An indie author’s regular spoiler-free blog on his writing, editing, cover design, marketing, publishing, website maintenance, and blogging. Issue 100.
This week in one word: milestone.
my_writing_week
Previously on WWW…
Next week, I’ll continue brainstorming The Spike Volume 3, and probably carry on with one or both of the blogpost series I’m writing. I do want to get back to working on the cover designs this week too. And I need to write and post my review of Carrie by Stephen King.
Plus, next week’s WWW will be issue 100 so I want to do something to mark that.
Lots to do, as always.
This is the third week in a row I stated my intention to work on cover designs.
Total work done on cover designs over all three weeks = 0 hours, 0 minutes.
Whenever I have the opportunity, there’s always something more appealing to do, and that’s mostly because the parts I need to work on are difficult. When motivation is in short supply, as it sometimes is in the evenings after working the day job all day, I’d rather pick something that’s easy. Or easier.
The first of the “easier” tasks I worked on this week was brainstorming for The Spike Volume 3. I’m still generating good new ideas, despite already having far too many. It’s getting to the point that sifting through everything and picking out the necessities from the nice-to-haves from the unnecessaries will be a “difficult” task.
I finished draft 3 of The Spike Volume 2 on 14th October and intended to leave it at least three weeks before I began a full readthrough. When I’m reading that, I won’t want to be reading anything else, so my current thinking is that I’ll begin Volume 2 once I’ve finished Recursion by Blake Crouch and John of John by Douglas Stuart, and written reviews for them, which I guesstimate will take two to three weeks from today.
One of the things I’ll be looking out for when I read Volume 2 is whether there’s too many people and too many different things going on. It may need to be a little more focussed. It might be fine. I might decide there’s room for more complexity, but I think that’s unlikely.
That decision will inform how many of the ideas I’ve brainstormed for Volume 3 will need to be excluded to prevent it being overstuffed and potentially confusing, so I’m definitely not going to begin outlining Volume 3 until I’ve done the next stage of Volume 2.
The task I spent the most time on this week was my new blogpost series I’m calling If you like these…, ie if you liked these works, you might like The Spike. I’m enjoying writing them as it gives me an excuse to gush over the books, TV shows, movies, albums, and video games I like most.
I’m intending to publish them around the same time as The Spike Volume 1 second edition. I have another series of posts mostly done too, and will fit them into a schedule along with some other things I’m planning. The relaunch will benefit from lessons I learnt during and since the first publication.
On Tuesday, I posted my review of Carrie by Stephen King. I was surprised how basic the plot was, but his skill as a storyteller prevented it from being a dull read.
Finally, I mentioned in my plan for this week that I wanted to do something to mark this being the 100th WWW, and that’s in the ton_up section below. No fireworks – I can hear too many of them outside as I write this. Bang, sparks, wheeee… NO!
Hmm, I feel a rant bubbling up, so I’d best move on.
I felt unwell in the middle of this week, so I’m relieved more than pleased that I repeated last week’s 51% for my creativity vs consumption. That takes my streak of hitting at least 50/50 to 15 weeks. It was a chore, I’m not going to lie, but I hate letting a streak end, which is why today is the 876th day in a row I’ve worked on my writing.
Over the next seven days, I don’t have anything specific I need to do now, but lots that needs to be done at some point. I’d like to want to work on the cover designs, because I know I won’t do it if I don’t want to. It’s more likely I’ll chip away at my long list of smallish jobs.
Reading this week: Carrie by Stephen King and Recursion by Blake Crouch and John of John by Douglas Stuart
Watching this week: Schitt’s Creek season 2
Playing this week: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
ton_up
This is issue 100 of my WeeklyWritingWrapup. It feels like a natural point to pause and reflect.
It has evolved over time. Originally there was a small opinion piece/rant at the beginning. That was dropped because I was running out of subjects I could write about in such a short form, and if I was going to write longer posts, a week wasn’t enough to do it justice without taking too much time away from my main focus – writing books. Instead, I split those pieces out to have their own identity, and that’s enabled me to be more creative and write some posts I’m really pleased with.
Another part of the WWW that hasn’t survived is the interesting_links, which was a shortlist of news stories I’d seen during the previous week that related in some way to The Spike. I decided to stop this because I felt it took too much time given I’m not sure anyone looked at them.
I’m quite happy with the format now. I’ve been thinking about what I could add or change, but the only ideas I’ve liked would take too long; it takes me about 90 minutes to pull this together each week, which isn’t too bad, but more than that would be problematic.
Whilst I’d prefer more people to read this weekly, it has a value beyond reaching an audience: it is a way I can hold myself to account. If I don’t work on my writing much during the week, I’d feel embarrassed about not having much to write about on the WWW.
It’s also nice to have a record I can refer back to of what I was working on at a given time, beyond my copious spreadsheets.
I’m pleased to have showed up every week. Only once have I missed my self-imposed posting deadline of Saturday evening, and that was because my sister had the temerity to get married on a Saturday and I didn’t expect to be out so late. She’s promised she won’t do it again.
As I’ve been writing a review for every book I’ve read this year, and I’ve read more than ever (27 so far), I haven’t had as much time to write other blogposts.
Next year, I’ll write some book reviews, but not for every book I read, and I’ll sprinkle in blogposts on a few different subjects. If things go as I intend and I publish the second edition of The Spike Volume 1 in 2027, I’ll have a bundle of related blogposts to post around launch time, which I’m working on at the moment (see my_writing_week above).
If you have any suggestions for things you’d like to see more or less of, or new content, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.
status_report
In addition to the three short stories available to read for free here, there are three more yet to be published that make up The Spike Volume 0. One of the new three is ready to go; the other two require some final editing. I may submit the new three to journals or short story collections, but all will be published by Arrowmaker Books some time before Volume 2 is published.
I’m working on a new cover design for a second edition of The Spike Volume 1.
I’m also working on covers for the two individual parts, 1.1_Application_Infiltration and 1.2_Laying_Down_The_Law, which are going to be published separately for the first time. Both have a similar style and layout.
Draft 3 of The Spike Volume 2 is complete!
The next step will be a complete readthrough to check if any further story revisions are required.
Volume 2 is my biggest and most complex project to date, containing three separate books from the perspectives of seven characters.
The current aim is to have Volume 2 ready for editing by the end of 2026.
I am brainstorming for The Spike Volume 3. I know how it must begin; I have an ending that I think will be great; and I have a long list of ideas (that keeps growing) to get from one to the other that needs to be whittled down and put in an order. Outlining may begin soon.
On the back-burner, not currently being worked on are:
Project Fang
Project Teleport
Project Grim
Project Lawless
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I’ve been listening to Push The Sky Away by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
The line-up of the Bad Seeds varies, and Nick Cave’s done some special appearances, so there’s at least five different versions I’ve seen of this online. Below is one of my favourites.
To me, it’s about never being happy with repeating the same things creatively, to always be pushing to do something new, and I respect the way he’s experimented with different styles and sounds over his long career.
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
