–what I’ve already done is–already enough. It’s okay to want to achieve more. It’s okay to have greater goals. I have some. I want to publish the fantasy books that have lived in my heart and head for close to two thirds of my life. I want those stories to inspire and entertain people. I want them to spark passion in readers. I also want to be paid for my work, because publishing is a grueling and expensive endeavor and if there is no money coming in, I cannot afford to keep producing books. And somewhere down the line, I’d like that writing to help pay some bills now and then. But I also need to work on taking pride in what I’ve already achieved and remind myself that not everyone can do the things I’ve done. I’m answering my life’s calling. Now I need to accept that the answers I’ve given are satisfactory.

But I’ll stop there, as this is starting to get long. That was just a bit of the thought process I captured on the first page of my journal, and I’ve written a page of thoughts each day since the first of January. I’ll save the rest for next week. I could probably type for hours, but right now, I have work I need to do.

January 8, 2019
New year, new plans

It was a little surreal, typing the date I wanted this to publish into the little box where I schedule posts. I only scheduled it for the next morning; it’s almost bedtime now, 10:27 on New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s means less as an adult. As a parent, especially. I’m not interested in staying up until midnight–if I get lucky, I’ll fall asleep before the fireworks start and be able to sleep through them. But I’m not counting on it. I’m going to bed sick, feeling feverish for a third day in a row.

Happy New Year.

I can’t be all negative, though. Tomorrow is a fresh start I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve been poking at my goals, but I like having clearly defined start and end dates. And I already planned my start and end dates for the whole year.

My writing schedule will be ambitious, to say the least. I’ll be juggling a few projects and I’m not sure how I’ll break them up. I printed a calendar and highlighted days, weeks, months to show what I should be working on at each point in time. I don’t know if I’ll hit the deadlines. I’ll probably have to stop and reevaluate things around March, as I usually do.

Heck, this year, I may need to revise my schedule at the end of January.

But because I enjoy sharing my plans, have a look anyway: The monstrosity that is my 2019 writing plan.

I wrapped up my last big project–the tenth revision of Serpent’s Mark–in mid-December. I won’t be touching it again until 2020, unless something goes horribly wrong.

From January 1 to February 9 (as seen in green highlighter) I’ll be revising what is now the second book in that series, Serpent’s Tears. I’m excited to start and at the same time, I fear what I’ll find when I do. If I can revise a chapter a day, I’ll finish on the 22nd and that should leave me plenty of time to add in the additional chapters and sections the book should have. It’s 89,485 words right now, before I touch it; I expect it’ll be at least 100,000 words long by the time I am done.

But I’ll be writing and editing at the same time, because I feel a need to move forward with both. So from January 1 to March 9 (shown in blue highlighter) I’ll be working on the first draft of Spectrum Blade. I’ve tried to plan for lighter work days, aiming for around 500-750 words per day. When I’m in practice, that takes me all of two or three 15-minute sprints, so hopefully that’s well within the realm of what I can do. The hardest part will be writing the first week, here, since my little one will be out of school until the 7th. I have loved having her here, but she misses school and is eager to get back to her routine. Routine is good for me, too.

From February 10 to the 16th, I plan to assess what was originally the second book in the Snakesblood Saga (shown in yellow highlighter) and figure out where to break it up so it can grow, like the first book did. I will begin work on revising/rewriting what will now be book 3. That time frame (shown in pink highlighter) should run from February 17 to March 31.

From March 10 to March 23 (shown in yellow highlighter) I’ll be working on the outline for the sequel to Spectrum Blade.

The end of March offers a break to evaluate how fast I am working and how I need to adjust. See? I even planned for schedule revisions.

From April 1 to May 18 (shown in green) I will be working on revising/rewriting the fourth book in the Snakesblood Saga. From April 1 to August 31 (shown in orange) I will be writing that Spectrum sequel I just mentioned. And from May 19 to August 17 (shown in pink) I will be working on splitting what was originally the third and final Snakesblood book, with that time devoted to book 5.

You’ll notice that’s a much longer stretch of work than the earlier parts of the year. Part of that is because I already started Spectrum Blade and won’t need as much time to finish it. And part is because I’m planning for summer break, where Eevee will be home and eager to play, and I want to have enough room to spare for these important years of her life.

From August 18 to August 31 (shown in yellow) I plan to outline the third book in the Spectrum series.

From September 1 to December 31 (shown in blue) I’ll write that third book. And from September 1 to December 14 (shown in green) I’ll be revising the sixth and final book in my dear Snakesblood Saga.

The last section of the year–December 15 to December 31, which is highlighted in yellow–will be for finishing any spillover projects, and for tentatively planning what will come after that.

It’s weird to look that far into the future, but it’s exciting, too. If all goes according to plan, I’ll finish 2019 with nine epic fantasy novels in two separate series, all ready for editor attention and publication some time in 2020. It’s a long way off and it’s a little ambitious… okay, a lot ambitious. But if you don’t aim high, where are you going?

January 1, 2019
More painting, more revision

I meant to post this last week, but it ended up being a super busy week for me and I couldn’t squeeze it in.

I completed a third painting recently. It was fun and I learned a lot, and while I went into it intending to paint the rolling hills and fields of Roberian, I also wanted to paint mountains, so it ended up looking more like my vision of Aldaeon. Both being regions from my Snakesblood Saga, of course.

I want to incorporate more into my paintings in the future. Once I start getting a handle on landscapes, maybe I can move on to including buildings, cities, bridges… some castles would be cool, and would set me on the right path toward being able to paint my own cover art, which would be awesome. So I’m looking forward to doing more paintings, but it probably won’t be until after Christmas.

While we’re on the subject of books, it’s a good time to talk about the state of my current projects.

The ninth revision of Serpent’s Mark is almost done. I mean, I guess the ninth is technically done and I’ve started the tenth. It’s very true that the best way to learn something is by doing. I spend a lot of time studying–I read two books on grammar and proofreading last week–but I learn so much more from doing. Lately I’ve found that I learn more from editing than just writing. Halfway through my ninth revision, I found a better way to do something and I implemented it in my editing from the point I hit that realization, but that wasn’t until about a third of the way through the book.

So that first third has entered revision number ten. I’ve worked on this book so long that I have a hard time getting past my frustrations with it, but I also can’t continue to poke at the same book for another decade. It’s impractical, and I have more stories to tell.

Since I’ve been working on Serpent’s Mark all month, I owe Spectrum Blade a little attention once I get that first third of Serpent’s Mark polished up to match the stylistic changes in the later sections. I’d like to add 5,000 words to Spectrum before the end of the year. I’ll probably use the next few days to wrap up the revisions on Serpent’s Mark, then write as much as I can for Spectrum.

The good news is I feel better about the way Serpent’s Mark has come together. I’ll be having my sweet friend-slash-editor Megan look at the book again in January (or possibly February) and try not to worry about it much until she’s done with it. With how many times the book has been edited, I don’t know how much there is to do to it, but at the same time I know every proofreader will find more mistakes. That’s the way it always is, and the way it will be from now until forever.

One cool thing is that as I’ve changed my plans for Serpent’s Mark and have gone back to some of the ideas I cut from the very first draft, the first book has gained a lot. It was about 92,000 words when I first split it and it’s a shade over 100,000 words now. That’s a lot of expansion, and a lot of old ideas coming back. There’s still one section in the middle I’m a little unsure of, but like I said, I’ll wait to do anything in-depth until I get more feedback on the book.

I have a pretty wild writing schedule planned out for next year, but this is getting long, so I’ll stop here and talk about next year’s book plans next time instead.

December 18, 2018
Revisiting 2018’s goals

Last week I mentioned my goals for 2018. I’d made a big blog post at the end of 2017 outlining my goals and why I wanted to achieve them.

So how did I do? Well..

Revise and finish querying Serpent’s Mark.
This was my #1 goal and it did happen–pretty early in the year, actually. I got this done and was happy with it, sent more queries, got more rejections. But as I read and learned more about publishing, it became harder for me to be certain I was doing the right thing by querying. So eventually, I stopped. I’m weighing my options for the series now.

Publish Her Midnight Hunter.
This did not happen. The book would have been finished this year, but my health became the priority and working on that series slowly became less and less important. I’ll finish it eventually; HMH is halfway written, but at this time, I do not have a publication time frame or goal for the book.

Make a plan for the Keeper’s Kin series.
This was harder than I expected and it took a lot of time and consideration. Ultimately, I decided to put KK on hiatus. Since HMH was to be the next book in the series (finishing the core trilogy and creating all the space I needed for the various side stories) I couldn’t really move on without it. I have a lot more stories I want to share about the Keepers and their kin, but at the moment I do not know when that will be. I guess that’s actually laying out my series plans, though–the question here was whether or not I met this goal. I guess it’s pretty clear I did! The plan/decision is that the series is on hiatus for now.

Write and publish Emberheart.
This is another one that didn’t happen. Bless this story, I’ve wanted to write it for 15 years or something like that, but it’s still not quite ready. I hit too many bumps in the road while trying to outline it. This one is on hold as well while I smooth out the idea itself, which apparently was more deeply flawed than I thought.

Earn $1,000 as an author.
Also did not happen, but at least I kind of know why–I didn’t end up getting any books published this year, since I was focusing on my personal wellness. It’s hard to make money off your books when you have no new books! With no new releases, I made less this year than I made last year, though it was close. However, I did begin diversifying my income streams by moving my older books to more vendors, including Google Play. So while I didn’t reach my income goal, it wasn’t a total fail.

Attend a book/writing convention or conference.
I didn’t go to any book-specific shows this year. I wanted to, but finances didn’t work out. However, I did attend a comics expo with my husband–comics is his thing, you know–and I found that incredibly useful despite not being tailored to my field. There’s a lot of overlap between the comics industry and the books industry, and I walked away from the show with a lot of new ideas for building my book brand. So this one halfway happened? Kinda?

Read a book a month.
Finally, something I can answer with good news!! I didn’t log them all in Goodreads since many of them were non-fiction books and I read them so fast that I just plain forgot. A good number were related to author careers and craft, but I read a minimum of one book each month. In quite a few months, I read three or more. So this was accomplished for sure.

Downsize craft supplies.
I started this, but didn’t get very far. I have made great strides in getting it organized, though, and hopefully I’ll continue to downsize into next year. I did this, but it seems like it will be an ongoing ordeal.

Learn to do my makeup.
I guess I did this? I got good quality makeup, signed up for Ipsy for a bit while I could afford it, and enjoyed it. I feel more comfortable with a makeup brush now, but I still can’t quite get my eyeliner wings even.

Create more content for YouTube.
While I didn’t end up creating more content in the respect of having more uploads, I did keep my output consistent, and I also diversified my content offerings. In addition to my doll videos, I shared a couple vlogs (a first for me!) and a few videos about art, which were incredibly fun and cathartic. I’m looking forward to making more videos next year and have more plans for what I want to do, as well.

Remember to exercise.
This was kind of hit and miss–while I felt I was overall more active, I didn’t keep a fixed schedule. I spent a lot of time outdoors over the summer and hatched a lot of eggs in Pokémon Go, but somehow I’m not sure most people consider that exercise. My health has been a priority, but it ended up being less about fixed goals and more about making wiser decisions and maintaining a better balance. So this one was halfway.

Make stickers.
I did this!! I plan to do more stickers next year, too. I’m comfortable and confident in my sticker-making skills now and will be using it for a variety of projects next year. Actually, I ended up doing some chibi drawings at the beginning of the year (which you can read about and see a video for here) and turned those into stickers, which I used for practice. Can’t wait to make more.

Draw a cover for Serpent’s Mark.
I started this. I did not finish. But I do have a really nice sketch I will share some time next year.

So that’s my recap… Looks like I accomplished roughly half of them, and part of the rest got partially done? I guess that’s not bad, all in all.

Next week I’ll pop in with one of my many plans for next year, so we’ll see what grows from these goals then.

December 4, 2018
The seasonal wind-down

December is usually my busiest time of year. It’s when I scramble to finish everything started earlier in the year, wrapping up projects I wanted to have done by the last of the 365-day cycle. I usually revisit my goals for the year to see how they went, too.

Honestly, I’d forgotten what a lot of my goals for 2018 were. I didn’t keep track of then as closely as I normally do. I had to dig up the blog post I made last year to discuss my goals, and for someone who quit tracking what I wanted to do, I can’t help but feel like I did pretty well. I had a lot of goals. Here’s the quick recap:

Revise and finish querying Serpent’s Mark.
Publish Her Midnight Hunter.
Make a plan for the Keeper’s Kin series.
Write and publish Emberheart.
Earn $1,000 as an author.
Attend a book/writing convention or conference.
Read a book a month.
Downsize craft supplies.
Learn to do my makeup.
Create more content for YouTube.
Remember to exercise.
Make stickers.
Draw a cover for Serpent’s Mark.

Yikes, that’s actually a lot longer of a list than I remember making. I’ll let you know how I did on those when I post next week, but this week, I’m talking about what I mentioned at the beginning: The wind-down.

My plans took a big turn in the middle of summer when I had a health problem pop up. I put a lot of things on the back burner, things that weren’t showing promise for immediate fruitfulness, and I think lightening my workload was wise.

Unlike the past several years, I didn’t complete any books this year. I started writing two, but I also wrote that short side adventure, The City of Arches. By the time it was done, it counted as a novelette on its own. Taking a slower approach to writing has been important; I still don’t feel 100%, but I feel much better than I did. I’ve laid out a writing plan for 2019 already, but I’ve made sure to create a more reasonable workload than I’ve given myself in the past.

Planning has been the biggest part of my wind-down this year. I have two major projects going on right now, working on Spectrum Blade and putting Serpent’s Mark through its ninth revision at the same time. I’ll probably have Serpent’s Mark wrapped up by the end of the year. Right now I hope to have it done midway through December, so I can just work on writing for Spectrum Blade each day.

But I want to leave time for my other work, too.
I still enjoy creating videos for YouTube, customizing my dolls, doing art. These all need time in my schedule. I’ve enjoyed painting while I was sick and I’m looking forward to doing one more piece before the end of the year, though I haven’t yet decided what it is. I did complete a snowy painting, which illustrates a scene from one of the books that follows Serpent’s Mark. Since that whole series is being reworked, I am not yet sure which book it takes place in, but I think it’s book 3.

There are a few things I’d handle differently if I was doing it now, of course, but for a second time trying to do a landscape and a first time doing digital enhancements, it’s okay. Next time I’ll push the mountains farther back; they’re not quite right, here. But they were fun. As I develop my painting skills, I’ve considered trying to do paintings for future book covers, but I won’t rush to that just yet. As much as I love planning, I have to be mindful how much I plan in advance.

As part of my wind-down, I’ll share my writing schedule and plans for 2019. Right now, I’m just trying not to rush. I was going to say more, but it was an early morning and I haven’t had coffee or tea, so I’ll stop here. No rush, right? 🙂

November 27, 2018
Small updates

I blogged a lot for a bit there, gearing up for new projects. Then the new projects started and I didn’t have the time to write for the blog. But it’s been a bit since I said anything, so now’s a good time to spill a bunch of thoughts across the page, right?

I’ve been working on writing Spectrum Blade. It’s about 12,000 words long right now; ideally, it’ll land somewhere around 100-120k words, so right now I can assume I’m about ten percent done. This is where I remember that writing epic fantasy has always been easiest for me. It’s fine if the word count ends up crazy high! Preferable, even. Once I get into the world building, my work tends to balloon in length. That’s great in fantasy, but has been a recurring problem when I write paranormal, as my planned 5,000-word shorts end up becoming 30,000 word novellas instead. It’s nice to sit there with an open document and not have to worry about brevity, letting my natural writing inclinations flow. Hopefully they’ll see me through to the end of the book, and give me something solid and coherent at the end.

Right now I feel like I’m not progressing fast enough; the book starts off pretty strong, but the action will dwindle to give way to adventure and world building pretty soon. I miss the pace I had last year, where I wrote four books, but I’m trying to spare my sanity and my health while still recovering from the trials I put myself through making those four books happen. For the first time in a long time, I’ve stopped writing down my word counts. I’ll start again in January (which I’ll talk about my plans for some time in December) but for now, I’m just writing as I can. There’s a lot going on in my personal life right now, so pushing isn’t going to help.

One of the reasons I haven’t been pushing is because I’ve been sick for close to 3 weeks now. I’ve put a lot of things on hold–my doll projects and writing especially. Writing because it’s mentally taxing, and dolls because so many of the materials I use are toxic and if I’m already having a lot of respiratory distress, I don’t need to be handling them or the cleanup, regardless of what protective measures I take. I never use my sealants without proper respiratory protection, for example, but even with a mask, the aerosols mean having paint residue on clothing and things, and that shouldn’t be floating about while I’m ill.

So instead of customizing dolls, I decided to go a different direction entirely, breaking out some neglected acrylics in the bottom drawer of my desk and trying landscape painting for the first time.

I’ve done digital landscapes, sure. But I never did landscape paintings traditionally, and I didn’t use acrylics much either. I used them for a couple things in art school, but that was it. The only things we were allowed to paint were Georgia O’Keeffe flowers over and over again, practicing quickly with acrylics and then doing the proper painting in oils. I love oil paints, but they’re expensive and I don’t have many color options, nor do I have the means to clean up anything but the water soluble variety. So this was new, low-demand and low-stress, as well as healthy experimentation for the artistic soul.

I’ve always loved the idea of having artwork to illustrate my books; it’s part of why I started drawing in the first place. And while I’m not an incredibly skilled artist, I felt like my first try was okay. I watched a lot of videos from Bob Ross before venturing into it, and I appreciated his happy accidents mantra, especially when I feel like most of my decisions regarding my work have been mistakes.

I have a lot of other thoughts about that–my writing, my career, the things I’m doing now. How being a full-time author hasn’t gone so well thus far and how I might not get to do it for long anyway. I have some more art I’m working on to go with stories, but I like to envision the above as a glimpse into another world. I guess it has to be, since nothing is referenced from life.

So! In short: Spectrum Blade, being written.
Scenes from books being painted.
For now, probably not a lot of visible updates happening. Unless you want to see me share more concept art for the series, in which case please do let me know.
It’s progress, at least.

November 13, 2018
Creating book heroes, part two: Tula

I’ve officially started writing the first book in my new series, and so far, I’ve found working on artwork to go with the book to be helpful. Not just as a way to unwind, but to help me establish a clear visual of the characters before they appear on the page. I’ll be starting a larger project with these characters, making dolls into all of them, but right now I’m trying to focus on the art for the major characters.

Right now, my goal is to have artwork for all the important characters who appear in the first book before I finish writing it. If I can get the whole major cast done, even better–but I’m starting with the party, first. I already shared art of the main character, Zaide, and he appeared alongside his friend and companion Resia. This time, I’m sharing Tula, one of the first important players Zaide meets on his quest.

In this video, instead of just sharing the art process, I spent a little time talking about the project, the paints I used, and shared a bit about the character, too!

You can see the video here:

October 23, 2018