Progress Report 2022 Week 43

I thought the number of Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) was high the week before last. Last week set a new record. The good news is my family and I are still intact. The bad news? Well, I’m not sure “bad” applies… But let’s get into that after we look at the numbers.

Progress Report 2022 Week 43 By the Numbers

I didn’t hit my target of 10,000 words for the week. But, I didn’t fall as far short as I had feared!

The problem with RLFEs is that they don’t just prevent me from writing in a given moment. They sap the energy I need to write in general. They dominate my mind to the point where I can’t drive my imagination — or let it speak to me. But that’s a selfish response on my part, isn’t it?

What’s really important is that my family and I come together to support each other. My word count fell off this week, but I can make up the deficit. So, I really need to maintain my perspective, especially during times like this. Else, I might lose out on the reason I’m writing in the first place.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

Upload the Ebook and Paperback Copies to Amazon and Order the Paperback Proof Copies

This didn’t happen at all. Everything’s still ready. But I just didn’t get time to do this. It’s not something I can just dash off. I only do these tasks once in a while (and I’ve only done it once before!), so I want to double-check everything. I’ll try again this week.

Continue writing Evolution’s Hand Book 4: Blind Exodus

This is where I spent a lot of time. Of the six main arcs in this book, three feature characters who have never been point of view (POV) characters before: Henry Duncan, James Butler, and Owen Payne. The first and second appeared briefly in previous books; the latter, never. But Owen’s sister Luann Payne appeared (not as a POV character) in the first three books. She was the Red Shift engineer on the Indiana.

I use the color to denote which character the chapter belongs to and the summary to tell me the location. I still chuckle when I read a location like “Sirius AB I, TEF Resolution” and, right beside it, “Wooster Ohio.” And it looks like I have some typos in a few of the locations. Whoops.

I’m having a lot of fun getting to know these characters. I hope my readers like them. Trying to imagine how my readers’ reactions made me examine my own reaction to some of Owen Payne’s scenes. The roles he and his family play are in many ways the most typical of any I’ve presented. Yet, the context is (at least I hope!) completely different. I’ve started to second-guess myself. Is Owen Payne too typical? Does his wife cross the boundary between typical and stereotypical? I’m gong to get through the first draft and see where that leads me.

But I’ve decided that I’m going to trust the characters. In the past, whenever I tried to overrule one of my characters as they tried to speak to me, I wrote myself into a dead end. So we’ll see where this leads me!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2022 Week 43

This will look a lot like last week’s goals (through the magic of copy and paste!):

1. Upload the ebook and paperback copies to Amazon and order the paperback proof copies.
2. Continue writing Evolution’s Hand Book 4: Blind Exodus.

What Do You Think?

Do you ever doubt that your characters know what they’re doing? How have you responded to that sort of thing? I’d love to hear your experiences. Feel free to share in the comments!