Month: July 2019

The Night Circus Book Review

                I picked up this book with high hopes. It was advertised as a romance and a weird and wonderful magical romp. What I found was one of the few books I have ever started reading that I just couldn’t care about. There are several major stumbling blocks in rapid succession, snuffing out any sense of curiosity or intrigue almost as quickly as it is drummed up. I’ll explain each problem I ran into as best I can.

                The story is primarily written in third person present. For the most part, it is consistent although the prologue and occasional chapter are written in second person for no readily apparent reason. Even if it is supposed to be a gradually unfolding experience set at the end of the story, the fact that a chapter is dropped in the middle of a section of already jumpy scenes serves to add another layer of confusion as opposed to intrigue. There is an easy way to tell which chapters are in second person because of the lack of time or place descriptors after the title.

                These descriptors and the overall set up of the chapters is my next point. I don’t think I’m being petty or unfair when I say: if the only way your reader can tell five years has passed is because you throw up a chapter heading saying so, you’re not handling the passage of time well in your story. It’s the highest pinnacle of telling as opposed to showing. Also, limiting five years to one chapter between two protagonists who don’t interact causes the entire thing to be a mess of short scenes bounding back and forth. Some are only a few paragraphs in length. The feeling is hugely disjointed and the scenes are more grimace inducing as opposed to anything remotely interesting. They could also be shortened down to a single sentence dropped in at a later point as opposed to existing at all.

                Larger than any of these issues are the plot and characters who I can’t really get behind enough to make the rest of what goes on interesting. There is also a suspension of disbelief problem that arises quickly that not even magic can explain away.

                The first of the main characters is Hector, stage name Prospero the Enchanter, who is a true magic practitioner who pretends to be a slight-of-hand magician. He is 100% an irredeemable donkey hat from the start. He is brought an illegitimate daughter born of a week or so long affair five years prior. Upon the delivery of her into his care, his first actions are to complain about her name and practically rolls his eye at the fact that her mother committed suicide because of the stress of being an unwed mother to a magic baby in the 1800s. Within eight months he has bet the child’s life on a magic duel with an old friend. Most of his training is flat out abuse: he cuts his daughter, blames her for deaths she didn’t cause, starves her, displays her like a doll, uses her to gain money, and does not for a moment let her think he might love her.

                The next character is Celia, the abused daughter to the magician. She was informed by her mother at a young age that she is the spawn of Satan, and is accustomed to getting her way through fear as a small child due to having magical abilities that can destroy things and wreak other types of havoc. This is quickly checked when Hector makes it apparent he can do far more than she would have ever been able and she loses any potential agency under the blanket of abuse. The fact that she is shown in select instances to have a temper that will flare in situations she doesn’t like, except for all the actual abuse, seems lazy. There is no reason Celia shouldn’t have a string of runaway attempts under her belt and many, many broken items along the way. She has no agency and merely waits for each horrible thing to happen in turn.

                The man in the grey suit, rarely called Alexander, is set at Hector’s opposite in many ways. While Hector wants the fame of the stage, the man in the grey suit wants study and solitude. He loathes the stage game that Hector plays and seems to be less outright disagreeable: he at least pauses to double check before consigning Celia to a magic competition like an animal. He also never physically abuses Marco, his champion for the game. However, the regimen he uses consists of isolation on level with solitary confinement and, again, no affection for the child he adopted. It’s a marginal type of better that is still unimaginable awful.

                Marco is the last piece of the puzzle, and a victim who gets off much easier than he has any right to in the book. As mentioned, he spends months in solitary confinement. He only receives a one-hour visit from Alexander a day and that is it for human interaction. He also learns to read a completely different language simply by reading it. That’s not how reading works. With no pictures or instruction, those words would never have any meaning. We are also expected to believe periodic interruptions in his neglect are enough to leave him a perfectly functioning member of society. That’s not how psychology works.

                The last straw for me wasn’t the fact that a character was brought up that I had managed to forget even existed after only 25 pages, it wasn’t more and more characters being introduced when the main characters still feel like hollow puppets, it was one glaring moment of inconsistency that I just couldn’t comprehend. Marco, now an adult and living in an apartment by himself, goes out for a walk and upon his return finds that his room is locked up and empty. He next notices he lost his note book. He prioritizes finding the book, and a girl has it. Within one conversation they are dating and the next time they are brought up nothing is mentioned about the problem with the apartment.

                The author takes time to mention that the apartment has been cleaned out and looks unoccupied and in the next chapter Marco features in, it’s normal and no explanation is given as to what happened. There are little moments like this all throughout. Moments that are glossed over that can’t be attributed to magic. There is no cheat to unlock functioning mental health after years of isolation and neglect. There is no reason a girl said to have a destructive temper doesn’t try to fight back. There is no reason for Hector to drop out of the show business and make money with Celia’s card reading abilities when his motivation was given as fame seeking, not wealth seeking.

                Overall, the book comes off flat. Entire scenes could be scrapped or placed as single sentence flashbacks and still not change the story. By eight chapters in, the plot is all over the place, I can’t relate to any of the characters, and overall, I just don’t care about the story. It’s a shame, it has decent reviews hovering around 4 stars on Goodreads, but for me, it has too much wasted space and none of the waste is interesting.

Wyvern

Frequently mistaken for dragons, wyverns are a completely different species. These differences are quickly distinguishable at a glance, or upon an encounter.

Wyverns, aside from elemental and regional differences, have a distinct overall shape. Their sharp scale forms possess powerful hind legs and a wide wingspan, webbed with a skin material, attached to their dexterous arms. This is the most distinct feature to set them apart from their cousin species, dragons, who possess four legs and wings, covered in heavy scales, coming out of their shoulders separate from their limbs.

Other physical observations of wyverns include: a narrow, sharp snout; large, protruding fangs similar to those of a snake; a pointed tail tip; and claws useful for prying and climbing. Regional variants provide a wide range of coloration; though interestingly, there always seems to be an overall grey hue.

Past the physical differences, wyverns have other observable traits once encountered in close range. This is, as you can imagine, quite the difficult task to accomplish making a majority of the information we have to be gathered from deceased specimens. This provides accurate enough information, though it is far less ideal than living subjects. Those rare reports from someone who has had such living interactions are worth the weight of their subject in gold and are closely guarded and diligently copied.

A consistency across all reports are the substantial venom sacs. Similar to a snake or Gila monster, wyverns are highly venomous, able to fell creatures much larger than themselves. Dragons, hippopotamuses, elephants, and the giant sky beasts that live in a covering of cloud their entire lives are all supposed victims in a handful of reports.

(For good faith, the last one is only mention in a single, less than reputable, instance which also serves as the only record to the sky creatures actually being more than a supposition or mistaken classification.)

Less consistent overall are tail spikes. While they are always pointed, there seems to be a genetic split between those having venom in their tails and those not. The split doesn’t hold up to any one region such as north or south, dry or wet; nor does it match with the gender split. I feel this is one thing we will be unable to understand until living observations are made more consistently. The reigning theory, however, is it is a recessive trait.

For those who know of the animal mind trait possessed by some, it may see a sore excuse to say we cannot observe wyverns up close. Indeed, I thought the same when I first began to research the topic. The facts answer the question: wyverns live in inhospitable environments. Whether up on the tops of mountains, in the middle of the desert, or deep in the dense rainforests; it can be near impossible to find them.

Our known specimens, less than fifty in number, are only encountered when a single wyvern approaches the edge of its normal territory and into areas humans inhabit. From this pattern, we assume wyverns are primarily solitary. It is unknown if the overflow is a sign of a growing population or limited resources, something time will have to tell.

I would be remiss if I did not mention what little we do know about their elemental abilities. As mentioned, wyverns tend to stick to their own territories. This is important due to the fact a majority of the ones found are one of the four primary elements; fire, water, earth, and wind. While there are some examples of primary tier combinations of the elements, located in regions between the other element clusters, they are few and far between.

This is one of the only data points we have in support of the centuries-old belief all elements stem from these four originals. There are a few others to suggest this, also solitary creatures who do not stray far from their original location, and each one adds a small sliver to our knowledge about our worlds.

Forbidden Words in Writing

When wrapping up my first draft of Debut, part or book one of my current WIP, The Great Awakening, my mind started to turn towards thoughts of editing. Polishing and nailing down all the different plot threads introduced before moving on to the next sections made the most sense to me. As this is the first work I’ve ever extensively edited, apart from school reports, I turned to the annals of knowledgeable, established authors on the internet to learn what I could.

There were a handful of tips I found. From the obvious ‘self-editing does not replace the need for a professional editor’ to the less obvious tips for checking for voice inconsistencies in your characters; there was plenty to learn. One repeated lesson stuck out to me: words to avoid in your writing.

Top ten lists are dedicated to the subject, some even go so far as to suggest there are fifty or more words you absolutely should never use when working on a novel or other piece of writing. I was incredulous when I first came across articles and videos on the subject. Surely, words we know and use in everyday life can’t be ripped from writing wholesale? Yet a majority of the articles emphasize they are not making a suggestion; claiming you won’t get published if you don’t heed their advice.

The reasons given for the rule follows a consistent line of reasoning: the selected words can bog down your writing, they are unnecessary filler, and/or they are associated with showing as opposed to telling. Articles that give more leniency admit dialogue is an entirely different beast, taking these words out completely is just unrealistic. Some even suggest using dialogue to sneak in the words you “can’t” use in your narrative voice.

I decided, due to the overwhelming presence of this topic, to attempt pulling these words out of my writing. Right away, I ran into issues. The first of which is the fact many lists can’t agree on what words are forbidden. Yeah, that will put a damper on things.

The first step became trying to pinpoint which words I was supposed to take seriously. Some of the most common words to avoid were: that, very, like, and all adverbs (-ly words). Expanding from there, it was said you should avoid any simple descriptors (big, small, good, nice, many), shouldn’t use any form of ‘to be’ (which is one of the most common verb groups in language), and definitely can’t use any words that ‘tell’ (feel, seemed, thought).  

As you can see, it gets ridiculous in my not so humble opinion. But I was willing to try; after all, I do agree it’s a bad idea to have an excess of repeated words on the same page and as these are all common words, I knew they would be a good place to start with killing the repetition in my novel at least. Some of the words, I didn’t use at all; others, I overused, and, so far, I’ve been liking the changes being aware of these words has led me to make.

That being said, as you can see from this article alone, there are times when I think it makes more sense to leave the words alone than to take them out. One of my biggest observations is taking out every single suggested word can lead to over-flowery writing that is a chore to read.

While I’m still working on perfecting my craft, I find myself in camp “use sparingly and be aware of your word use” as opposed to camp “cut every instance out of your writing.” My suggestion, that I think is far more worth your time, is to use a word breakdown tool on your writing. There are several you can find online; how they work is you post your writing in their script box and it will process your most common words. If you work in Microsoft Word, you can also open the Find tool and type in words to search your manuscript for repeats. Most importantly, read your work. Does a word stick out as repeating too frequently? Do your descriptions lack a vibrant feel? These are both much better indicators of the health of your manuscript than some arbitrary list of words.

Also, don’t forget the beta reader process and to hire a professional editor. Both are again, far more effective than an impersonal list.

Thank you for reading and sharing! I’d love to know what you think on the topic in the comments!

Book Setting

A primary factor of any story is the setting in which it takes place. The where of your story will be not only a backdrop to the action, but a central cog moving events taking place. The weather, people, environment: all contribute to a good story, meaning an author will devote hours of writing and development time to their setting.

What makes up a setting?

The dictionary definition of setting is the location something is or happens. In a book, there is much more to it, though location is a sizeable part of the equation. It also tends to be the easiest decision to make, at least in the broad sense.

When you have an idea for a story, in most cases you already have a rough idea of where you want it to take place. Are you writing a historical fiction pirate story? Your setting will most likely be the Caribbean ocean. Is your story about the first generation of human enrolling in an intergalactic school after mankind enters into a pact with other races? Your setting will probably be on an alien planet. This part is simple enough, but only the first step of journey.

Once you have the general idea of when and where your story will take place, it’s time to dive into location specifics. This part will absolutely take research, even if you’re writing about the city you grew up in. What plants grow in the region? What are the rivers like? The topography? The last thing you want to do as a writer is add a plot hole by introducing a plant or animal into your story which absolutely could not survive in the environment you have it set in.

It is also important to look into what sort of housing is available in a given region. Indiana won’t have adobe houses, but Texas will. Your icy alien planet will most likely need heavily insulated, practical buildings as opposed to open, glassy show pieces. Environment will also dictate jobs, needs, and behaviors.

Once you have the environment and cities planned, the people who will be part of your world also need to be thought up. Depending on your needs, you will have to decide how each community your characters will interact within is going to function. What diversity is present? If you’re in a pre-Civil War southern town in America the answer will be not much. If you’re in present day New York City, the diversity will be much higher.

Even if you create a planet, if you’re not looking for a homogeneous masked society where any one person can be mistaken for another, looking at real life statistics for the distribution of social groups, morals, customs, and other aspects will make your writing far more believable. Speaking of morals and customs, what are those? People are hard pressed to agree on those even when they try; it is unrealistic for any place to be of one mind. Unless you’re dealing with a hive-mind situation.

Challenges with Setting

As you may have guessed, this is far from an all-inclusive list. Each piece of what makes up a good setting for a story can be given a full-length 1,000-word article. Similarly, an article could be devoted to each different challenge presented during setting construction.

The first coming to mind when going over a list like this is just how much more an author will need to come up with than will ever reach the novel page. You might not spend a long time detailing plants in your book, but you had better know what kinds are local to your organic herbalist. The local customs of your alien race may seem trivial, until you have them all acting in a certain way but can’t pinpoint why. Multiple book and movie franchises will release some of this lore in exploratory compilation works. Other than that, much of it won’t reach the page.

Skipping out on the research stage can create an entirely new laundry list of problems, primarily with consistency. Why did this group act differently than that one? How can your character tell one person or group from the next? How did a parrot get involved in a story set in Michigan? Even if you plan on handwaving the event through science, magic, or irresponsible pet ownership, it helps to know what needs to be handwaved and how soon to avoid alienating your readers with a mix-up.

The Great Awakening Setting

The setting for my current WIP, The Great Awakening, is our present-day earth. I haven’t made any extensive changes to what you might experience on the streets today. What I did include is an alternate, sealed away history (so it won’t be remembered or contribute to how the world runs), plus a process of change taking place throughout the story to relearn lost information and return the world to how it once was.

That, of course, doesn’t eliminate my need for research. Most events take place in Washington state. I’ve never been far west of Indiana, so there were definitely things I’ve had to learn about the weather and where the most desolate locations are; to name a few.

I’m also trying to be slightly nebulous with some facts, not wanting to single out any place too specific to free up the imagination. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t look up what sorts of trees grow in the national parks in the state, nor does it completely erase some subtle clues to real-life counterparts to some background characters, even if I only give then a title.

There is also time travel involved in my story. Ancient time travel. To make it believable, my main character is going to have an opportunity to learn a dead language from one of the few ancients who still remember it before hand so she will have a reason to understand what is going on once she enters the past.

If you’re a writer, what is your favorite part of world building? What part could you just as soon do without? For readers, what book or movie has your favorite world building? The worst? Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Have a great day!

Top 10 Favorite Tropes

Everyone knows what a trope is, right? A person, place, or thing included in a story–book, movie, or video game—used so frequently that anyone who has read more than one book can pick out.

Writers are warned to avoid tropes; told they make their writing worse or predictable. I say that with thousands of years of storytelling and human experience to draw from, tropes are recognizable for a reason and, as long as a writer puts in effort to freshen up the idea, tropes are a fun part of the writing process that can connect your work to the history of the craft. And if there is one thing I love, it’s near pretentious sentimentality like that.

In the spirit of praising tropes for their impact on literature, I decided to make this top ten list.

1) Treasure Hunts

I’ll attribute this to my favorite moves growing up. Muppet Treasure Island, The Goonies, Indiana Jones: I loved anything with a good treasure hunt. Bonus points for the wild and crazy traps that the main characters had to overcome along the way. I feel that either with the technological advances or our rapidly decreasing attention spans that show are moving away from this type of story and sticking with races and explosions. Which is a shame: bring back my bone pianos and riddles about invisible bridges!

2) Off Gender Hobbies

This one is something that I noticed more in 90s and early 00s media. Like the episode of Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy becomes a girl for a day to choose a good present for Trixie. This leads him to find out she likes video games and comic books. Their day together helps him feel better about getting a scalp massage and manicure while watching soap operas at the end of the episode. This was huge to me as a child who liked knights and knives more than jewelry and tea parties. It made me feel normal and helped me to realize that I didn’t have to restrict myself to choosing between ‘girl stuff’ and ‘guy stuff.’ I wish more people would bring this back, especially without any added subtext.

3) Redemption Arcs

Who doesn’t love a well-thought out redemption arc that isn’t contrived and that centers around a villain actually making character growth? See what I did there? This trope has the unfortunate symptom of too many authors wanting a redemption arc but not wanting to take the time to properly write them. This often centers around handwaving, or completely ignoring, any sort of character development in the ‘redeemed’ character. If a character is going to be believably redeemed, they need to hit their lowest point, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, and realize that they just can’t continue what they are doing. After all, they chose their side with conviction. They should have a reason for overcoming that decision or it will never feel genuine.

4) The sassy talking weapon or mascot trying their best

You know this character. The talking sword, the computer with an attitude problem, the cute cat who thinks it’s a lion: they are fun to watch and read about because they offer levity and personality to any situation.

5) Rival friendships

The rival or arch nemesis doesn’t have to be an evil person. They usually just don’t like the protagonist. That doesn’t mean they don’t like anyone, and that’s very rare; even for a lone wolf personality. This is why I love when they are given real friendships. Someone to help them through their struggles and often helps them realize when it is time to give up.

6) Rivals or villains with a moral code that the hero can sometimes get along with

Just because I’m trying to take over the world doesn’t mean I don’t have standards. Rivals and villains normally confront the protagonist on sight. Occasionally, by the time they hit the scene someone else has already put the hero on their back. A rival or villain who are not really evil as much as just antagonists will sometimes help them to the hospital with a note saying they will be back to totally defeat them later. Other times, they will put in the effort to help themselves with only mild suspicion and a few over-exaggerated threats strewn into the mix. I live for those interactions which show the humanity of everyone on different sides of a conflict.

7) Fights that are more like a game

Give me the wild eyed, grinning fights with powers between friends or rivals. Ones with banter and over the top moves that they can only use because of their respect for one another, even if they don’t always see eye to eye. It’s especially fun when they wind up laughing and exhausted in a draw and are toted away to recover over food and conversation.

8) Rivals joining forces with the heroes

If you haven’t guessed it, I like rivals and heroes who come around to being friends in the end. This is normally one of the things that pushes them to that point, or at least to the point where they care and trust each other enough to not just throw hands the second they see each other from that point forward. When someone so loathsome comes along that the hero and normal rival or villain team up together; it makes them all relatable and leads to emotional growth and I love it.

9) Grizzled adult changed by the love of a child

Naruto killed me so many times with this. The traumatized men who recognized the suffering they went through in someone else and strove to change things for that child. Before that, my favorite example was in the Redwall series. In one book, an otter (who was experiencing PTSD and possibly psychosis of some sort from being tortured by toads for an extended period of time) is dragged along on an adventure because his brother needs to go and no one trusts the otter, who is still running on feral survival instincts, to not murder them all in their sleep. Through a distracted moment, a happy-go-lucky squirrel boy, who takes no nonsense for grumpy breakfast skippers, makes a connection with him through not showing fear and talking to him like he is still a person. By the end of the journey, though he still has his issues, the otter is leagues better thanks to his new best friend.

10) Emotional release

I didn’t really know what to title this, so let me explain. When a character has gone through hell and has put up that angry front to cope, and they find a friend/someone else they can trust, and suddenly, they KNOW they don’t have to deal with their pain like that anymore. The abuser is gone, they can trust and love again, when the burden of the world falls away in a cool breath of air. That’s one of my favorite moments in a story. I love when a character who has been through so much finds that safety and happiness.

I think I found something of a theme in there. What are your favorite tropes? I’d love to read your comments and find out! Thanks for reading.

Living Fire

Near the volcanoes to the south, where I searched for salamanders, I met a group of people of a composition I had not thought possible. Climbing through arid stonescapes, I saw, in the evening, what I thought for certain was a brushfire. It was the middle of summer and rain had not touched the region for close to a month, causing all but the most resolute succulents to wilt and die off, making this a reasonable assumption. What was a concern, both to me and my guide, was the thought of the blaze spreading across the landscape and razing those few plants still clinging to life. To prevent this was the aim that pulled us over to the orange crackling flames and led to our discovery.

How surprised we were when the fire turned towards us as we arrived. Clothed in woven grasses, astonishingly not ash in her flames, the being seemed confused and frightened to see us. Its flames flickered as it pulled back from the tree it was disassembling into a basket it carried; staring at us with wide eyes near lost among its shimmering face. With caution, we attempted to address it, and, after a series of reassurances and queries, it spoke.

Words slipped out of the slit of its mouth; crackles beneath a hissing smoke. It was rather enchanting, the sound. The lady, who gathered materials outside of her community, led us back to meet with the head of her family who better knew our language and welcomed us as academics.

The elder explained the life of Living Fire; how they, for generations, have labored to keep the dry region from catching fire to protect several settlements near the mountains. They trade and work with those villages as well, which is how they have learned our speech.

Living Fires have a unique makeup; we were given an in-depth examination for the purpose of scholarship. Starting with a recently deceased member of the community, we were shown how, at the core of each Fire, is a solid body similar to a human’s but shrunken. It’s skin hard as rock, inside are organs familiar despite their different composition. For this reason, though large quantities can be fatal, water is still a necessary part of their system. It is far less than any other living thing, and is attained through the consumption of fruits and other watery foods.

This core must remain lit for life to be viable, the flames licking through their blood alongside streams of moisture that maintain them. The flames themselves build out most of their form, solid and warmer than the flesh of humans without being hot. Unless you were to anger them. Despite their normal control, they do have the same traits as fire when they choose to implement it. Even those individuals colored in jewel tones unfamiliar to normal flame possess the same effects.

This gives rise to the necessity of the way their society is structured. Family is the quintessential apex of their lives. An elder will be over his children and siblings, their family stretching out in a network of life down at least to the third generation. Once great-grandchildren arrive large families may break away into sub families, remaining close despite the split. If the family is smaller, however, it is common for them to keep their bond until the area they inhabit cannot house them further.

At the center of these units is the understanding that family is the greatest priority. They keep, nourish, and maintain each member which prevents any from falling behind due to illness, disability, or age. They also instill a knowledge of consequences: should a member commit a grave offense such as murder they know with their entire being their family will be the first to take action to correct them. It is not seen as a burden or imposition; rather, it is a duty, an honor, and the security of a grand future for the unit. Not even elders are immune to such correction, with self-reflection and independent reasoning the second and third most preached lessons. I can express nothing but greatest admiration for their structure and rearing.

Though we were unable to stay longer than those few hours with them, I feel they are shining examples of community. Given the chance, I would love to spend more time interacting with them in the future. For now, the journey continues.

Self-Marketing and Quarterly Goals

I’ve been writing and thinking about writing for years. I’ve worked on stories, and I’ve even published some early, less than stellar works on free publishing sites when I was younger. Recently, I decided to buckle down and create a novel fit for publishing. To help myself, I began to search the internet for tips and tricks to perfect my craft. Among the grammar and style tips were things that I not only didn’t expect to see, but things that downright terrified me. As you can likely guess from the title, self-marketing, and marketing in general, was one of those horrifying new realities.

Not only am I an introvert in real life, I’ve always been more of a creeper on social media as well: I never think to pull out my camera when something happens, I don’t feel the need to talk about my day, and I’ve never wanted to spend hours keeping track of myself online. This has led to a handful of problems from stopping and starting, overstretching myself, and being unrealistically frustrated at every turn. Just looking at the dates for posts here shows some of this.

Setting realistic goals is probably my biggest struggle when it comes to anything in life. I have always had a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, which quickly results in me falling flat on my face. When I first heard about self-marketing, I panicked and opened accounts on multiple platforms, some that I had never used before, and I poured over them for hours before staring in frustration at the two likes and three followers that had appeared after a few days, unsure of what I was doing wrong.

This was when I first dove into this over a month ago. It took stepping back from it all to realize how ridiculous I was being. No one becomes well-liked overnight, especially when everything is so inconsistent due to me being overwhelmed. With this in mind, I have been trying to get a better look at what I am doing. My blog here has become one of my steady accounts, and I feel I’ve had some nice results (when I stick to my schedule). My AO3 account, where I post small story chapters in the hopes of getting an idea about what I can change about my writing on an ongoing basis, is another I’ve been keeping up with this past month, and I’m happy with the results I’ve been getting. The other accounts I made in that panicked flurry have either been dropped or merely followed along with the occasional like and retweet.

I have still been running into issues with consistency, and, despite an adjusted outlook, I feel that I could still be seeing better results than I am. This has led me back to the drawing board to think of ways to incorporate those other platforms and to improve both my quality and consistency.

It’s not much of a surprise that working a full-time job and trying to write my first full novel takes up much of my time. Trying to make three 1,000 word blog posts a week, three 2,000 word chapters a week, and planning to add even more content on top of that isn’t realistic for my situation. For this reason, I’m scaling back on my commitments. From this point on, I’ll only be posting two blog posts a week, two chapters, two Instagram posts, and a few other platforms as well. Essentially, in creating my plan I decided that the best solution for me right now is to have One Thing that I focus on each day.

Another problem that I’ve run into, in part due to over committing, is having next to no idea what to post. A video on Skillshare by Kickstarter that gave real-life examples of other people’s outreach gave me ideas about how to move forward in that regard. My schedule no longer has vague squares too broad to fill. Now, when I look at my plan, I see exactly which kind of content I am going to prepare for each day.

For each of the eight blog posts in a four-week cycle I have a set type of article I’m going to feature. The fourth week Tuesday will always be my book review. The first and third Fridays will always be me adding to my Beastiary. I’ll have to do the selection from there, but it’s a much more controlled setting and I’m feeling confident about it. The only problem is going to be how it migrates through the month, which I plan to solve by adding a fifth week every three months.

It still remains to be seen how this works for me. I will, in all likelihood, still need to tweak it several times. Hopefully it leads to less stress and better content, so thank you for reading and stick by as I sort this out!

As a last bit, I want to share my writing and life goals for the next three months. Multiple advice blogs say this is the best way to stay motivated and accountable, so I’ll give it a shot.

  1. Moderate edit of act one of my story.
  2. Finish writing act two of my story.
  3. Miss no more than five social media posts.
  4. Lose 5 pounds.
  5. Have a total of 100 followers across my media pages.
  6. Read a full-length novel.

Some of those may seem low, but I’m still guessing my way though. If I hit any of them too easily, I’ll try to double what I planned. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!