Progress Report 2026 Week 12

I swapped one of my goals this week to better prepare for an upcoming newsletter bonus. But it’s an indirect preparation. I’ll explain. Wayland’s Hammer took two more steps toward publication. Three, actually, counting on the newsletter preparation effort. Finally, did I make any effort towards Blue Angel Ascension? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.

Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers

Still no new words written. However, Lines of Operation is ready for its alpha read!

I finished putting Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation through its final steps before it goes into an alpha read. I’ll probably ask my alpha readers if they’re available in early April. I don’t want to go earlier because there’s another book in another queue.

Speaking of “another book,” I finished applying feedback from the alpha readers into Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement. I compiled the results and asked my favorite beta reader on Fiverr (J. Flowers) if they were available. They were! So, in another week and a half, I should have beta reader’s feedback on Resistance Movement. As soon as it comes back, I’ll start the alpha-reading process for Lines of Operation.

I didn’t plan to do this yet, but I contacted Miblart to start the cover for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1. Now seems like a good time to mention that I’ve changed the title for the first book. It had been Point of Departure, but that never sat well with me. So, after more rounds of brainstorming than I like to admit, I came up with Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners. It speaks to the heart of the theme, and I think it puts the spotlight on the right aspect of the story.

A Method to My Madness

The timing wasn’t random. I’ve talked here before about how I wanted to reward my newsletter recipients with a field guide to the colonies that Sirius has established by the time Wayland’s Hammer begins. I had already created the graphics of the star systems and the key colonial planets. But I’ve struggled with the technology to create the deliverable.

I wanted to use Adobe’s InDesign. I pay for an Adobe Creative Suite license (which has gone up considerably in price — dang!), so I can use any of their products. InDesign is the spiritual successor to PageMaker, which I used to love. Unfortunately, InDesign is a lot like Illustrator in that it’s fantastically powerful, but it employs assumptions I can’t get my head around.

Nostalgia wasn’t the only driver for using InDesign. I wanted to create a re-flowable ePub. That’s the type that Kindle deploys. Basically, a re-flowable ePub will display equally well on a phone, a dedicated e-reader, a tablet, or a computer. I wanted to give my newsletter readers a solution that they could read with as positive experience regardless of how they chose to read it. InDesign supports that output format.

Unfortunately, that proved too complex, given the time I had to devote to this project. So, I did some experiments with Apple Pages, which turned out to handle the integration of graphics and text surprisingly well. So that’s the tool I’m going to use.

Apple Pages is doing a solid job letting me combine my graphics and text.

Why did I time this effort to happen just after I get the cover for Duty of Prisoners? Because I want to use teh same fonts that Miblart uses on the cover for the guide. I guess it’s not strictly necessary, but it makes sense to me as a way to get people excited for Wayland’s Hammer.

Any Movement on Blue Rose Ascension?

When I begin a new novel, I copy the character, equipment, and place materials from the manuscript I just finished to the new manuscript (Scrivener project). In this case, that “just finished” manuscript is Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation. Before that step, though, I need to make sure I’ve marked everyone DECEASED who died in that book. I confirmed that step’s done.

I’m trying to understand how I create. I want to create more freely. That is to say, I don’t want to improve my creativity like I’d improve a business process. I’m not optimizing for efficiency. Instead, I want to optimize for creativity.

I write best when I know what I’m doing. Put another way, if I know where the plot is going, then I can use my mental energies to write situations with more confidence. The same thing applies if I understand the thematic context. I’m not moralizing, but I do have a perspective that I want to convey. I can let my subconscious handle that with grace and nuance if I already know what I’m trying to say.

I mentioned last week that Craig Martelle suggested starting with the hook, blurb, and maybe even the cover. The more I thought about that, the more I liked it. Specifically, it encourages me to discover all of the meta aspects of the story before I actually start writing. That, in turn, will allow my subconscious to focus on writing the most compelling moments while moving the story forward.

But it doesn’t really answer how to optimize my creativity to be most, well, creative. Repetitive physical work that’s not mentally demanding has helped me in the past (like mowing a yard). So does listening to music that energizes me. Imagining the various groups, institutions, and what’s come before in my fictional world’s universe has helped me, too. Thinking about the interplay between the various factions, what they’re planning, and how they try to implement their plans gives me plot ideas.

I think this where I miss two things. First, i miss having a wall-sized whiteboard like I used to in the job before my previous one. A whiteboard that size encourages big thinking. Second, there are only a couple of things I miss from high school, and one of them is chatting with a group of writer peers. Ideas shared in an open environment encourage creativity. I miss that.

Maybe I’ll try using Scrivener’s cork-board view to fill in for the whiteboard.

Progress Against Last Week’s Goals

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

1. Finish the ProWritingAid pass of Wayland’s Hammer Book 3: Lines of Operation: Done!
2. Incorporate alpha feedback into Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Done!
3. Solicit the beta tester for Wayland’s Hammer Book 2: Resistance Movement: Done!
4. Deploy a new ad for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning:Skipped! Instead, I focused on buying new ISBNs and finalizing the back-cover blurbs for Wayland’s Hammer. Also, the latest ad is performing okay-ish. In related news, I finished analyzing David Gaughran’s latest video, and I think I’m ready for my next ad. I’m debating whether I should feature The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning or Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon. I really wish I could see more sales for both, but the latter in particular.
5. Keep kicking around ideas for Blue Angel Ascension: Ongoing!

Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2026 Week 12

Here’s what I hope to do this week:

1. Take delivery of first draft of the cover for Wayland’s Hammer Book 1: Duty of Prisoners
2. Complete the first draft of Early Colonial Worlds, including a new cover with fonts from Duty of Prisoners
3. Keep kicking around ideas for Blue Angel Ascension

What Do You Think?

How do you cultivate your creativity? Does music help? Taking walks? Something else? I’d love to hear about your experience in teh comments!