Now That Kingmaker is Published, What's Next?
One thing I can say about myself is that I'm never bored.
With Kingmaker live on Amazon, it’s time to reassign some blocks of time. If you’re unaware, I use the free version of Asana to plan out my day. Using 2-hour blocks of time followed by a 30-minute break, I’ve found that I am far more efficient and productive throughout the day. Now that Kingmaker is published, I can use those blocks of time for something else.
However, I am still assigning at least one hour per week to work on marketing the book.
Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of being me is that I have a slew of unfinished and partially written manuscripts scattered all over the Internet as well as on my computer. And since I promised myself I wouldn’t start a new project until I wrap up some of these loose ends, it’s time to start tying them up.
So, what are some of the projects I hope to have completed before the end of the year?
The First Draft of Fury
One of my goals was to have the first draft of Fury (book two of The Witcham Chronicles) written before Halloween. Unfortunately, I had a long list of things interfere this time around, including severe lower back pain. Nonetheless, I would love to have Fury ready for my BMC beta readers before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, it looks as though it might be closer to Christmas.
I suppose I could make it a part of NaNoWriMo, mostly because Fury is going to be a much longer book than Kingmaker. Initially, I thought it would roughly be the same length, at around 86,000 words. But because there is so much going on in the book, it looks like Fury is going to be closer to 100k.
This is also dependent on maintaining a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday writing schedule. I’m sure I’ll work on Fury at other times, but these are the writing goals I set in Reedsy to help keep me on track. Now that I’m feeling a bit better and can sit and write for longer than 20 minutes at a time, I should start to make headway in Fury.
Polishing Up VII
Another goal I wanted to accomplish in 2023 was to finish polishing up and writing VII on Wattpad. This was a story I started back in 2016 that I never finished. And after going over the most recent chapters, it’s quite north of cringe-worthy. I’ve come a very long way over the past seven years.
Perhaps it’s fate that VII will be done seven years after I started.
Anyway, I plan on rewriting several chapters in the book while wrapping it up. It’s one of those major loose threads that’s been dangling in front of me for several years now. I’m dedicating a chunk of time on Thursdays to hopefully finish the book and mark it as complete.
Finishing Skeletal
I began writing Skeletal on Inkitt as a way to test out the platform. I wanted to write a proper review for Inkitt on WriterSanctuary.com, but I never promote something I don’t use myself. Besides, it gives me a chance to really dive into the platform while highlighting the pros and cons without relying on someone else’s experiences.
Never write a review unless you’ve actually used the product yourself. In fact, I won’t even create listicles on my blogs unless they are of products I’ve personally tested.
Seriously, how can someone call something the “best” if they’ve never used it themselves?
In any case, I am scheduling some time on Fridays to work on Skeletal so I can finish the story. It might take a bit of time, but as I said earlier, I’m tired of having all of these loose ends scattered across the Internet. Not to mention that Skeletal has a bit of a backstory purpose for upcoming tales.
What About Despair?
One story that I doubt will be done before the end of the year is Despair. It’s a book I started on Wattpad that is used as an audiobook that I upload to Creative Sanctuary’s YouTube channel. The problem with keeping up with Despair is that it takes around 4.5 hours to record, edit, and upload the video to YouTube. And for someone as busy as I am, 4.5 hours is an awful lot of time.
However, the plan is to get back into uploading the videos soon. I’m going over my schedule today to see just where I can sneak it into the week. This means I might have to give up a few smaller projects, such as reel back a blog post here and there. But I think it’s necessary to get Despair done soon so I can hammer out the other two planned books on Wattpad.
What About Kindle Vella?
I’ve always wanted to try Kindle Vella. It’s a series-type platform for Amazon that would be easier to maintain, given how much I do throughout the week. However, that would also add yet another unfinished story.
Once I finish VII and Skeletal, I’ll start planning out the Kindle Vella book. Although VII and Skeletal do not generate income like Kindle Vella might, I am tired of not having a lot of completed projects. I’ve started more stories than I can count over the last 35 years. But I can count on one hand how many I’ve actually completed. And that’s exceptionally sad for someone who wants to be known as a decent author.
So, let’s start to finish up all of these tidbits of stories and build up a decent library of work. That includes turning some of these short stories into full-length novels, such as The Crate, which I published on Vocal.
Perhaps I’ll turn The Crate into my Kindle Vella project…
So Much to Write, So Little Time
This is what happens when you spread yourself thin with various projects. Instead of having a few books completed and published, there are a bunch of small ones no one wants to read because they’re unfinished.
Keep in mind that I’m also working on several blogs and clients throughout the week. And the projects that keep my mortgage paid are the ones that take priority. Until I can afford to write books and blogs all day, I still have a lot of people to make happy either managing their writers or creating content.
Perhaps one day, I can afford to follow my passions fully. But until then, I gotta do what’s necessary to keep myself in a home, even if that means having to put the books on the back burner once again.