Can I Finish Shadows of Atlantic City Before the End of the Year?

Still trying to juggle everything here, but making some progress.

I hate it when I have to keep delaying publishing. With Kingmaker, I had to delay the release for about three months while waiting on cover art that never came about. Now, I am trying to edit the last bits of Shadows of Atlantic City while working on the cover art myself. However, I keep getting derailed by the chaos of life.

I remember back in the day when I worked a full-time, 8-hour job. I showed up for work, did my thing, and went home. Unless it was an emergency, it was common knowledge that you couldn’t interrupt someone’s workday. Nowadays, it seems that ethical standard has been thrown out the window, especially for those working from home.

Every time I go into a store, staff members are scrolling along on their phones, often ignoring the people they are being paid to serve.

Anyway, that’s a rant for another time. Today, I’m focusing on me and trying to finish my book in a timely manner. What can I do to try to get everything back on track?

Pushing for the Writing Sprints

I love doing the live writing sprints on the YouTube channel. They keep me focused and productive while writing my book. Currently, I’m wrapping up the edits in Shadows before I have another round of readers go through the manuscript. It was already a well-written book, according to all of the beta readers. I just wanted to polish up the text while adding a few more details here and there for a better story.

Using the background ambient sounds, my viewers hold me accountable for finishing the book. Even if no one shows up to watch, I’m still working on my book. It’s a form of keeping myself accountable to wrap up the story and keep working on it until the book is published.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of things sidetrack me in the middle of the day over the past few months. That meant less time working on my book as I’ve had to deal with a variety of issues both personal and professional. It’s all culminated into the perfect storm that has made working on my book exceptionally difficult.

Still, I’ll keep scheduling the sprints every week in the hopes that I get a few days of somewhat normalcy.

Improving Time Management

Another issue I am constantly battling is time management. Yes, there are a lot of factors outside of my control that keep me from finishing the book. However, there are a lot of times when I talk myself out of doing it using excuses to work on the blog or YouTube channel.

I get in my own way a lot, actually. It’s something I’ve been working on and hope to overcome in 2025.

Nonetheless, I need to work on time management if I want to be productive for all of the projects I have on my plate. Books, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, and now author events…they all require quite a bit of time. Sitting on my hands and watching YouTube videos from other creators doesn’t bode well for getting things done, especially since I know chaos is just around the corner, waiting to derail my efforts once again.

So, time efficiency is one of the big goals I’ll be working on from here on out.

Scheduling and Committing to Catch-Up Moments

One of the reasons why I get so far behind is because I talk myself out of “catch-up moments.” This is when I’ll tell myself that it’s OK to skip this day because I can just work during the weekend to get caught up. Then, I don’t commit to doing so. Or, I’ll spend that time working on something else that isn’t relevant to the half-finished project that needs attention.

Throughout December, I am going to attempt to schedule those extra moments to work on the projects that get pushed to the back burner for whatever reason. For instance, if I have to take time out of my day to pick up my daughter from school, then I need to commit myself to making up that time either in the evenings or during the weekends.

Keep in mind that I rarely get a full 40 hours to work on my projects throughout the week. I make sure my clients are taken care of as they are the ones paying my bills. Then, life happens and takes me away from the computer. So, I haven’t put in a full 40 hours since the Father’s Day incident, when we almost lost Grandpa. It’s been a chaotic and bumpy road ever since.

That’s why I am trying to push myself to get more time in the week. A lot of great things will happen if I can get the momentum to make them happen.

It’s Gonna Be Close

I’m just about done with the edits for Shadows of Atlantic City. I just don’t know if it’ll be published before 2025. If not, then it’ll be very soon after January 1st. I hate making people wait so long for each book I write. But I’m also not going to put out something that I don’t feel is ready.

In any case, I’ll let you know the moment Shadows is published. With any luck, and some determination to stick to my damn schedule, it’ll be very soon.