Once, a long time ago, I would sit at my desk and pump out updates on what I was planning, and later have to walk back my plans as I ended up not following through. Eventually, I taught myself to just keep my mouth shut and do what I do and announce it when the time was right. I still make plans, I’ve gotten a lot better at following through, but I’m still not perfect.
At this time I would like to return to my age old tradition of letting my plans into the world, give status updates, and eventually have to let people down by revealing that I totally didn’t follow through on that one thing you really wanted me to follow through on.
So let’s begin by…
Walking back…
That is right, I did exactly what I said I thought I was past last year. I didn’t follow through on anything! In 2017, I released Freedom, wrote first drafts of the rest of GC Vol. 1, almost completed the 100k Guardian of the Rose novel “Dawnbreaker”. In 2018, I set myself to releasing Bojangles and having Dawnbreaker ready for release. I did neither.
In 2018
I started the year off right by getting back to work on Dawnbreaker, I finished a few more chapters, but with two fully outlined chapters remaining I ceased work. I was burned out from how hard I pushed through NaNoWriMo 2017 and chose to take a break.
This is where it went wrong. Because while I was on that break the job that I work informed me that they would not be giving anyone a raise, for the second year in a row, and that our end of year bonuses would be moved to April. Due to this I decided to interview for a new job. I was then told that my position was being moved over to another contract and I was basically being robbed of my annual bonus, so I told them where to shove it and moved to the new job.
While on this new job I justified extending my break while I settled into the changes in my life. Once I settled a bit I went back and decide that Freedom’s cover needed work and I had a list of errors that needed fixed.
But then I made a new best friend! Yeah, he was training me and I was being all introverted and we were getting a bite to eat and the words Space Quest were said and INSTANT BESTIES! Turns out his wife is a darn good editor and she agreed to help me make my stuff the bestest it could be, because that free lance editor I used before did no such thing.
I have done minor editing work this year, justifying my lack of progress at this point on waiting for my editor to return EVERYTHING, because… I needed to justify why I was failing to accomplish my goals now.
Beyond this, I spent days and days of my time world building, so I am confident when I start writing again things will be much more smooth.
What are my plans for the future?
Guardian Chronicles
I intended for 2018 to be the year of Guardians, but it turns out 2019 will be. My plan here is simple. I’m going to rewrite Qin and Freedom, and then finish Bojangles, with the help of my awesome editor.
Guardians of the Rose
While I’m not working on editor recommended changes to GC, I will be writing the second draft of Dawnbreaker.
Project Updates
Guardian Chronicles: Bojangles and beyond
Bojangles is undergoing a new draft, inspired by notes from my editor about flaws in my writing. Further more, Jade is working on the fifth or sixth cover for it. This one might actually end up as the final cover.
The rest of GC Vol. 1 4 through 8 are in first draft form but while I was world building I did make notes on changes that need to be made, and flaws to the stories that need fixing, during the process of Draft 2.
My plan is to stick with a monthly serialized release for GC 4 through 8. But I may end up doing 4 and 5 back to back, a gap before 6, and another gap before 7 and 8 release back to back. Official release will not be in 2019 but see below for some abstract ideas that might allow GC 4 through 8 to see the light of day in 2019.
Guardians of the Rose
Two chapters away from completed first draft on Dawnbreaker. The two chapters are outlined with heavy details. I won’t be completing them with the first draft, I have decided that I will finish the last two chapters when I do Draft 2.
I did a deep dive on world building here, at least half of my building this year was building up this world. There exists enough now that I can continue the series past this book if I felt so inclined.
Second BloodKnight Order
The next chunk of world building went into Alteria during the Second BloodKnight Order. I have revamped my plans for this Novella series and have written a new first chapter to Amberside that is much more smooth and ready to launch the series.
BloodKnight X
A whole lot of world building was done here. An outline exists. This will be my next novel project after Dawnbreaker.
NaNoWriMo 2019
Nah, No. Not doing it.
Patreon
The last two years I’ve been slowed by issues with mine or Jade’s jobs. In 2019 I have decided that I am going to start a Patreon in an effort to start padding my budget for my writing. The Patreon funds will go strictly to my writing projects and will free up funds from my mundane, but actually pretty awesome, job to go to the boring bills and such–while allowing me to start paying my new editor, or buy Jade new art supplies so she can finish my covers faster.
This is where the hope for GC 4 through 8 comes in. I may start releasing chapters of the new GC content early to Patreon. This depends, heavily, on how well I’m able to get through editing and when. At the very least, once the Patreon is up there will be releases of the rewritten GC content as well as Bojangles and Dawnbreaker chapters. Time will tell how this turns out, there is a reason it’s toward the bottom.
Honorable Mentions
Wilhelm and the Series of Forgotten Shorts!
This is where a chunk of my world building went into, the world of Wilhelm, the piece of Nexus that bred this hero, and it has led to the end of this series ever being written as originally planned. The world building was for my NaNo 2018 project which was supposed to return to this project, but by the end I envisioned something new. It is still a few years away, just know that Wilhelm will return.