Writing and publishing are a long road that requires a lot of patience. I’ve known this for a long time, but I was reminded this week of how true that is when I had to pull back on the publishing throttle. I had to delay back pushing The Button. In exchange, I’ve shifted focus to some of the “bells and whistles” or “frosting” depending on your metaphor of choice. I’m excited about what’s coming and can’t wait to make more announcements. Read on for my take on the importance of patience and stay tuned for more exciting news.
Drawing from the Well
As I said above, I had to change gears this week. All the work on publication has diverted my efforts on drafting. I still got a decent few words in, though (~2,200). The climax of this final full arc is about to tip over and it’s going to be great fun. Then it’s the interstitial reminder chapters and this first draft will be all finished.
Scenes: 227/246
Words: 137,138/~149,000
Filling the Well
Finally got a book in and finished The House of Blades. I enjoyed the heck out of it and would love to read more. For now, I’m back into Murderbot and loving this longer approach in Network Effect. And, yeah, Dreamlander is still there. I’m working on it. It’s good. I’m just reading a LOT of books right now. I’ll get there.
71/100 for #ProjectBookworm2022
Ink Master Season 14 starts this week! We’re so stoked. There’s lots of other TV to watch too, including House of the Dragon and Rings of Power. They’re on the list, but Ink Master is still the top. I’m also chewing slowly through my backlog of CW’s The Flash. It’s been interesting and I want to see where it goes, but it’s definitely gone to a weird place in Season 7.
Dragonflight is in Beta! I can’t wait to get in and play with Dracthyr customization, Warrior talents, and the new UI/HUD design. Addon reduction is a goal of mine for this next expansion to try to crank up my system’s performance. I also tried out Mobile Legends: Adventure and it’s fun so far. We’ll see how long until the glass breaks.
Well Chat
Patience is one of the most important aspects of any long-term goal. Writing and publishing is not exempt from that. As a planner, I get this, but it’s also easy to forget as the finish line draws near.
This week, I was reminded of these truths. I went to submit my book, my debut fantasy novel, the project I’ve worked on for fifteen years, to IngramSpark. From title to dimensions, description to metadata, inner matter to cover, everything was in. I even HIT the submit button. I was stoked.
And then I got a popup. It was a warning from IngramSpark that if I let this go through, it would go to retailers like Amazon. Immediately. That gave me pause, as it was intended.
This, of course, allows for pre-orders, but there was one fly in the ointment: no one has seen the cover yet. I haven’t revealed it. The cart was in front of the horse. So I had to take a step back, which I hated. I was so excited to finish one of the last steps that I didn’t realize I wasn’t AT that step yet. My excitement overcame my patience and I almost bungled my release plan.
So, I took a deep breath, closed my browser and laptop, and went to bed. The next day saw me leaning back into patience. I did a little research and adjusted the dates of my internal plan. And then I started work on other parts of pre-orders and release. Patience is strong again while I actively work as hard as I can on every aspect I can. I just have to remember to remain patient. This has been a long race. As excited as I am to finish it, I want to do it right.
Do you struggle with patience in long-term projects? How do you handle it? Let me know on social media.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG