Is there such a thing as a Benign Real Life Family Event (BRLFE)? What does such a thing look like? I’m getting perilously close to the last chapters of Evolution’s Hand Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis. Is it still on track? Or did its various late-breaking plot convolutions make me rethink the whole thing? Let’s talk about that after we look at the numbers!
Progress Report 2023 Week 39 By the Numbers
Yes, it’s YAWUTTW (Yet Another Week Under Ten Thousand Words). And yes, I need to work on my acronyms…
I had a Benign Real Life Family Event (BRLFE) that wiped out my Saturday writing session, and that probably cost me hitting my minimum of 10,000 words. But that’s okay. It was a positive thing in all respects. I’ll pay a day’s writing for something like that!
About those plot convolutions: I blame Dean Wesley Smith. I was having so much fun writing the collision of Melchizedek Conrad, Matsushita Sachi, and Mariam Al Khatib’s plot points that I forgot to lay all of the necessary foreshadowing and other constructs ncessary to help the reader understand what was going on.
Did I say “blame?” I should say “credit,” because going back and adding a chapter here or a couple of paragraphs there is a ton easier than scrapping a book or ending up with something that wasn’t fun to write. Readers can tell, you know. They can tell when a writer didn’t enjoy themselves, and it’ll affect how they feel about the work.
Not always. But why take the risk?
Bottom line: I’m closing in on the end, and insisting that I enjoy myself has helped Unnatural Crypsis more fun to write — and I hope more fun to read!
Hard to believe I’m so close to finishing! Another two or three weeks should do it. God willing and the creek don’t rise. Stupid creek…
Evolution’s Hand and Kindle Unlimited
I’ve been building the criteria to decide whether or not to put Evolutions Hand into Kindle Unlimited. Right now, I plan to leave Evolution’s Hand wide until I’m a month or two away from publishing the first book in the next series. Then, I’ll make a final decision about making Evolution’s Hand an Amazon exclusive (a prerequisite for Kindle Unlimited).
Two considerations are driving this decision. First, I want to spend all of my energy (to the extent possible) finishing the first series. I want a solid body of work in front of readers. If I’m dividing my attention between writing and too much non-writing work, then I’ll lose forward momentum.
The second consideration is something Chris Fox talked about recently on YouTube: Amazon’s viability as a platform. Amazon’s facing a lot of challenges, and AI-generated content is only one of them. I’d hate to go all-in on Amazon only to find that was the moment in history that they lose control of the situation. I doubt that’s the case, but Chris Fox makes a compelling case. I’ll see what happens in the next few months.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’re my goals and progress notes from late week:
- Finish Matsushita Sachi’s Pinch 2 Part 2: Done!
- Finish Mariam Al Khatib’s real Pinch 2: Converted to bridge chapter with Conrad; Done!
- Finish Catalina Ojeda’s Pinch 2: Done!
- Finish Magali Suarez’ Pinch 2: Done!
- Continue to evaluate Kindle Unlimited for Evolution’s Hand Done!
Also, I split Magali Suarez’ Plot Turn 2 into two chapters, both because each part needed more depth and because it helped pacing. I finished the first. So even though I didn’t hit 10,000 words, I made solid progress.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2023 Week 39
Here’re my goals for the coming week:
- Finish Catalina Ojeda’s Plot Turn 2
- Finish Noam Katz’ Plot Turn 2
- Finish Magali Suarez’ Plot Turn 2 Part II
- Finish Melchizedek Conrad’s Plot Turn 2
- (Stretch) Start Matsushita Sachi’s Plot Turn 2
- Evaluate the results of a new ad campaign through FreeBooksy
What Do You Think?
Have you made a decision between publishing only on Amazon or on a variety of platforms? How did you make the decision? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
One thought on “Progress Report 2023 Week 39”
Comments are closed.