Waking Up

It’s hard to believe the last time I posted here was in July.

Personal life challenges have continued, and have continued to sludge up the creative process. I started a new job in September, and this has helped. The environment is more supportive, the staff are encouraging, and the work is less stressful. I feel like my brain is “waking up” after sleeping really for most of 2022. My brainpower isn’t at 100%, but I’m thinking more clearly and more quickly than I have in a while.

The trade-off is that I have much less time for my writing or publishing work. I’m working on consciously recognizing that I need to make time now. This is a process, not a simple “just do it” acknowledgement. I don’t have the time to be as productive as I was during the MOTM years, but I truly can create time in my schedule to be creative. I just need to be more conscious and intentional about how I spend my time and energy.

Right now, I’ve finished line editing To Hunt a God, Part 2. The editor is doing better than they have for much of this year, as well, and they’re making good progress on the Encounters I released back in July. At their behest, I have not begun “beta” layout of the Part 2 adventure, yet. We will see how work proceeds, before I make a final decision about a Part 2 beta release. At the current pace, the editing ball will be back in my court by the end of November.

I’m also excited to share that some art is coming in, and some is in progress. I’ve reached out to the artist of a previous project, and hope to commission them for some interior work. I’m not willing to share details yet, but I’m really looking forward to seeing their work on Hunt. Keep an eye on here, and on the Facebook page. If we’re lucky, there might be something really cool to show off in December.

Outside of Hunt, and Glorantha generally, I’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year. There’s pretty much no chance in hell that I’m gonna pull off the whole 50,000 words. My personal goal is just to write all thirty days in November. I want to use NaNo—an event I enjoy—to help me structure new writing habits which work with my new job. Any amount of words is a win.

For NaNo, I’m working on a story idea I’m currently calling Stillness. It’s named after the main character, a swordsman who doesn’t want to be a hero. I talked about this idea a bit back in July, and I’m working from the outline and notes I primarily developed over this past summer.

Thus far, I’m finding the story very fun to tell. My prose is garbage, the phrasing and worldbuilding is deeply flawed, but I think I’m doing a decent job reminding myself to just keep writing. Fix it in editing. I’m working with two characters, and I’m enjoying how they don’t get along. Their perspectives on heroism, death, and sacrifice have made writing the story engaging (even if I’m only about 4,500 words in). I look forward to the paragraphs I chip away each day.