Progress Report 2025 Week 01

The older I get, the less inclined I am to make a big deal out of holidays. Sure, it’s fun to get together with family. That’s the point, after all! But this year, I did want to get a little retrospective about how productive I’ve been. Also, I experienced a first this week — I had my first (known) return! That might not have made as big an impact as you (or me!) might think! Let’s talk about those things after we take a look at the final numbers from 2024.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

I took a few days of paid time off (PTO), and I used those days to write!

The nice thing about the week around Christmas, in addition to getting to spend time with family, is that I get a little more time to write. That improved my word count! I’m fairly happy with how Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed is coming together. Trent Raven and Takeuchi Mai just informed me that my plans for their next chapters were far too dull, and they gave me an alternative. Atticus Porter just up and hijacked where I thought his latest chapter was going to go. I gotta admit: his idea was better than mine!

Yeah, I’m trying to make it sound all supernatural and stuff. I know it’s just my subconscious doing its thing. But I’ll tell you straight up: it feels like the characters seize control and just take off. I’ve interpreted that in the past as an indicator that I’m on the right track.

I also used this time to incorporate the alpha feedback into Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon. If you’re ever looking for alpha readers, I strongly recommend Jonah H. and Stephanie F.. Both came at the manuscript from slightly different, and complimentary, angles. I think the book’s about ready for its beta pass.

My First Known Return

There’s a chance that I’ve had returns in the past and just haven’t noticed it. One day last week, though, I did. And to be honest, it was a bummer.

In the Facebook group 20BooksTo50K, I’ve seen other writers talk about this. Apparently, there are some “influencers” on TikTok and other social media platforms who say they’ve found a way to game Amazon: buy an ebook, read it quickly, then return it.

That’s a kick in the head, isn’t it? I suppose I could get worked up about it, but here’s the thing: nonsense like this has been going on forever. There’s a (thankfully small!) subset of people who are cool with depriving others. I can get pissed off about it, or I can see it as another sign that I’m starting to see some success. It’s sort of a rite of passage, like getting my first one star rating. So, I’ll just keep writing and trying to figure out the marketing thing and more of less ignore this.

Unless it gets out of hand!

2024 in Review

It feels like I wrote a lot this year. Since I keep a spreadsheet of how much I write each day, I figured it might be fun to take a look at how productive I was in 2024. Here’s what the numbers look like.

At some point, I’d like to double that number, but honestly? With a full time family situation and a full time job, I really shouldn’t complain. My fingers still work, I have a full time job that lets me buy a computer that make writing as easy as it’s going to get, and I have a stable family situation. That puts me solidly in the “blessed” column.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

Here’s how I did last week compared to my goals:

1. Complete the first draft of Trent Raven’s Pinch 1: Almost done! Darn thing’s grown to four chapters, three of which are done. It’s like he thinks he’s the main character or something.
2. Complete the first draft of Jadwiga Janczak’s Pinch 1: Done!
3. Complete another helper chapter with Hans Alder and Luisa Brunner: Done!
4. Complete Janczak’s Midpoint: Swapped! I decided I needed an Atticus Porter chapter, both for dramatic reasons and to make sure readers don’t forget him.
5. Evaluate the first draft of the Miblart cover: Delayed! I figured this might happen, what with the holidays and all. They were very professional about it — they asked if they could have an extension before it was late. Of course, I said no problem.
6. Rewrite the Amazon blurb for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning to invigorate Amazon Ads (stretch objective): Done! It’s too early to know if it had any impact, but I like this one better. Fingers crossed it’ll help sales!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 01

Here’s what I hope to complete this week:

1. Complete Janczak’s Midpoint
2. Complete (finally!) Trent Raven’s Pinch 1 (i.e., its fourth chapter)
3. Finish part 2 of Atticus Porter’s Midpoint
4. Start Trent Raven’s midpoint
5. Evaluate the cover for Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon from Miblart

What Do You Think?

How do you think about returns? Do they get under your skin? Or do you just ignore them? I’d love to hear about your approach in the comments!