February; Dull & Dreary Or How I Succeed at Marathon Projects

February in Canada can be tough. The days are slowly getting longer, but historically, its our coldest month, one last total freeze before we can start seeing life return. Worse, the sky here in Calgary tends to go grey with thick clouds that seem to never clear. The whole world feels like its holding its breath... which I suppose it is.

Spring will start to appear mid to late next month as the snow starts melting. That and the temperature rising to something above zero during the dark hours and higher daily highs along with the clouds finally starting to clear means that the trees start to stir slightly. We still won't see leaves until April, of course, but then we can see something happening at least.

But February... February feels like you're living in Bill Murray's Groundhog Day movie. Every day is cloudy, with little to no sun. The ground is covered with ice and snow that won't really change at all, day to day. Over the course of a week, you might see the roads clear, but that will be about it.

Add to this, working from home, when you're more likely to forget what day it is anyway, and February literally feels like somebody has pressed replay on the day for a month and they are very likely to continue to press it for the forseeable future.

So is this where I tell you I'm failing at everything? Strangely, no. I have one chapter to left to rewrite at this point and it isn't going to be from scratch. Its one chapter that needs a POV change. Aside from that, every chapter in the book needs minor tweaking to improve characterization and clear up the minor questions my editor noted for me. I should be able to do two or more chapters daily from this point on (aside from that single rewrite).

This doesn't mean I haven't felt like my energy is failing. I have. And I've dealt with it by getting myself interested in working on a short story about a set of Pathfinder characters that we stopped playing mid-2018. It was an evil campaign and I've been having fun figuring out which characters would have survived, which would have died and how the world looks like over 100 years in the future.

Now, I'll almost certainly never be able to do anything with it. Its a pit of depravity and immorality. It doesn't have anyone learning about the magical power of friendship and there are no life lessons to take home from it. Plus, it has lewd bits, which I enjoy writing, but will almost certainly never publish.

So what does writing this give me? Well, for one it lets me play around with a toy that I, essentially, can't break. This short story can be badly written, repetitive, playing with characters that I know, and I can figure out fun places to go with it. Those are all things that I can't do on Lord's Curse at this stage. Not without driving the story into the ground, at least.

Now, I can't ignore my work for this story, but I can work on it in between chapters. 200 words here, 300 there, no editing and only working on it when I have a moment of inspiration. It helps me feel like I have something fun to work toward and makes it so even editing and the dull February greys can't get me down.

What do you do to get yourself excited to work again during long projects?

Tough Week

The hardest thing about editing is the chapters that need to be rewritten. See, the first draft, I don't mind making tons of mistakes because there is only one way to fail at that stage and it is to not write it down in the first place. As I am fond of repeating ad nauseam, "you can edit shit into gold. What you can't do is edit a blank page." 

Editing from that point is easy. I'm literally just taking words that I already like and making them better. And honestly, rewrites at this stage aren't too bad either, since I'm not going for perfect, I'm going for good enough to show to my beta readers. While I'll drag my feet over completely new chapters that need to be added, I understand that a lot of my first draft won't survive to the final draft. 

After I get it back from my beta readers, I read over their responses and see what they think. I pay particular attention to areas that seem under-developed to them, to plots that they poke holes through and whether they like or hate the characters and why. Changes at this point are more difficult. I've been through it twice, once writing and once editing, and I'm at something I like. Still, sometimes as difficult as the changes are, they make the story 10x better. They are the changes that I just can't see on my own because I'm too close to the work. 

The this-isn't-even-my-final-form stage is to send it to the editor. The changes they suggest are the most difficult. I've changed it already, its nearly at its final form and I'll be honest, no matter how much my mind knows that my editor is going to tell me certain parts of it suck, my heart holds out hope that my editor will send me back a letter saying that all they had to do was some grammar and its perfect. As I said, that never happens. Its the most difficult here, I think, because I already have it at something I love. Not that the changes aren't necessary; changes at this stage are absolutely necessary and they're something that I can not see without help. These changes could rock my story to its core, or it could be an abrupt face motivation change to one of my characters. These changes leave me putting it off, dragging my feet and procrastinating hardcore. 

Which is where I am now. 

I love getting action shots of people taking my novel along with them and enjoying it on the beach or at work. It makes my day, every time. If you want to see your picture shared, email it to me at inkedfoxpress@gmail.com and I'll share it across my platforms. 

That said, I can see what my story was lacking before. It was a great book, but it was missing a firm base for the rest of the story to stand on. Now, I am working my way through the manuscript. I have finished rewriting my fourth chapter out of the six. My next three chapters will be relatively quick to work on since I'm not expecting many changes. Then I'll have two more chapters to write. After that, it's a quick run-through, tightening the story more and responding to the changes or questions mentioned by my editor. While I won't be finished in January, obviously since it's

going to be February in a day or two, I am setting a goal of having it back in my editor's hands by the 14th of February. 

Either way, I'll keep you informed. As soon as I've gotten it back from her, you should see a lot of information coming your way. That will be when you can expect release date information and cover reveal! So keep an eye out for that! If I'm lucky, I'll be able to have a release date for you soon! 

Editing and Redraw from 2014

Healthy again, finally! 

At least enough to function. My nose is still stupidly stuffed up and I get really tired after only a small amount of work. But I have enough energy to go to the mailbox and cook dinner and not feel like collapsing. Sit down for two minutes between maybe, but no more than that. 

For full honesty, I will disclose that some of that is my allergies kicking in. I have an allergy to small furry animals. I may have had it as a kid and simply ignored it because I was stupidly healthy in every other way. But I first noticed it when I borrowed an angora sweater my mom had when I was 16 or so and I itched like hell all day. It got worse when I moved out and got fur babies of my own, of course, and then settled as my system became more used to them. One thing that my body simply won't put up with though is having my cats knead my bare flesh... Of course, that is the only place they ever want to knead. I make it easier for them by preferring to wear tank tops and shirts that leave my arms bare. 

At any rate, finally healthy. 

For my edit, I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped... I've been lazy. But I did finish the chapter 3 rewrite and have edited it in. I've also finished the rough draft of chapter four which I'm in the process of doing now. After that, the editing should be faster for chapter five and then another wait for chapter six which is a new chapter from scratch. I'm finding that new chapters because they have to fit in the spot I'm dropping them perfectly, it's taking more time, to write from scratch and then fill in the extra holes with the information it needs and then going over it a few times for editing to make it as good as the rest. The other chapters are flowing and I'm able to do one or two chapters a day. Fortunately, after this chapter is done, I only have four more complete rewrites. 

So, what else have I been doing? Well, I got obsessed with my redraw from 2014. I finally finished her a few days ago, and I've got to admit, she looks amazing. I've gotten some criticism on her hands... but considering that they are very difficult to draw and I included them regardless, AND they actually look like hands, despite my errors, I'm considering it a win regardless.

The one on the right was done on my tablet of the time, a cheap-y Lenovo with a stylus. While the stylus cost $15-$20 and had some pressure sensitivity, it still wasn't good enough to actually get much detail with. The newer one on the left was done with my Surface and MS Stylus, which has a very good tip and pressure sensitivity that I can actually use. In addition, I've figured out how the body works as a whole. I figured out how to do hair a lot better, although the new hair is definitely something I still need to work on... the location of shine and shadow still isn't perfect The face is more realistic while still being animation. I think you can tell my anime beginnings from this, though I think I have grown out of some of the anime tropes... the eyes aren't anime large anymore, just slightly larger than normal. I had no shading on the old one, partially because I had no idea how to add shadow and highlights. I've picked up some of that now, though I still lean heavily on my references, which is something I would like to keep working on. 

I'll be honest though, a lot of that is just nitpicky. I really do love the way this turned out. I need to speed up a bit on my digital work though... this picture took me twelve to fifteen hours to finish still. I was going for an adequate "here is my current skill level" but I would like to figure out how to draw a bit faster... fortunately, that will come with just sketching and using it for more art, which is something that I will be doing. 

If you're interested, let me know if you want me to make copies of it available or even just the lineart, in case you want to play with coloring it in yourself. 

And I think that's where I'll end it today. It is definitely time for me to get editing if I want to finish those two chapters tonight. 

Super quick update...

It's been a week come and gone now and I'm still sick. Not badly now, fortunately. I have a fever that comes and goes which occasionally knocks me out, and I'm not good for extended trips out yet, but better. I am back to work, as of today, which I'm happy to report. I wrote 600 new words on one of my rewrite chapters and I'm hoping to finish that chapter tomorrow.

Other than that, I've been dealing with the extreme cold here in Calgary. Our temperatures have been hovering around -30C which means I have very few reasons to leave the house anyway. I've been making a point of walking down the block to the mailbox every day to make sure I don't end up feeling cabin fever too badly.

And that's where I'm going to end today. Rest up, if you're sick, stay where its safe, whether its fire or ice you're hiding from and take care of yourself until next week.

Bleh... Its that time of year again...

Sorry guys. I was hoping to have this out early for you guys with a full report of doings done and how much of my novel I finished. Instead, I came down sick on Sunday and its been kicking my ass since then. Writing after Sunday was impossible and even doing art was tough. Don't worry too much about me though. I've been taking care of myself and, despite still being tired, most of my symptoms are nearly gone now. I'll probably be back to writing today or tomorrow and adding in daily time for art after that.

All of this doesn't mean I was entirely unproductive, though. I edited the first two chapters before I got sick and got a little over 500 words done on a rough draft of a new chapter before the flu knocked me out. I'm loving where the story is going and I can't wait to work on it again.

Here's the art I've been working on!

 This is a sketch I started working on. As you can see, I haven't gone much further into it yet. I've seen a lot of people doing "my art from 10 years ago". Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of mine from 10 years ago, so I grabbed the one in the corner. It was my first digital art picture from 6 years ago. It was terrible and at the time, the tools I had were very substandard. Trying to use them was more frustrating than anything else and that was the best I could manage. This new picture is still just a sketch, but its already surpassing the old art. Heck I haven't even added in fingers to the hands yet, making her look like a lobster hybrid, though I suppose at least I have marked out where the hands will go eventually, so that's one major improvement. I'll post an updated picture once I finish working on it. but this is where I am so far. As you can tell, I tend to start with a very sketchy body, then add in the face and neck and start figuring out where the body actually goes. I tend to work from the head down, which is why she has a fully detailed necklace, but her hands are claws and her dress is nothing more than a few folds.

These two paintings are paint pours I was working on yesterday. I'm less fond of the way the black/silver one turned out. Not that it turned out badly, its just less to my style. I like the one above much more, though I should say that, once again, that silver just overtook the other colours. Still, I love the way the green turned out. I'll be trying both colour sets again, sometime soon.

This is one I did just this morning and it's still too wet to tell exactly what it will look like when its set. The colours are slightly messed up in this picture... on canvas, it looks mostly black with just a slight touch of subtle shading and shine, which I love. This one was a complete mess to work with though. I'm trying a new binder and my first test with it was that it was way too thin. After this dries, I'll try it again, with more paint, no water, and just the extender. Still, I really like the way it looks, so I don't consider it a failure.

What do you think of my work this week? Which one is your favourite?

Editing Update

Bleh! That first week after the holidays is always difficult, no matter whether you work at a regular office or you work at home. It's so hard to get back into it, to sit down and stare at your keyboard for hours on end. Fortunately, my editor had gotten back to me so I had things to work on. 

The outlook was really good. Overall, she liked the story and mentioned especially that the second half kept her very entertained. The first half, unfortunately, had more problems. Nothing unfixable, of course. The main problem was that I hadn't put in real stakes to any of the problems that the characters were having which was making the reading dry and difficult to get through. She also pointed out that I might want to move the chapters and do a few rewrites to get the motivations to come across more. 

Here was part of my editing. As I mentioned, she suggested more than a bit of moving stuff around, so here was what I ended up with to storyboard the first half of the book.

This may seem like a lot, but this is exactly what a good editor is supposed to do. They look over your work, tell you when you've missed something obvious and how to make your work so much better. I've found that while I love my work, even my earlier version, I think that the new changes will make the story so much better and I can't wait to get it finished for all of you. 

Even better is that there is no "but" included here. Even with the complete overhaul of the first half of Lord's Curse, I'm not expecting any delays. As always, I'll keep you updated on where I am and how soon I can get the story out to you. This story is my priority for the first quarter of 2020 and I am glad that the outlook is so positive! 

This is one of the pictures I was working on this December. My Mom loved it. I didn't expect the black to take over the picture so much, but I really did like the way it turned out. It almost looks like galaxies forming in the upper left and lower right corners. 

Anyways, that's what I've been up to! I hope your first week back at work has been a bit easier for you! I'll end this off by wishing that your home will always be too small to hold all your family and friends. 

Resolutions

'Tis the time of year to think about them, at least. And its the time of year I hate the most. Mainly because I am a terrible goal setter. That said, I have a few things I do really want/need to accomplish this year. So here's my current list.

* Publish Lord's Curse. Its the big one and the one that I'm most excited about. It requires a heavy edit, then back to my editor, then a lighter edit, followed by general fixes and final proofreading by me, my editor and Grammarly. It also requires a cover, back copy written, promotional material made, formatting and ordering in physical copies before my release date.

* Finish writing Noble's Choice. I have another 40k (approx.) to write on it. The story is coming together nicely. After I finish it, I can put it in a box and ignore it for a year.

* Improve health. I am overweight, but healthy despite that (seriously, my docs run tests and it irritates them). I am also a big proponent of loving yourself at any weight and not falling into the belief that slim equals healthy. That said, I'm working out of the house, and I've noticed that my stamina, flexibility, and balance has suffered, so its time to do something about that. My goal is to start off doing a Fit Boxing workout daily on my Switch and supplementing it with a daily walk when weather permits and some strength training with our home weight sets. I know that my Switch boxing won't teach me to fight, but it will get me moving and count as cardio.

* Open an account on Fiverr. This was an option a friend mentioned I could try. I have been talking about becoming a professional editor and this year will be the year for it. I'm going to start on Fiverr to get a few books under my belt and to see what the job is like before I commit with a full website and such.

* Open an Etsy account. I am an artist and if I want to continue buying art supplies, I need to use them and see if I can make a living selling them. I'm going to start off with art pieces and then open it up into resin and jewelry making eventually.

* Read 75 books. I like making sure that I am continuing to read, no matter how busy my life is. I used to read 100 a year, but now I've lowered that to account for not having as much time on the bus to read.

* Continue to study Japanese and Spanish. By continuing, I mean, try to keep up with it. I fell out of daily practice in October/November and have had a difficult time trying to get back into it. Like with my exercising, I'm going for daily, but if I miss one or two on busy days I'm not going to sweat it.

* Clean house. By which I mean, organize my office, and go through everything on our shelves and hiding away in storage.  Moving has come up as an option, but if we move, we want a condo or apartment rather than a townhouse, which will mean cutting down on all of our excess stuff. And I really need a semi-clean office to work in. I've been avoiding it since our Yule tree is up, but I do need to get back in there and set it up eventually.

* Edit Book 3, tentatively titled Fox... mainly because I can't remember the second part of the working title. Have it edited and ready to go our for December, if possible. I'm speeding up, but I don't know when I'll be starting it, so we'll play that by ear for now.

And I think that's it for now. It's a big list which means I'll be breaking it down to a quarterly one before the first so I can work out my plan of attack on everything. It will be necessary since I'll still be putting resumes out there in the meantime.

What about you? Do you have a list? Do you wing it every year? What sort of things are on your list and why are they important to you? Let me know in the comments below.