Getting Back to Work

January is almost over now and it’s been the month during which I have eased out of the sabbatical I took and back into regular writing. I decided to go with another project than the one I’d worked on before I took my sabbatical and I’ve chosen the third book of the Isadora Goode series — “The Misadventures of Isadora Goode” — to ease back into writing. It was a good choice, as I really needed to get back into the flow and the novellas were easier to commit to than a novel might have been.

I’m glad I took that sabbatical in the first place, though. I had run myself ragged, always trying to keep up with the number of projects I’d plotted already and with the things happening to me and my family in real life.
The two months of respite gave me the chance to recharge, just write for fun, remind myself why I love writing so much. I also was productive in other ways, returning to crocheting, something I haven’t done for years now, taking a more relaxed approach to decorations in my journals, just doing a bit of this and a bit of that.
I’ve been reading, too, plotting new stories, and just thinking my life and my work in general through. I will not let it get to the point I was at in November again, that much is for sure.
It’s not that I’ve given up on writing completely, either. I’ve finished two Star Wars fan fictions which I really love. I’ve written some blog posts. I just haven’t written anything strictly ‘for work’ and I feel much better because of it.

Yet, with two months completely off work, I have also grown a little lazy. To a degree, it’s fine. It was something I wanted to do when taking my sabbatical.
It also means, though, that I had to ease into a regular writing habit again. I needed to find my stride again, get used to sitting down for several hours a day to write day by day, at least Monday to Friday. It’s not easy to go from ‘I write if I feel like it’ to ‘I have to write X chapters this week to make my quota.’ Yet, that is what I had to do.
During January, that is what I have done. As mentioned, I chose a novella set to get back into work, because for one thing a novella is normally around eight to twelve chapters if I plan it — so I can always see the end of the work. I also didn’t push as hard as I might have, giving myself a little leeway. It’s dangerous, as I have to make sure that ‘a day without work’ or ‘some days without work’ don’t turn into ‘months without work,’ but it’s also necessary. Not giving myself that leeway has led to my almost-burn-out in the first place, after all.

Now, I’m more or less up to par. There will always be ups and downs, times when I get a lot done and times when I struggle with just getting the bare minimum of my work finished.
January was a bit of this and a bit of that for me. I did not finish “The Misadventures of Isadora Goode”, as I had planned and hoped to, but I got two of the three novellas done — the last, longest one is going to be finished after I’ve done the editing of “The Necromancer’s Notebook” this month. I won’t even have to change the project file, as “The Necromancer’s Notebook” is volume two in the “Isadora Goode” series.
Despite not writing as often and as much as I wanted to, I’ve also almost met my quota for the month — on months where I don’t edit, the quota is 50,000 words. I have managed to get 48,000 words done, despite only easing back in. I’ll be honest — on quite some months, I’m actually well above my quota. Almost meeting it on a month where I’m just getting back into things was good enough for me.

I’ve also been thinking about why I wrote my first short-story collection very quickly when I decided to try the format out, but have struggled with both “DI Colin Rook” and “Scholomancer” (which is not yet done).
I think I know where the problem lies and how I might solve it now. The first collection (which will be out at the end of May as “The Lady of the Dead”) has a rising threat. The tension is pushed throughout the five stories and a common problem and enemy connects them. There are five different things which happen to Joanna and Alice, but there is the same enemy behind them. “DI Colin Rook” and “Scholomancer” are just a collection of stuff which happens without that person behind it all, without that plot-thread going through all of it. They are not connected.
I will go back to “Scholomancer” and work the stories over, connect them in a way (“DI Colin Rook” is written and it’s fine as it is — yet, who knows? I might actually change a few  things in the edit…). That might make it easier for me to keep writing. The other story collections I’ve plotted will be worked over, too (although “Hunters”, “The Crew”, and “Fallen Angel” all have more of a through-line already). More to do, but it’s fine.

It should be clear from this post so far that my sabbatical has been a success. I have gotten the rest I so direly needed. I have been able to think through something which I had a problem with. I have reminded myself of why I enjoy writing so much. I have gotten back to writing, too. The way ahead is clear for me — February is about editing and releasing “The Necromancer’s Notebook”. After I have prepared the release, I might do more writing on “The Misadventures of Isadora Goode”. I am much more motivated to write now (even to edit, although I don’t like editing) and I am looking forward to writing again. That hasn’t always been the case a few months ago.

Taking a Sabbatical

You might already have noticed that I haven’t been writing any blog posts lately (for a little over a month now to be more precise). I’ve found myself almost burned out after the year I’ve had so far and I’ve taken a sabbatical to recover. That did include abstaining from my blog and doing the mere minimum (mostly set up before the sabbatical) for my Facebook page.

My real life this year has been hard — my dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the end of the last year and went through several surgeries and a stint of chemotherapy from January to September. I didn’t go through all the physical parts of this, naturally, but there was a lot of work to pick up and a lot of care going on as well. Not that I’m complaining — I’m glad I could help him. Only … it doesn’t lead to a lot of spare time for writing and editing and doing all the other stuff which needs doing if you’re a freelance writer.
I forced myself to go through all of it, releasing a new book in February (when my dad had major surgery), May (when his last surgery was just finished), and August (when he was in the middle of his chemotherapy). I simply had no strength left in November, so “The Necromancer’s Notebook” will be released in February next year. I can live with that.
I also pushed myself with writing until I barely could bring myself to go on, despite being all geared up for the stories I wanted to write. Strangely enough, when I re-plotted and rewrote an old Star Wars fan-fiction in October, I was burning for it. I was putting in two chapters a day, Monday to Sunday (I normally take the weekends off from writing). I wanted to finish this and I did — only to continue with part two right afterwards. I wrote into November, pushing the time at which I would start editing — until I realised I didn’t want to edit. Well, I never want to edit, but this time, I just couldn’t find the energy, so I decided ‘no editing and no releasing this month’ and I was all the better for it.

Yet, what this has shown me is that I can write. It’s not that I have lost the ability to really finish a writing project, it’s just that right now I can’t be bothered with commercial projects and need to find my way back to my love of writing and telling stories. That is what my sabbatical will be for, recovering the fun of writing and getting more motivated again.
I will try to get back to regular writing in January — it might take longer, I have two fan projects in the pipeline and they might take up the time until towards the end of January. Even so, I can also start anew in February after the editing. Editing usually motivates me to write more.
I find myself looking forward to writing more already, which is a good sign. I want to write again and I want to tackle a project. I enjoy myself at the keyboard (and I’ve grown fond of Scrivener’s composition mode, too, but more of that at another time). My sabbatical is definitely going in the right direction and that is good.

So far, I’ve only pushed my release schedule back by one book — shifting “The Necromancer’s Notebook” which has been written quite a while ago from November to February.
It’s not as if I was missing out on enormous sales numbers, either. I make little money with my books so far, although it’s getting better. It’s not as if there’s troves of fans who are crying themselves to sleep at night because the book isn’t out yet (although I can say that it’s fun).
It’s also that I wasn’t so much not looking forward to editing the book — I do like the stories in this novella collection and I do like Isadora very much — , it was that I just couldn’t find the motivation to start with it at all. Normally, I can at least tell myself ‘it has to be done and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done,’ but not this time. This time, I couldn’t motivate myself at all.

I’ve had a burn-out before, too, and I didn’t want to get down to that again — once was one time too many.
Therefore, I hit the emergency break and got off before it could get to that point. I’m getting better and that is good. I need this time, so I’m taking it. If other authors can publish a book every five years (or so), I can publish three books a year instead of four every now and then.
The last time, by the way, I didn’t publish four books, was when my mum lost half her lung to cancer. I find that real life and family take precedent over my publishing business. Deal with it.

Blog posts might not be quite as regular for a while longer now, but I’ll try to get some up. I actually have three more of them plotted and can write them. I might also take the time to do so before I return to my Star Wars fan-fiction and give my characters a new adventure with less Sith and more investigation. I’m enjoying my sabbatical after several years of basically no breaks and I will return to work when I have recovered enough. Luckily, I have the freedom to do so.

Not That Many Updates

We have a release month again, of course, as it’s definitely May by now. Since the release of “The Fourth Reich” is coming up, here is an update from me as to the books which I have written or plan to finish soon or plan to write soon. I have more than enough projects waiting and really need to discipline myself more, so I get them out into the world before I think up even more projects.
It is not that I haven’t written anything — I wrote over 60,000 words last month. It’s just that relatively few of them were part of any official projects. There was a lot of smut, but there was little about Colin (who is now stuck in a manor home in a time loop with a killer…). Yet, I have written a lot, which means I can write a lot. I just need to focus more on the actual projects I have, such as Colin’s stories and the novel “Sword and Dagger” (working title, might become a series title) which I’ve set up to write next and hope to start this month after I finish with Colin.

My current release list:

• The Fourth Reich (May 2022)
• The Haunting of Winterthorne Hall (August 2022)
• The Necromancer’s Notebook (Isadora Goode Vol. 2; November 2022)
• The Lady of the Dead (February 2023)
• DI Colin Rook Vol. 1 (May 2023)

My next two projects:

• Sword and Dagger (novel, might be the start of a new series)
• John Stanton - Agent of the Crown Vol. 3

My projects are plotted, so all I need to do is to sit down and write them — which is, of course, the longest part of the writing process. Apart from the two projects listed above, I have a long list of other projects which are plotted and ready for writing. Quite some of them are mystery stories, there’s also a few horror stories coming up, and I do hope that I will also get around to continuing the Magpies series — I have ten titles at the ready, yet only one book finished and none more plotted.
I also want to switch as regularly as possible between story collections (such as Colin Rook), novella collections (such as John Stanton or Isadora Goode), and novels (such as this month’s “The Fourth Reich”). I have a lot more novels than other things plotted, though, so I can see myself writing more novels than other stuff in the near future.

I’ve also started to post ‘character dialogues’ on my Facebook Page every day. They’re short dialogues between me and my characters (sometimes, I even win…). If you check my page regularly, that might give you a bit more to read instead of only a few posts a week.

That’s it for the update. I hope it’s been informative. Check my Facebook Page, if you haven’t already. By the end of the month, “The Fourth Reich” will be out, then I can return to writing and finally get Colin out of that time loop.

End of Year Thoughts

The end of 2021 is approaching quickly (considering how this year played out, probably not quickly enough, though…) and it’s time to look back at the year and have some thoughts about what it was like or what the next one could be like.

 

I made a big change in 2021, shifting my projects from Word (which I used for about three decades) to Scrivener this summer. It’s a change I’m fully happy with by now (I might also shift my blog posts for good). I also began to pre-plot in Scapple, which has proven very helpful as I have a skeleton of the full story by the time I get down to sorting out the scenes. I’ll definitely keep on doing this, so it’s a lasting change.

 

I didn’t write quite as much as I wanted to. While I did get my four books for next year done (more below), I didn’t put in quite as much time as I might or should have. Yet, during the year, I learned methods to pace myself and get the work done, which is good. During quite some months, I did far more than my word goal, while I missed it by quite some in others. Next year, I want to dive into my writing projects, as I have many stacked, and build up a certain amount of padding again - not having to worry whether I’ll be done with the next book in time will be good for my nerves.

 

My methods have been refined - I now work by plotted scene and have access to my plotting while I’m writing (thanks to Scriveners structure). I am using the pomodoro method, which helps me pace myself without doing too little or too much. It doesn’t pay to overdo things any more than it pays to be too lazy. Thanks to Scapple, I can throw my ideas against the wall and see what sticks.

 

These are the releases for next year (already around as first drafts):

 

·         February 2022: Theoretical Necromancy Vol. 2 (The Return of the Devil Monks, The Cursed Paintings, The Suitor)

·         May 2022: The Fourth Reich (stand-alone novel)

·         August 2022: The Haunting of Winterthorne Hall (stand-alone novel)

·         November 2022: The Necromancer’s Notebook (Isadora Goode Vol. 2; No Honour Among Villains, The Medusa Serum, The Lich’s Lair)

 

With all of the books set up, I can write in peace, knowing that my releases for next year are ready.

 

My projects are breaching out when it comes to genre. There are new stories that might become series, I have discovered the joy of interconnected short stories (the first one to be released in February 2023), and I have plotted out more stand-alone books. There will also be more stories within several of my series, although both the “Knight Agency” and the “Black Knight Agency” are on a sabbatical for the time being. Yet, John Stanton, Isadora Goode, Gabrielle Munson, and Maddie Dempsey are all set up for further stories. Gabrielle is even going to get a novel and a set of short stories. Anne Logan might join them as a series character, as might Colin Rook.

I’ve branched out into murder mysteries with several stand-alone stories in that area and there’s a tribute to Hammer Films among my projects as well (“Fallen Angel” will be more gory and more erotically suggestive than my regular books, following the principles of Hammer Film Studios to always go to the very limits of what they could get away with in those aspects). I am challenging myself a little here and I’m looking forward to the end results of those stories.

 

Other plans for next year include setting up a proper website under my internet domain quittersink.com, perhaps even a little web shop, and putting out a few book collections (like the two Loki Files in one book or the first three books of the Knight Agency and Black Knight Agency). Scrivener allows for easy work on that, but I will have to re-edit at least the early Knight Agency books (the edited files will, of course, also replace the files for the regular books you might have bought).

Further plans, which are not for the next year per se, include dipping into the ‘books on demand’ market and, perhaps, even getting successful books adapted as audio books at some point (most likely not for the next three or four years, but who knows?).

 

Have a good Christmas and a good time ‘between the years,’ as we Germans call it. May 2022 be less chaotic and less dominated by a pandemic than 2021.

End of Year Greetings!

Wordl Art

I was a bit bored yesterday, so I went to the Wordl site and got one for every blog I have. This one is for this site:

Interesting collection of words, isn’t it?

Cosy

This is the right time to curl up with a good book – outside the weather is everything but nice and inviting.

Happy New Year

It’s the first of January 2010 today, so we’ve all managed to get through the first decade of the 21st century. I wonder what the next one will bring.

Anyways, I wish everyone who reads this blog a Happy New Year 2010!