Perseverance is vital in any endeavor. The longer its term, the more critical it is to stick with it. Writing, especially novels and especially series, couldn’t require it more. And that’s just in the construction, so to speak. This week, I found many fruits blossoming from my perseverance over the last decade and a half. My book signing tour is back on track with three dates and I met two lovely local authors. Books are selling. Editing is progressing. And we’re making headway with the disaster of our garage. Life is good as we stick to it.
EDIT: This post was intended to publish on November 14, 2022.
Drawing from the Well
As with many other things this week, it was a good week in writing. I finished Arc III Part II and started Arc IV. I had to update the page count below because I have a notes page preceding each arc for overarching items and had failed to include that with IV. So things are moving along swimmingly. This draft is FAR from finished, FAR from perfect, but my editing is a process. You’ll see as things evolve.
Arc I: 64/64
Arc II: 60/60
Arc III Part I: 24/24
Arc III Part II: 31/31
Arc IV: 5/44
Arc V: 0/59
Interstitia: 0/11
Total: 184/291
Filling the Well
It was a slow reading week, but that’s primarily because the last book in the Dragonian series is its longest. It’s good, though the teen angst is getting quite old. More than once in this series, conflicts have been drawn out by simple misunderstandings that could have been nipped in the bud if the protagonist were listening rather than flying off the handle. That’s not to say that such doesn’t happen in real life. It just feels like it has happened more than is reasonable in this series. Still, I’ve enjoyed it overall. We’ll see where I land after I finish Starlight this week.
85/100 for #ProjectBookworm2022
We’re all caught up on things so now we’re diving back into politics with The Crown and The West Wing. No big movies recently, but that might change with things slowing down this week for Thanksgiving.
Dragonflight Pre-Patch Part 2 came out this week. It was a lot of fun. Now, it’s just the wait until launch on the 28th. It’s a good time to be a WoW fan.
Well Chat
I’ve written about perseverance before. It came to mind again this week as I let Blood in the Storm go into the wild. I have worked on this story, the series but certainly this singular book, for so long that I can hardly remember a time before this story was a part of me. And now it is a part of all of you. It is not my last book, though. On the contrary, it is the first of many. Such an idea necessitates perseverance.
This series is going to take a long time to come out in its entirety. I’m not the fastest writer and it isn’t my first job either. I can’t write in fits and starts. Each book requires regular attention as well as regular daydreams to come to form. I have a publishing plan but life is strange and volatile. I will do my best to stick to the plan, but you will all see how it goes through this blog.
That is not a free pass. I desperately want to publish every idea in my head. There’s A LOT in there. I’ve talked before about my grand master plan. All of that takes time, dedication, and perseverance.
Perseverance is the will to keep going when the going gets tough. When the nights are dark, you keep going. After everyone goes to bed, you keep going. You get up and go before your family, before the sun. Time has to be applied regularly, best if it’s daily, really. It is a high call to chase the big dreams. Rocketships were a dream once. Smartphones were an impossibility. The big swings always took trying forever.
The best example of this mindset to me is Thomas Edison:
I have not failed ten thousand times. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.
Keep trying and searching. The way through is out there. Persevere and you will succeed. It may not be in the time you would like; it wasn’t for me. That wasn’t a failure. It was just part of the journey. Be well.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG