Progress Report 2023 Week 10

Let’s change things up a bit. It seems like Real Life Family Events are here to stay. So are Real Life Work Events (I’m working through one even as we speak!). I’m going to assume they are just part of the normal background from now on. Let’s talk about progress instead. Or lack thereof. Which was it this week? Let’s look at the numbers first!

Progress Report 2023 Week 10 By the Numbers

Just short of 10,000 words — all in all, not bad.

I ran into a couple of creative snags this week. For example, I had done a ton of work to design Epsilon Eridani II (a.k.a. Bilskirnir). I had named the two major continents, placed two proto-countries on one of the continents, and had even drawn maps of various areas of interest for Evolution’s Hand Book 5: Split Infinities.

But some were in OmniGraffle, some were in Adobe Illustrator, and some existed only in Scrivener. I got part way into one of Leon Weber’s chapters and realized I’d switched the continent and country names twice.

I realized the root cause was I didn’t know my own world! to fix that, I invested the time to harmonize the maps and show a progression from the orbital view to the surface view. Then I went back through the chapter and corrected my mistakes.

Well, at least I have a better idea of what Bilskirnir looks like now!

Progress Notes

Here’re my goals for last week, along with how I did:

1. Finish Atticus Porter’s Plot Turn 1: Done!
2. Write the second half of Jadwiga Janczak’s Plot Turn 1: Done!
3. Write Leon Weber’s Plot Turn 1: Started, but not finished
4. Write Matsushita Sachi’s Pinch 1: Not started
5. Start Atticus Porter’s Pinch 1: Not started

Numbers 4 and 5 were ambitious under good circumstances, and this week didn’t qualify as that. Still, despite stumbling over my own disorganization (which is more embarrassing than I want to admit), it’s not bad.

If you think I focused a lot on the Atticus Porter/Jadwiga Janczak plot line, you’d be right! That’s because what happened to Melchizedek Conrad in beat 2 was, let’s say, catastrophic.

Even better: Janczak’s story arc is coming together better than I had hoped. It’s a little closer to the edge than I thought it would be, but it’s Janczak. Maybe I should have expected that.

I did manage two stretch goals:

• Cover blurb for Evolution’s Hand Book 3: Primary Target: I decided to try a Fiverr contractor to review my back-cover blurb. It came back in a very different form, and in a good way. It gave me a new way to think about it. I made only a few changes before I decided to use it.
• Cover bid for Primary Target: I awarded the bid for Primary Target’s cover to Fiverr’s Jesh Art Studio. It’s due back March 15. I’m really excited to see the result!

The Fiverr proof reader I contracted for Primary Target requested a 2 day extension. Since the request came in 2 days before the deadline, I was completely cool with it. It’s due back March 7, 2023.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2023 Week 10

Here’re my goals for the coming week:

• Write Matsushita Sachi’s Pinch 1
• Wire Atticus Porter’s Pinch 1
• Write Mariam Al Khatib’s Pinch 1
• (Stretch Goal): Start Melchizedek Conrad’s Pinch 1

I’m irrationally excited about starting Conrad’s next chapters. Remember my progress report from 2023 week 3? I get to introduce the world to Marilyn Newspice!

What Do You Think?

How do you balance writing time with family and work time? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments!