This week was the second week (Week One Update here) of my massive writing challenge for the year where I intend to complete not one, not two, but SIX drastically different novels all at the same time. I found this week to be a little easier than last week, but I still have areas where I can improve and do better.
To remind everyone of my intense schedule that constitutes writing 2,500 words on each of the following days for the following novel:
Monday Writing: Chronicles: Ascension – Science Fiction
Tuesday Writing: Crow – Noire Mystery
Wednesday Writing: Crucible – Post Apocalyptic Adventure
Thursday Writing: Eden – Apocalyptic Action
Friday Writing: The Elder Ones Part Two: Earth Splitter – High Fantasy Adventure
Saturday Writing: Reality – Contemporary Drama
The overall daily report follows the same format as week one, and the general gist of what each daily report entails is as follows.
Overview: Pretty simple. I give a brief overview of what I accomplished on a given day and how I felt about it on a personal level as well as any issues I might have incurred.
Best Line(s) of the Day: Pretty self-explanatory. This is where I provide what I feel was my best line or sequence of lines written on a particular day and why I chose it.
How I Rate This Day: This is where the money lies. I rate my overall experience of the day based on two factors: Productivity and Time Management. Productivity is on a scale of One to Ten, and it indicates how productive I was during the day. The biggest component of it is whether or not I hit my word goal of 2,500 words per day. Time Management is how well I rate myself on how efficiently I worked, also on a scale of One to Ten. I am far harsher here as I know it is my main issue.
How I Could Improve: This goes well with my ratings, as it is where I identify where I need to better myself to get the most out of what I write every day. I think of them as suggestions for myself and others who face similar issues. They are not designed to be for everyone.
For this week, I have removed Sunday as one of my writing days, as it is not one that I actively do any work on, so I feel it is redundant in this situation.
Week Two Progress Report
Monday, February 5th
Overview: Chronicles: Ascension was my focus today, and I had a lot of good ideas I realised I could implement at a later stage of the novel. I managed to finish off the first chapter and begin work on the second chapter. I feel confident I have done more than enough to introduce the antagonist of the story, and I will say that the main character is not intended to be seen as the protagonist. The entire novel is an exercise in point of view and seeing what war is like from the view of nothing more than a regular soldier. Ascension aims to bring real emotion to a cold and emotionless war in a way that evokes what it would actually be like to be there.
Best Line(s) of the Day: The best line of the day showcases not only the way the mind of the focus character works, but also helps to explore what makes the soldiers of their people so hardy and stoic in their ways. I feel this line is a perfect way to describe a planet without being too overt about it.
“New Expoletia was beautiful only to those born to the roiling temperatures and inhospitable landscapes of its surface.”
How I Rate This Day: Today was a good day for me and I showed marked improvement over my effort for last week, which is a good sign I am on the right track to success. My Productivity is slightly up from last week, but I can only give myself a maximum ten out of ten (the same as last week) as I did as much work (if not more) than last week and was happy with what I did. For my Time Management, my score is better than Week 1, but still not as good as I would like at a seven out of ten.
How I Could Improve: While I did improve in my timing of writing, I can do far better, but I was proud that when I did write, I was not procrastinating like Week 1, though I still delayed my writing until late in the day, which is not what I want to do. I will say I reached my word goal faster than the week before by over an hour, which is not something I can scoff at. I can look at trying to better that to the point I can look at increasing my daily goal.
Tuesday, February 6th
Overview: Today I was excited to work on Crow once more. It was a day of uniqueness for me in terms of my writing. A lot of the content I wrote was something familiar to me, so I had a good time writing it, even if I have to stick a mature rating on it. Today was the type of writing I love to do. It gives me the opportunity to stretch my wings and branch out away from the standard genre fiction mandates in the genres I am writing my novels. I view Crow as a novel focusing on the breakdown of a healthy mind. I am drawing on my experience battling multiple mental illnesses to create a world that is both dangerously close to our own while retaining an identity of its own. The ending of the novel did come to me today, and I have a goal to work towards for Crow now. I simply cannot wait to see where the future takes this book and I have every anticipation that it will exceed my expectations for it.
Best Line(s) of the Day: The best lines for today are a pair that reveal more about the voracious nature of the main character, Ashley. They best represent who she identifies as and how she goes about her life.
“The door clicked shut and before Elise could turn around, I pounced on her. I was always the dominant one in any relationship I ever had, no matter if my partner was male or female.”
How I Rate This Day: For my Productivity today, I rate myself a little lower than last week at an eight out of ten. That is not to say I did less today than I did then, but I felt that the standard for Crow is not quite up to my other major novels, but that is my objective opinion and my expectations are indeed higher for this novel, given the noire genre. For Time Management, today was a vast improvement over last week and sits at an eight out of ten for today. I worked far more effectively and was confident in the fact that I managed to put out five hundred words an hour on average.
How I Could Improve: My confidence continues to grow, and the fact I made a massive leap over last week shows me that I can improve my writing game. I still need to remain wary of my time managing skills, but today showed me I can be more productive if I choose to do so.
Wednesday, February 7th
Overview: Crucible today was quite a different experience to last week. Much like my other novels I have right now, I am not revealing the gender of the focus character until I need to do so. In most cases, it comes as an unimportant reveal. I am of the mindset that it does not matter what the gender of the character is. If I have not established their current self by that point, then I must be doing a poor job of writing. I have also realised that this week in my writing has a very sexual oriented feel to it. Both Crow and Crucible have focused on two characters for the most part. They are somewhat cruel scenes, but their overtones of intimacy conflict well with the themes I am trying to convey and the morals of my characters. For Crow, main character Lumi and secondary protagonist Ash share a wonderfully deconstructed scene that follows my own belief that, just because two people have sex, does not mean they love each other, nor do they have any obligation to do so. I like to think of my writing as mature in nature, and the past two days best embody that in the content I have written.
Best Line(s) of the Day: It was easy to choose this today. In the middle of what others would believe a standard sex scene, focus character Lumi drops this response. I feel that the lines best represent the way I perceive both love and sex.
““Wait, love? This is not love. Love is not an instant thing that you can force,” I said”
How I Rate This Day: Today, much like the previous two days of this week was high concerning my work ethic. I rate my Productivity as a nine out of ten, the same as last week. I had a little difficulty, as I am still getting back into the world, but I am confident in my work. For my Time Management, I rate today as a much higher five out of ten. That is up a significant amount from last week, but still well short of where I should be.
How I Could Improve: My main issue today was inconsistency with my timing. While I wrote for almost six hours, my most productive time came in the last ninety minutes of my efforts in which I wrote around 1400 words. I still feel I can improve and pace myself better and that will help me pace myself better and allow me to focus on bettering my word count per day.
Thursday, February 8th
Overview: Work on Eden today went about as well as last week. I did enjoy working on it, though my slow start with any novel is still the greatest hurdle for me. I am close to breaking past that and making serious headway on the remainder of Eden. Like the rest of my work in the first three days of this week, there has been a clear focus on characterisation, though not in a direct and forward manner. I feel my characterisation, based on this week, is something best done as part of a slow burn. The reader learns more about the focus characters with every passing page and, because of the way I write, it seems to gel well. None of my books have an actual plan behind them, save for a vague ending and a vague beginning. The majority of all my novels are written in the heat of the moment, which does not work for some people, but it is the way I enjoy writing.
Best Line(s) of the Day: My best line for today is one that the focus character, Ryan, uses to describe a semi-important character in their introductory portrait.
“She was crude, crass and had a temper hotter than the surface of the sun.”
How I Rate This Day: Today was very similar to the previous days this week. I made good progress with my writing, and I managed to keep my productivity where I need it to sit. I rate my Productivity as an eight out of ten. I definitely improved over last week and I did not let my low productivity last week affect my psyche, so I was able to do better. For Time Management I give myself a six out of ten. While I did achieve my target in a smaller period and proved to be better than last week, I was still quite short of my best goal for this week.
How I Could Improve: My biggest issue with Eden lies in the fact it is my least developed world and I need to develop the world WHILE I write the story. My Time Management is where I can improve the best. I realise I can focus half of the time on developing how I want the day’s writing to pan out, and the rest of the time putting those words to paper.
Friday, February 9th
Overview: Today, for The Elder Ones, I had to get over another hurdle in the novel, but I am proud that I did so in a relative short period. Today felt like one of those days where you can do anything as long as you set your mind to it. Nothing could stop me from accomplishing my goal the second my mind was in the right place. I do not know what caused my mind to go into overdrive, but I do look forward to any work I do on The Elder Ones, so maybe that was a key reason I felt unstoppable. Unlike most of the week, this day did NOT involve anything sexually charged or relevant to that particular subsection of my literature. Today was focused on the mindset and character development of someone who was a minor character in the first instalment of The Elder Ones. I accomplished quite a lot, given that the majority of the scene I am working with right now is designed as pure scenery porn, which fits into the feeling of the story. It does not detract from the plot and helps to build the mood and overall feel of the focal character of the chapter.
Best Line(s) of the Day: True to the theme of this week about the world around a character, my best line of the day is one that builds characters I intend to use in future instalments as it gives insight as to what they can do.
“A set of bony, ruined wings sprout from Áki’s back and a sense of dread and doubt fills Auroch, who screams louder.”
How I Rate This Day: Like the rest of the week, today was all about seeing if I could improve over the previous week, and I am damn proud to say that this week for The Elder Ones raised the bar so high, I might not accomplish it again. For my Productivity I rate myself another ten out of ten. The work I did was comparable to last week and, while it is hard to deal with multiple stories at once, I proved I can do it to perfection. The real improvement for this week is Time Management, which I rate myself a ten out of ten. I began work at around 2pm. Less than three and a half hours later, I hit my word goal. Compared to the fact I did the same amount of work in eight hours last week, I call my experiment with daily writing a success, at least as far as The Elder Ones is concerned.
How I Could Improve: My time management was my issue last week, and I managed to surpass it with flying colours this week. There is not much I can improve on, but I can look at potentially increasing my daily word count for this day to see how I go under more pressure.
Saturday, February 10th
Overview: I had a revelation with my novel for today. I decided on a fitting title for it. Reality. I also know what the major twist and purpose behind the novel is with utter certainty. Of course, today was more of what I did last week: conversion of the old format. It is a difficult process, but I feel it is a necessary change for the novel. It is perhaps the greatest hurdle I have faced with any of my novels to date. I am proud of the progress I have made. Today was also quite similar to The Elder Ones where there was more of a focus on character. Reality is quite a different beast in terms of character. The cast is much smaller and less outlandish, but there are still principle themes. The main one is, like all my other novels, the presence of a lesbian main character. I treat them with utter respect, however. I do not stereotype them and instead paint them in the same light I paint all my other characters and that is with respect. I understand and respect that people are people and that is one of the overarching morals across my entire written library. The characters are people and deserve to be treated as such, like in real life.
Best Line(s) of the Day: It is hard to pick a best line of the day when most of what I worked on was already written and I tweaked a little to be more coherent and fluid. I feel this line best represents the slow-burn of changes that I intend Reality to focus on. It also hits close to home for me, as the mention of a loving father is a prospect I myself was not able to experience in my life.
“To see my dad so positive about my decisions threatened to bring a tear to my eye.”
How I Rate This Day: Today definitely could have gone better. For my Productivity, I rate myself a six out of ten. This comes down to the fact that I was, again, not working on any new material but rather enhancing what I already had. For Time Management, I have to give myself a four. A lot of that was the fact I was not able to work on Reality for the crucial three hours I am best in the zone due to a family outing.
How I Could Improve: For today, much like last week, my time management was the bane of my existence. I intended to take cues from previous days and finish in the hours between 5:00PM and 8:00PM, but I could not, due to the above-mentioned reason. Today is the day that I most need to improve with my writing. After all, I only have another four months (16 weeks at 2,500 words == 40,000 more words) to go before I intend to finish Reality.
Week Overall:
Overview: My week this week was far more productive than my first week on my schedule, and I feel I more than earned my Sunday off from writing. I do not feel burned out at all and I honestly believe I could go all night, every night with my writing.
Productivity: 8.5/10 – a four percent improvement over last week, which might not seem like much, but Productivity has never been my issue, which is why I have decided to be more harsh on my productivity next week. I will trial over-writing my goal and base my score on how far I get over.
Time Management: 6.67/10 – which is a ninety percent improvement over the last week! That is the real number I am proud of, and I feel I can only go upwards from here.
Area to Improve: The overall area I can improve in is, again, time management. My productivity scores will take a dip next week, but it is not anything to worry about yet.
This week I wrote more than I did last week, as I came close to 25,000 total words. Most of that was done as part of my novels, but I am proud to say I am getting much more confident writing larger and larger amounts.
BOOK UPDATE
I have a new piece of news regarding my debut novel, Sea Spray. I submitted the manuscript for paperback publishing as part of Kindle Direct Publishing and I am proud to say that you can now purchase a physical copy of The Elder Ones: Sea Spray from the link below.
US Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1976952530
I want to thank everyone for their support, and it shows me people appreciate writing, even if it comes from an unknown and obscure Australian Author.
Fenrir's Lair 
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