Progress Report 2025 Week 08

This week taught me a valuable lesson about planning for the upcoming week. I’ll give you a hint: it has to do with Real Life Family Events (RLFEs). It’s probably something you’ll find stunningly obvious! I’ve made some progress preparing to write Wayland’s Forge Book 1: Conventional Forces. Have I started writing at all yet? Finally, I have some cover news. But before we get into any of that, let’s look at the key performance indicators.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

No words written yet. But I’m getting closer! I think. Or maybe “hope” would be a better word…

As you can see, I haven’t started writing yet. I’m still working on the plot. For Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed, the plot came together in about a week. That experience felt amazing! But Conventional Forces is reminding me that Bait and Bleed was an outlier. I think it’s related to three things.

First, Conventional Forces is the opening book in the trilogy. It establishes the context for the whole trilogy. I wanted to make sure i picked the right starting point, and I wanted to make sure I picked the right point of view characters. That increased my mental overhead as I second- and third-guessed everything. That’s fine, because in the long run, I’ll be more confident that I’m on solid narrative footing.

Second, out of necessity, one of the characters is a literal Nazi. I have to emulate that perspective in my mind. That alone is hard enough — the research left me feeling cold and dark. But I’m also dealing with the mental aftermath of realizing it’s so freaking easy to do. Well, I guess humanity as represetned by the Germany in the 1930s was no different than humanity in the United States in 2025. I should not be surprised. Though I am chilled.

Third, and this is the lesson I learned this week, RLFEs have taken a lot out of me. I’ve only been getting 4 1/2 to 5 hours of sleep every night over the last week, and that’s taking its toll. That RLFE will be with me at least a few more times, but then I should be done with that particular RLFE. My exhaustion translated into the inability to hold the entire plot in my mind at once. I can only move from one plot point to the next; and every two or three, I have to go back and make sure I’m still consistent as new ideas strike. I can’t process much more than that.

Being tired = harder to write. Kinda obvious, isn’t it?

I just brought all three arcs up to their Pinch 2, and the characters have embraced the direction. That’s a good sign. I have the sense that Stephen King called unearthing the plot. He does that while writing; I need to do it before I can start writing. But I still have the sense of fun that I had in my previous efforts, and I take that as a good sign.

I haven’t written any chapters yet, but I’ve been busy! The purple items are Gerhard Wimmer’s arc, green is Moritz Lehner’s arc, and blue is Owen Payne’s arc. The deep purple represents research notes (under Character Starting Points).

Cover News: Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver

Miblart came through again! I approved the first draft of the new cover for Flanking Maneuver. It maintains the look and feel of Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon, while at the same time showing the story’s progression. I hope to take delivery of the final next week.

As of right now, I plan to obtain the cover for Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed in March 2025. Sometime in April, I’ll do a cover reveal, first in my newsletter, then here. This is only a tentative plan, but I’d like to publish in May, 2025.

Progress against Last Week’s Goals

I said earlier that being tired = harder to write. Being tired also makes it harder to get other things done. Yeah, also obvious! But here we are!

Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:

1. Continue to brainstorm Wayland’s Forge arcs for the three main characters. I anticipate this’ll take another week or two. It’s kind of intense for me. I’m trying to dig deep into my psyche to, as Harlan Ellison suggested, put my guts on the page. In progress! I’m still working on it, and I really hope I can wrap it up this coming week.
2. Draft the Amazon blurbs for Special Recon, Flanking Maneuver, and Bait and Bleed. Might as well get those out of the way. Not done! Not even started, based on my level of exhaustion.
3. Re-evaluate the Amazon Ads keywords I’m using. I have some data on which are working and at what price. I need to prune some keywords and find others to add. Done! I’ve removed some expensive but underperforming keywords. I’ve added a few new ones that are performing at a reasonable cost. This is probably ongoing.
4. Draft a back cover blurb for Bait and Bleed. Note done! Also not started, also based on being tired.

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 08

Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:

1. Take delivery of the completed cover and marketing materials for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver.
2. Take delivery of the second beta reading feedback for Flanking Maneuver.
3. Complete the outline for Wayland’s Forge Book 1: Conventional Forces.
4. Draft the Amazon blurbs for Special Recon, Flanking Maneuver, and Bait and Bleed.
5. Draft a back cover blurb for Bait and Bleed.

What Do You Think?

Does a lack of sleep obviously affect your quality of writing? Your volume of output? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!