Introduction to the Accountability Post 2021 Week 27
In last week’s post, I mentioned how if I were really, really lucky, I might be able to finish the hooks for all seven arcs during last week. That would mean finishing several bits of world building, a couple of which were pretty extensive. Did I finish that world building? Are all seven arcs safely underway? Let’s take a look at the numbers first.
Accountability Post 2021 Week 27 By the Numbers
Last week, I’d gotten to 5,086 words in the first draft. Here’s how the week broke down:
A long holiday weekend means an extra day to write!
You can tell the days I had to do extensive world building. Those are the days I had less than 2,000 words a day. I had to reconfigure fleet deployments between the UN’s Orbital and Extra-Orbital Commands. That gave me an opportunity to insert a little good-natured yet managed rivalry, while at the same time reintroducing Secretary General Liam Martin. Despite that, I’ve more than tripled the book’s size to 15,625 words!
On Sunday, I not only managed to complete the hooks for all seven arcs. I finished one or two of the Plot Turn 1 chapters. Conrad surprised me by leading his HQ for the first time in months. Poor guy was bored. I didn’t want my readers to feel the same way, and an outing is a lot more exciting to read about than another meeting. So I let him go to see what he planned to do. It also gave me a perfect opportunity to hit the beats I wanted to for his Plot Turn 1.
I had to reposition a few of the chapters relative to what I anticipated during my plot braiding. Other than that, laying out the plot points in advance and working straight from that outline is working very, very well! I’m really happy with the word output.
Impact of the Summer 2021 Anime Season
If you’re a fan of anime, you might know that the Summer 2021 season just kicked off. It’s the time when I choose which series to review. I got extraordinarily fortunate this season. All of the new shows I want to review come out on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. That means I can leave my Saturday and Sunday writing sessions intact, as well as my Tuesday evening session. Maybe, just maybe, I can add another session or two during the week, depending on what Real Life throws at me. That would be great. I’d be nice to finish Book 2 before the developmental edit on book 1, and that edit kicks off in October.
So overall, despite publishing every day of the week, if I keep on top of things over the weekend, I’ll be able to increase my output! If that works out, it may become a criteria in the anime series I review. That’ll make my wife happy! She doesn’t want anything, even my anime web site, distracting me from my writing.
Well, except my career.
Accountability Post 2021 Week 27: What’s On Deck for Next Week?
This coming week, I intend to push through all Plot Turn 1s and try to get to Pinch 1. I’m not trying to rush. Instead, I’m trying to keep a reasonable level of pressure on myself so I don’t get complacent just because I have a draft done of the first book. According to the FaceBook group 20BooksTo50K, that means I have 48 and 7/8 books to go! So, there’s no time for slacking.
Piece of cake, right?
How do you balance world-building and writing? Have you ever tried to insert too much of your world building into your story? How do you know when enough’s enough? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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