You’d think that the older I get, the more control I’d have over my schedule. Maybe some folks have that luxury. I don’t. Real Life Family Events (RLFEs) seem to multiply on a monthly basis! They certainly took a bite out of my schedule this week. In happier news, I have a cover to share with you — the second of the three covers for The Sword of Sirius. And finally, I have title news for Dreams of Deucalion. Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators before diving into any of those topics.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
Two days’ worth of RLFEs cost me about 5,000 words! But I have a family to generate events, and that makes all of this writing stuff worthwhile.
Without going into details about any of the RLFEs, I’ll just say that I find that many times, in the hours afterward, it’s hard to sustain a creative state. According to a University of California study, it can take twenty-five minutes to recover from an interruption. That time seems right, if a co-worker interrupts me when I’m debugging a Python script that has decided not to behave itself.
But if the interruption’s a RLFE? Some of those can take so much out of me that it can takes days to recover. As I’m sitting here typing this post, for the first time in decades, I wonder if I’ve pushed myself too hard.
But even if I have, there are a couple of things that I can’t let up on: my responsibilities as a father and my primary job. I wonder if trying to prepare a trilogy for publishing at the same time I’m finishing the first book in the next trilogy at the same time I’m thinking about the plot for the second book in that trilogy is too much.
The question is harder than it sounds. At first glance, the answer seems to be a clear yes! I should take a week or two off from writing. But I’m not kidding when I say I can’t not write. If I stop writing for several days at a time, my brain does not react well.
Maybe I’ll push through getting The Word of Sirius published and see how I feel once that’s off my plate. I know it’s generating a lot of pre-publication dread (I talked about that a little last week). Maybe the problem will just take care of itself.
Cover Reveal for The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone
Here’s the cover for the second book in The Sword of Sirius trilogy:
This is the cover of Collapse Zone. I think it conveys the genre well (science fiction -> military -> space fleet).
I think miblart did a great job. I’m happy with it, especially for the price. That said, if I look at the best-sellers in this genre, I can see a difference in the caliber of the execution. That difference comes with a cost. I’ve also priced covers from the artists and firms that produce those covers. Miblart charges just under $300 for the package I purchased, which includes both an ebook and paperback copy, among other artifacts. The next level covers start around $2,000 and go up to $6,000.
Am I saying miblart’s cover is inferior? Nope. I like it. I’m likely going to buy from them again. What I am saying is that budget is a limiting factor in a small business like mine. Publishing is not a cheap endeavor, if you want to be at all positioned for success. I’m glad there’s a cover designer like miblart who delivers such good work at such a reasonable price point.
What’s Next for Dreams of Deucalion
I wasn’t happy with my working title for Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Stellar Entanglements. It sounded like a torrid love affair with an alien or something. So I brainstormed. And brainstormed. And figured I was too tired, so I rested. Then I — well, you get the idea. My wife and my daughter kept shooting down my ideas. That was infuriating, due in no small part to me knowing they were right.
Do they like the new titles? I think they’re apprehensive, but I hope that the titles below convey the progression of circumstance for the protagonists. Here’re the titles for the trilogy Dreams of Deucalion:
- Special Recon
- Bait and Bleed
- Flanking Maneuver
These titles convey a movement from TransStell’s current strategy, to their attempted strategy, to the results of that attempted strategy. It’s not necessary that anyone know that; I hope the titles are sufficiently cool and just sound intriguing. But I managed a similar progression with the titles for The Sword of Sirius, and I like that sort of thing.
What do you think? Does any of the three speak to you? Freak you out? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Plot Turn 2: Done!
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Resolution: Done!
- Finish Trent Raven’s Resolution: Done!
- Finish Porter’s Resolution (stretch objective): Not Done!
- Begin incorporating the proofreading results for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak: Done!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 35
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Porter’s Resolution
- Read the first six chapters of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning aloud to confirm it’s ready
- Read the first six chapters of The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone aloud to confirm it’s ready
- Read the first six chapters of The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak aloud to confirm it’s ready
- Begin building the ebook and paperback versions of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning (stretch objective)
What Do You Think?
How do you tell the difference between burn out and just being tired? Do you enforce times of rest to prevent either? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
One will resolve itself with rest while the other won’t. Sadly, you won’t know which it is until you’ve fully rested… and who has time for that?
The only authors that seem to have control over their schedule are often childless and single. I know my time became even harder to control when we had our second child.
I struggle to take breaks and often find that if I’m not doing something, I can get quite anxious. There’s only so much time after all. I think it needs to become a part of our daily routines, but working our how and when is the issue.
I wonder if breaks are really restful? Writing is often regenerative. Even if I’m exhausted, generally speaking, I can still put words on the page. Not saying they’re good words or anything; but they seem no better or worse than words I write at other times. And if I don’t write, well, things really come apart. So maybe pushing through by writing is the answer for me!
I had rather hoped it would involve more video games.