Tag: writing

On Publishing Sooner or Later: Pros & Cons

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On PublishingLeave a comment

Over the last few months, I’ve been processing my ideas for writing and publishing books going forward. I last published something in 2019, with my short mythology series on Wattpad. I didn’t intend to go five-plus years until publishing my next story, but here we are.

I’m ready to embark on the next phase of my book writing/publishing journey. I say “embark”, because I’m not necessarily ready to publish right now — just to take the next steps. What I haven’t quite decided is how I want to proceed.

I could focus on my duology and try to get those out in 2025, at the soonest. That would enable me to attend a few book conventions or festivals with my duology and my previous novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Memento. I could also hold back, prepare several different stories, and then pursue a more deliberate publication schedule to drive higher overall sales.

So, I need to make a list of the pros and cons.

Publish sooner?

There’s no reason to make two different pros and cons lists, so I’m just going to focus on the most immediate question: Do I want to publish something in the near term, regardless of longer-term timelines?

Pros of publishing sooner

I could get my author name out there again.

  • Perhaps have new stories will help drive sales to WoEM. Then again, maybe that will draw unwanted attention to the fact that I have yet to publish my intended sequel to WoEM.
  • This likely implies a social media “presence” of some form, something I’m not thrilled about.

It would allow me to attend some book conventions or festivals with more than one book to sell.

  • I attended exactly one convention to sell my first book in 2019, and I greatly enjoyed it. It was so much more rewarding to talk to people about my book and meet other authors/creators face-to-face, instead of trying to advertise online.

I could feel like I’m making progress on my writing goals.

  • Perhaps a mental hurdle, but sitting on “finished” unpublished works for years could be a detriment to my motivation.

Cons of publishing sooner

I would be left with another uncertain publishing gap.

  • I could focus on finishing and publishing my current duology. However, once completed, I would feel the same pressure to identify a publishing timeline for my next work.
  • All the book marketing/sales threads, forums, and articles say that you shouldn’t leave too long a gap between publishing cycles. I’m not sure how important that is to me, though.

I’d likely need to establish a social media presence.

  • I’m not particularly interested in the idea of producing social media content just to get my name out there. I understand it’s something lots of authors have to do, but it would require additional mental energy I’d need to prepare for.

I’m not decided, but I think I’m leaning towards publishing sooner just to have something attainable to reach for. More pondering is needed.

Steve D

August Write Day: More Space to Plan

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On PublishingLeave a comment

July has been a busy month, for a period I usually find to be the doldrums of summer. We took an extended vacation around the 4th, I’ve traveled for work, etc. I must admit that I was not actively tracking my goals for July, but I feel like I ended up hitting most of them anyway.

Perhaps it’s more a matter of routine, or a bit of a mindset I’ve been in to just get things done. Either way, I feel good about where I’m at.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Finish New Earth.
  3. Stay on top of my shifted priorities. 

Read three books?

Yep! I finished three books in July, all audiobooks again:

  • Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Among the Beasts and Briars, by Ashley Poston, and which I reviewed here
  • A Plague of Giants, by Kevin Hearne, which I reviewed here

I’m thoroughly enjoying Kevin Hearne’s trilogy and will definitely be finishing A Blight of Blackwings in the next week or so.

Finish New Earth?!

Yes. Basically. I finally came up with my ending, which, of course, was a scene that had been staring me in the face for months. It’s the type of scene that I knew I had wanted to incorporate in some way during revisions. The ending isn’t perfect and likely needs some more work, but I’m honestly relieved to say that I have ended this story.

I still have a lot of revisions, and working with an editor, to do before this duology is anywhere near finalized.

For the moment, I’m happy to put a pin in it. I feel like I need to do some serious self-evaluating and self-reflection to figure out my writing goals. I haven’t yet nailed down a consistent writing routine, so I want to step back and consider how much I can reasonably focus on writing week-to-week to give me a better sense of how long each project will take, rather than writing into an unknown void of time.

Stay on top of shifted priorities?

Yes, mostly. Another change we have coming up is our oldest starting kindergarten, so our daily drop-off/pick-up is about to change. I think we have a plan figured out, and we just need to see how it goes.

Goals for August

  1. Read three books.
    • Current reads: A Blight of Blackwings, by Kevin Hearne, and The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl.
    • Likely next reads: A Curse of Krakens, by Kevin Hearne, the final installment of this series. And… I’m not sure what else at the moment.
  2. Plan for/test a writing routine. I’m not committed to sticking to a writing routine yet. I just want to put in the effort to figure one out and do some much-needed longer-term planning for my writing projects.
  3. Figure out my next writing steps. I have two projects I’d like to make progress on, but it’s difficult to prioritize, because I’m not sure when or in what order I will be publishing anything.
    • I haven’t decided whether I’m just going to publish my next thing and hope for the best, or whether I want to plan out a publishing phase of three-ish stories, to try to boost overall sales and carry into some convention work. So, goals #2 and #3 go hand-in-hand, really.

Steve D

July Write Day: Space to Plan

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

I unintentionally took a week off from this site, so we have some catching up to do.

June gave me some much-needed headspace in a lot of different ways. First, we had a destination wedding vacation with some family, but without our kids, which was a really nice change of pace. The boys had fun with my mom for a week, so they also had a change of pace. Then, we had an extended 4th of July holiday in our usual spot with a bunch of my wife’s family, which is a different sort of relaxation.

This all gave me a mental break from work that I’ve been putting off for ages, and also some quality time with my wife, and then also our kids. It also allowed me to do a lot of thinking without the pressure of everyday routines.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books. Likely:
    • Current read: Star Wars: Tarkin by James Lucena
    • Likely next reads: The Storyteller by Dave Grohl, perhaps The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
  2. Finish New Earth? I just need to power through to a fitting ending. I think I just need to be okay with a decent ending, and then come back to it in revisions.
  3. Enjoy vacation. Work has been crazy, and a big deployment is happening while I’ll be away, so I’m stressing a bit about that. But this will be a real vacation from everything, so I want to embrace it. I just need to get ready for it, mentally and logistically.

Finish three books?

I finished four books in June, all audiobooks:

  • Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake
  • Tarkin by James Luceno, which I reviewed last month
  • Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston, which is worthy of a review
  • The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which closes out my long trek through The Complete Sherlock Holmes collection on Audible

Honestly, I’ve read so much since late June that I had forgotten which books I had finished just a few weeks ago. Vacation time is also reading time.

Finish New Earth?

No, but I got closer, and then had some distance from the pressures of writing. I thought about writing a lot, and I thought about what I wanted my next steps to be. Not what I thought I should do, or what would be expected of me.

That’s the trap I perpetually fall into — conflating what I think others expect of me with what I actually want for myself.

I won’t go into detail until I take some meaningful action, but a publishing plan is beginning to coalesce in my mind, one that hinges on me getting my self-publishing shit together, and also finishing these books in a reasonable timeframe.

Enjoy vacation?

Yes! We spent a week in Tenerife, Canary Islands for a destination wedding, a trip we had not planned on taking a year ago, but one where we could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate with family and visit somewhere new.

Then we spent six days at a family lakehouse with my wife’s siblings and cousins. The family has grown in the last year+, so our boys have some baby cousins to play with. And our oldest, turning six soon, has come out of his shell in a big way this year, and it was on full display on this vacation, when he tried all sorts of new things without the timidity he often showed as a toddler.

A further thought

Overall, I’ve had a real chance to evaluate my priorities and refocus my attention where it’s needed most. I haven’t had exercise as an explicit goal in a couple months, yet I feel like I’ve been more active more consistently in recent weeks. Even just feeling like I’ve improved in this area is a good step forward.

For the moment, I’m focused on retaining my shifted priorities and not just reverting back to bad habits now that vacation time is over.

Goals for July

  1. Read three books. I’ve just finished Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, so I’m off to a good start.
    • Current reads: The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl, and The End of the Story by Clark Ashton Smith (a collection of his short stories that I will likely pick away at for some time).
    • Likely next reads: A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne has long intrigued me, and I feel ready to sink into a proper fantasy series again.
  2. Finish New Earth. Yeah, yeah, I know. Just finish it and worry about the ending later.
  3. Stay on top of my shifted priorities. This is not the space to detail these, but there are a number of things guiding my attention and focus that I need to stay on top of. Exercise/health is one, but there are others. So the goal is to just stay on top of these things and not allow myself to be weighed down by them this month.

Steve D

June Write Day: Vacation Time

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

Welp, summer has arrived and all of a sudden we’re preparing for a couple of extended vacations. Not that I’m complaining. I just feel unprepared for the first one. This will be the longest vacation we’ve taken in at least two years, and it is followed fairly quickly by an extended holiday for the 4th of July.

So I need to make a to-do list before we leave.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books. I already mentioned my current reads:
    • Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake. I will likely finish both in the next couple weeks.
    • Likely next read: I’m eyeing Thor, Volume 1: The Goddess of Thunder for a change of pace, and because I never finished reading Jason Aaron’s run on the Thor comics. After that, I’m not sure.
  2. Finish New Earth, please? Focus on 15-minute writing sprints, a couple nights per week, and I should get this done.
  3. Continue to contemplate my writing/publishing vision. I went into more detail above than I had anticipated, so maybe I’ll end up writing about this more this month to get my thoughts onto virtual paper.

Finish three books?

I finished one book (Children of Time) in May and a second one at the very beginning of June. I’m now well into the audiobook version of Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno, and still figuring out my next paper read. I’ll likely pick something weighty to sink into over vacation.

Finish New Earth?

Getting closer. I’m not great at writing endings, and I had forgotten that. Whenever I come upon the end of a story, I too often slip into summary mode, where I try to tie off all the threads neatly and concisely. I haven’t quite landed on how I want this story to end, so I’ve been puttering over smaller plot threads until I come to the moment. This feels like the type of story that doesn’t necessarily have a neat-and-tidy ending, but getting it to a satisfactory place is the trick.

Contemplate writing and publishing vision?

Casually. I haven’t come to any decisions about what I might do. I generally like the idea of just publishing my two-part novella when it’s ready and seeing what happens. That would allow me to go to a couple conventions with more than one printed book. I’m just not sure how much I want to invest in marketing and such at the moment. Enough for a release, perhaps?

More contemplation is required.

Goals for June

  1. Finish three books. Likely:
    • Current read: Star Wars: Tarkin by James Lucena
    • Likely next reads: The Storyteller by Dave Grohl, perhaps The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
  2. Finish New Earth? I just need to power through to a fitting ending. I think I just need to be okay with a decent ending, and then come back to it in revisions.
  3. Enjoy vacation. Work has been crazy, and a big deployment is happening while I’ll be away, so I’m stressing a bit about that. But this will be a real vacation from everything, so I want to embrace it. I just need to get ready for it, mentally and logistically.

Steve D

Book Review: Spectacular World-Building in CHILDREN OF TIME

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I got Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky as a gift from my brother-in-law, who thought I might enjoy it. I had heard of Tchaikovsky before in passing, but was otherwise unfamiliar with his work.

The description of this book certainly piqued my interest, and I didn’t want it to languish on my to-be-read shelf for ages, so I dug in.

Children of Time is a fantastic read that encapsulates both the awe-inspiring technological dreams of epic science fiction and the remarkably grounded perspectives and emotional weight of human stories.

This story is described as “evolutionary world-building”, and it takes place over literal millennia as a ship of human survivors of a destroyed Earth search for and try to claim a terraformed Earth-like world as their own. Only a select few humans aboard this ship are awakened at various intervals to deal with the potentially-catastrophic problems that can befall any deep-space mission. Simultaneously, a new race of beings are evolving on the terraformed world at a super-charged pace, thanks to a bioengineered nanovirus to accelerate their advancement in preparation for their human-creators’ arrival.

This brilliantly “symbiotic” narrative alternates over nearly incomprehensible lurches in time. One human aboard the ark ship is awakened from cryo-sleep several times over the course of millennia, facing new challenges or threats each time in what to him feels like only weeks. On the terraformed world, the narrative follows successive generations of characters as they advance and reach for the stars in their own right.

The first portion of the story is a little jarring, perhaps intentionally so, and the reader is flung from one moment in time to the next, separated by centuries or more. Once the reader figures out this rhythm, though, it is quite enjoyable to see how the dueling plots advance over such inhuman time spans.

Much of the world-building focuses on how such a world could be terraformed, how a massive ark ship carrying the remnants of human civilization survives for millennia, and how a nanovirus can advance a civilization. This is all endlessly fascinating, toeing the line between believability and awe.

The story, however, is an entirely human one, focused on the very existence of one civilization or another. This book delves into what it means to be both the first and the last of a great civilization, to survive and continue living as the world appears to be collapsing around you, and to harness or reject the breakneck pace of social and technological advancement.

I loved this book, and there appear to be two more in this series already. I will absolutely be picking up the next installment, Children of Ruin, in the near future.

Steve D

May Write Day: Continuing the New Mode?

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life, On StorytellingLeave a comment

Yard work. Gardening plans. Summer-like weather. Some light air travel with our boys for the first time. April was a cool month, overall. Work was stressful for the first couple weeks, but it’s calmed down enough for me to catch my breath.

I’m still figuring out my day-to-day routine, but I feel like I’m making progress, in that I have ups and downs but generally get things done when I need to. I’m referring to my “new mode” of approaching Second Shift, family time, and my hobbies, which entails trying to stay up and active through the evenings and not falling into a pattern of laziness that ultimately leads to guilt/shame over not being “productive enough”.

It’s gone pretty well.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books.
  2. Finish final chapter of New Earth and review story for overall chapter structure.
  3. Contemplate what my vision for my writing/publishing actually is.

Finish three books?

No, but I finished two: MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios and His Last Bow, as part of the Sherlock Holmes omnibus I’m working my way through.

I’m still relishing the journey of Children of Time, and I’ve started on a nonfiction work about the marvelous world of fungi, called Entangled Lives. This is one of those books that is about science and microbiology and ecology on the surface, but really has some much deeper insights into our perceptions of life, sentience, intelligence, and the connectivity of all things. Both of these books will take me some time to get through and appreciate them in full, so I’m in no rush.

Finish New Earth and chapter overview?

Uuugggghhh no. This is one area I have not been able to work into a consistent routine. I’ve broken myself of the bad mental habit of only writing in long, dedicated sessions, which is a good start.

I was able to write in a couple spurts, but I’ve officially run into book-ending-syndrome, in which I find it impossible to write a suitable ending. I want to play out the scenes in my notes, but I keep watching the word count extend farther and farther over my intended count, and while that doesn’t actually matter, it absolutely distracts me from just writing the damn ending.

Contemplate writing/publishing vision?

Yes, and I haven’t made any firm decisions. I think I know what I would like my next four or five publications to be, which is a great start. Two of them would be the duology of novellas that are my current works-in-progress, and two would be full-length novels, which is obviously way more intimidating.

Identifying a tangible and achievable timeline to write and publish all those stories is the trick. At this point, I’m not even sure when I want to publish my novellas. I could just get them out into the world, but then it could be another few years at least before I publish anything else. What I can’t decide is whether I’m okay with that.

Similar to my previous workout life, spending 10+ hours per week exercising, I haven’t totally shed the notion of publishing at a pace more akin to a full-time writer. I’m not a full-time writer. At this point, I’m barely a hobbyist. But what does it mean for a hobbyist to publish occasionally? Should I try to prepare and publish several works in a shorter timeframe to try to drive real sales pivot into full-time writing? I’m not sure I’m ready for that either.

So, that is part of my dilemma at the moment. Not only the act of writing, but even what my medium- and long-term goals are. I require more contemplation.

Goals for May

  1. Finish three books. I already mentioned my current reads:
    • Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake. I will likely finish both in the next couple weeks.
    • Likely next read: I’m eyeing Thor, Volume 1: The Goddess of Thunder for a change of pace, and because I never finished reading Jason Aaron’s run on the Thor comics. After that, I’m not sure.
  2. Finish New Earth, please? Focus on 15-minute writing sprints, a couple nights per week, and I should get this done.
  3. Continue to contemplate my writing/publishing vision. I went into more detail above than I had anticipated, so maybe I’ll end up writing about this more this month to get my thoughts onto virtual paper.

Steve D

Book Review: MCU illuminates the history of Marvel’s films

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I recently listened to MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios on audiobook. I heard about the book, because one of the co-authors, Joanna Robinson, has a podcast I frequently listen to (House of R), and she talked a bit about the book in the run-up to its release late last year.

I’ve enjoyed Marvel films over the years and admire what they had achieved through the Infinity Saga. I also really enjoy documentary-style storytelling with behind-the-scenes insights. This book excels at this type of storytelling.

With plenty of quotes and perspective from the people who were involved with these films over the decades, it’s clear that the authors spent tons of hours conducting interviews with all kinds of folks, from production assistants on 20-year-old films, to directors, set/costume/effects designers, to the major actors, to Kevin Feige himself. There are countless anecdotes about snap decisions made in one era of the studio’s history that directly shape how the movies came together years later.

The book is paced and structured like a documentary, with most chapters focusing on a particular film, or a particular piece of the MCU machine, such as visual effects. It begins in the very earliest days of Marvel’s forays into film and television in the 60s and 70s, with projects and people I had scarcely been aware of, and then really picks up in the early 2000s, when superhero films started appearing in greater numbers.

The authors did a good job balancing fair criticism of various parts of the studio’s process with genuine appreciation of its accomplishments. The chapters on The Infinity Saga are rightfully tinged with admiration at how those films were pulled off, while the chapter on visual effects speaks to the issues that VFX artists have faced in dealing with the tight deadlines, scant budgets, and long hours demanded by their contracts with Marvel Studios.

My one critique is that the closing sections felt a little too concise. If this is a history of the MCU – and it certainly reads like one – then I would have wanted a little more summation on this era of Marvel Studios and what the future looks like.

Still a great read, and definitely worth picking up again to absorb all the nuggets of information spread throughout.

Steve D

April Write Day: Setting the New Mode

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

March definitely felt like typical early-spring time. Lots of goals and ambitions, lots of plans being made for later in the year, and lots of de-hibernation from the grey post-holiday winter.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read four books! Like I said, I’ve already finished two this month, and I’m well on my way to finishing two more, so I might as well go for it.
  2. Exercise every other day and get to the gym twice. Same.
  3. Finish New Earth ending and outline chapter structure. Alright, my online class is done, which opens up some time during my week. I fell out of the groove, so I just need to get back in it.

Read four books?

Yes! After a deficit of finishing books in February (but not a deficit of reading), I finally finished a couple of reads I had been progressing through for some time, and added a couple more for good measure.

  • I completed long-time audiobook read Black Leopard, Red Wolf, for which I will post my full review next week.
  • I finished my paperback reading of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, which is deserving of its own review because of its thoughtfulness and how it’s influencing how I think about my kids playing in nature, and about gardening/landscaping our yard this year.
  • I read The Valley of Fear as part of my ongoing — and nearly completed — read of the entire Sherlock Holmes omnibus.
  • And I read No Good Men Among the Living, a fascinating and tragically true account of several Afghan individuals trying to survive the early years of the war in Afghanistan. Also worthy of its own review.

That’s a pretty good encapsulation of my overall reading interests: epic fantasy or sci-fi, some mystery/thriller and also classical literature, and thought-provoking nonfiction works about historical events or issues I care about.

I haven’t talked much about my reading of the entire Sherlock Holmes collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one gigantic audiobook that I’ve been picking away at story-by-story for about the last year-and-a-half. I knew I didn’t want to try to read the entire collection in one shot, so I’ve just kept the file downloaded on my phone and listened to individual stories piecemeal, trying to appreciate each one in its own right, rather than as a collection.

This is the only way I will listen to these types of collections going forward, and there are certainly other authors I want to tackle next. I’m nearly complete with the Holmes collection, and I’m already eyeing the next long-term collections to work my way through.

Exercise more plus go to the gym?

Not quite, and I think continuing to include this in my monthly goals posts is both distracting me from the real purpose of these posts and putting too much pressure on myself that just turns into guilt.

I’m trying to work exercise more into my day-to-day routine, and I’m getting there in little steps. I think I just need to live it. I keep thinking about exercise in terms of how I used to exercise, which was nearly everyday in dedicated 60-to-90-minute sessions. That’s not my life anymore, and I’m not aiming for that. I just don’t know quite what I’m aiming for at this point, except for more. And that’s not a goal I can reliably track, except with myself, on my own terms.

So I’m leaving it at that.

Finish New Earth ending and review chapter strucutre?

No, and this is one of those items I need to refocus on in this forum. I did make some progress on my final chapter, but I did not complete it.

I wrote last week about finding a new mode, where sheer boredom with doom-scrolling and also general frustration at not feeling like I was doing enough in general had me finding ways to focus on the things I actually need and want to focus on. This could be housework, spending time with the family, or just reading for more than 10 minutes.

The trend has largely held, so far. I just need to expand it to writing as well. One of my strategies to focus more on my writing is to find the time, and allow myself the space, to write in short bursts — 20 minutes, 15, 10, even, if that’s all I can give.

I think another issue I’ve been struggling with is my overall vision for my writing. I have lots of story ideas, but at the moment, it’s difficult for me to visualize actually getting them all done on any kind of tangible timeline. This makes it difficult for me to stick to medium- or long-term goals. So, I need to really evaluate what my medium- and long-term goals are with writing. Not just where I want to end up in some undefined future, but how I can get there from this month, over the next three months, six months, eighteen months.

I’m not committing to what that vision is, not right this second. But I am committing to thinking about it earnestly and honestly.

Goals for April

  1. Finish three books.
    • Current reads-in-progress: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaichovsky, and MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joana Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards.
    • Likely next read: His Last Bow (in the Sherlock Holmes omnibus)
  2. Finish final chapter of New Earth and review story for overall chapter structure. I can definitely do this, even if it takes me twenty tiny working sessions.
  3. Contemplate what my vision for my writing/publishing actually is. I know where I want to end up, but first I need to think about how I want to get there.

Steve D

New Mode Unlocked

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

I’ve been operating in a slightly different mode of late. Between job-shift, parenting-shift, second-shift, and time-to-myself-shift, I’ve been a lot more focused on doing the things I need and/or want to get done.

I’m not exactly sure where this mode is coming from, but I honestly find it motivating, which helps me get more done. Recent weeks have been up-and-down for me, where I might do the bare minimum on a given night to keep the house in order, and then lazily scroll my phone or watch TV to fill what little time I had before begrudgingly going to bed.

Honestly, I think I got bored of doing that, so I’ve started filling that time with things that actually make me feel good, either because I’m taking more time for self-care, getting things done around the house, or focusing on two hobbies I have paid precious little attention to: reading and writing.

Perhaps my latest paperback read is a part of this — where I’m actually motivated to carve out the time in my evenings to read a chapter. I’ve just started reading Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaichovsky, and after only 50 pages or so, I genuinely look forward to picking up this book each night.

This more motivated mode has also helped me refocus on writing, and I’m aiming to have a meaningful update on that front for my next monthly goals post.

We’re also starting to look into some gardening/landscaping ideas for our first spring and early-summer in our new yard, and I’m looking forward to getting into some of that work.

I’m hoping this mode is more than just a weekly trend. I just need to be able to put the phone down for a bit and let other things occupy my time.

Steve D

March Write Day: Where Did February Go?

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

Somehow, we’re in another month, and we’re already starting to see hints of spring. I strangely don’t feel ready for spring and then summer. Cold days and occasional snow provide a convenient excuse to hold up inside the house and not be bothered with being social. Now comes spring, and all of our plans for this year. Don’t get me wrong, we have some very exciting plans for this year. I just thought I’d have more time to prepare for them, like, mentally.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read 3 books.
  2. Exercise every other day and get to the gym. 
  3. Finish ending for New Earth.
  4. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.

Read three books?

No, and I actually didn’t finish any books in February. However, just a few days into March I finished two books, I’m nearly done with another, and I’ve made a good start on a fourth.

I finished reading Black Leopard, Red Wolf a few days ago, after powering through it the last couple weeks. I really liked it, but I have some more thoughts I’ll share in a review next week. My goal is to make up for lost reads this month.

Exercise every other day and get to the gym?

Not quite. I exercised more like twice per week and made it to the gym once. Not terrible, but also not as much as I’d like. It’s a work-in-progress, as always. I definitely need to get to the gym more this month. That’s been the toughest part to motivate for so far.

Finish ending for New Earth and Outline Chapter Structure?

Noooooooope. My online class finished just last week, and I had one assignment and a group project that took up way more time than I had anticipated. So, while I really tried to work on my story on nights when I could muster the mental energy, I had to focus on the class.

Goals for March

  1. Read four books! Like I said, I’ve already finished two this month, and I’m well on my way to finishing two more, so I might as well go for it.
  2. Exercise every other day and get to the gym twice. Same.
  3. Finish New Earth ending and outline chapter structure. Alright, my online class is done, which opens up some time during my week. I fell out of the groove, so I just need to get back in it.

Steve D