May in Review
Writing
I did some of this! I wrote another 10,500 words for Frost, and about 6,000 words of The Princess, Her Dragon, and Their Prince, which is now up to 14,500 words total.
The Business of Writing
While I didn't do the official launch stuff for Demon's Lure until the beginning of June, it was uploaded to the various e-tailers at the end of May. I also solicited ARC readers and sent advance copies to a handful of people.
I didn't feel much like writing in May, so I finished the initial edits for Frost instead.
I did some editing on Angel's Sigil, but didn't finish it.
I poked at my notes for The Twilight Etherium a little, but I still don't have an outline for it.
Media Consumption
I played a new-to-me single player computer game! For the first time in ages. It was "Regency Solitaire", which turned out to be cutscenes about a Regency love story framing gameplay of a solitaire variant. The solitaire variant involved enough skill to make the gameplay interesting to me.
I also read some books, one webcomic archive, and listened to some podcasts, but I've already written entries about those. Except for Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet, which I still have to post about.
Other
Lut started a new form of chemo, daratumumab. This one is weekly and via IV. It's been pretty time-intensive. The first dose was supposed to take 9 hours to administer, and ended up taking 20 because Lut reacted badly when they tried to increase the rate on the IV. But "sometimes the first dose takes a long time because you have a bad reaction to it" is an uncommon but anticipated problem (I think it affects about 20% of patients? Don't quote me on that.) The second week was still an all-day process, where we arrived at 8:30 and left the clinic at 6PM. The third week was 8-ish to 3:30. The fourth dose is tomorrow, and is again supposed to be quicker, so we'll see. Lut hasn't had any bad reactions to the administration of it since the first week. His oncologist picked this drug because it only targets the cancer, and therefore Lut's low blood counts are continuing to recover on it, instead of being suppressed by the chemo as with some other drugs.
We're hoping Lut will be eligible to get a port at some point. His low platelet counts make him a bad candidate for the procedure now, but they're going up, so hopefully. It'd be good, because Lut's low blood counts also make finding a vein to put an IV in very challenging, and daratumumab is IV-administered.
No severe side effects from the chemo, but Lut's been having some moderate problems. Insomnia has been especially bad; he's been spending a lot of time trying to sleep and failing. Also some nausea/stomach pain problems, which he's been managing via a prescription anti-nausea drug. Overall, not doing too badly. He got back into WoW and he's been reading more. We've gone to the library a few times to restock on books. ♥
Goals for coming month
Get Lut to chemo appts and other doctor stuff as necessary
Finish editing Angel's Sigil (the re-titled sequel to Demon's Lure)
Write some more of The Princess, Her Dragon, and Their Prince
Optional things to work on if I feel like it
Final edits for Frost
Read some more books
Outline/notes for The Twilight Etherium or some other new book.
I finished the Angel's Sigil edits this morning, so that one's a gimme. Logically, I should put down a word count goal for Princess, probably 40,000-ish words, but I'm not because ... I don't want to.
I am on track to release four books in 2018, even if all I do in the rest of the year is finish final edits for Frost. Four books in one year is enough. In an ideal world, I would write another three drafts this year too, so that I have three drafts to edit/release in 2019, which is how I started out this year. If they average 100,000 words each, that means I need to write about 40,000 words per month. My average word count so far this year is 24,500. I've been mostly editing this year, so switching gears to mostly writing makes sense and 40,000 words per month is an achievable goal. When I'm focused on writing, it's common for me to write more than 50,000 words in a month.
But it sounds exhausting to make that an actual goal month after month after month. July is Camp Nanowrimo, so that'll be as good an excuse as any to buckle down on writing. For June, I want to feel like I can rest on my laurels and coast if I want to. In the last five months, I've written one draft, edited two books, done initial edits on a third, and released two books. It may be that it's time for me to stop telling myself "if you slow down for a few months it means YOU WILL NEVER FINISH ANYTHING AGAIN." If I only finish one more book this year, that will still be plenty.
The other factor at play is that in May, I wrote 16,500 words, got ready for the release of one book, finished initial edits on another, and did some editing on a third. My feeling about this is "I was slacking". Like REALLY ME? Is this what slacking looks like now. Please stop. Maybe I need a break to read some more books and recharge. I certainly don't need to set the goal posts WAY OUT THERE.
This entry was originally posted at https://rowyn.dreamwidth.org/629954.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I did some of this! I wrote another 10,500 words for Frost, and about 6,000 words of The Princess, Her Dragon, and Their Prince, which is now up to 14,500 words total.
The Business of Writing
While I didn't do the official launch stuff for Demon's Lure until the beginning of June, it was uploaded to the various e-tailers at the end of May. I also solicited ARC readers and sent advance copies to a handful of people.
I didn't feel much like writing in May, so I finished the initial edits for Frost instead.
I did some editing on Angel's Sigil, but didn't finish it.
I poked at my notes for The Twilight Etherium a little, but I still don't have an outline for it.
Media Consumption
I played a new-to-me single player computer game! For the first time in ages. It was "Regency Solitaire", which turned out to be cutscenes about a Regency love story framing gameplay of a solitaire variant. The solitaire variant involved enough skill to make the gameplay interesting to me.
I also read some books, one webcomic archive, and listened to some podcasts, but I've already written entries about those. Except for Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet, which I still have to post about.
Other
Lut started a new form of chemo, daratumumab. This one is weekly and via IV. It's been pretty time-intensive. The first dose was supposed to take 9 hours to administer, and ended up taking 20 because Lut reacted badly when they tried to increase the rate on the IV. But "sometimes the first dose takes a long time because you have a bad reaction to it" is an uncommon but anticipated problem (I think it affects about 20% of patients? Don't quote me on that.) The second week was still an all-day process, where we arrived at 8:30 and left the clinic at 6PM. The third week was 8-ish to 3:30. The fourth dose is tomorrow, and is again supposed to be quicker, so we'll see. Lut hasn't had any bad reactions to the administration of it since the first week. His oncologist picked this drug because it only targets the cancer, and therefore Lut's low blood counts are continuing to recover on it, instead of being suppressed by the chemo as with some other drugs.
We're hoping Lut will be eligible to get a port at some point. His low platelet counts make him a bad candidate for the procedure now, but they're going up, so hopefully. It'd be good, because Lut's low blood counts also make finding a vein to put an IV in very challenging, and daratumumab is IV-administered.
No severe side effects from the chemo, but Lut's been having some moderate problems. Insomnia has been especially bad; he's been spending a lot of time trying to sleep and failing. Also some nausea/stomach pain problems, which he's been managing via a prescription anti-nausea drug. Overall, not doing too badly. He got back into WoW and he's been reading more. We've gone to the library a few times to restock on books. ♥
Goals for coming month
Get Lut to chemo appts and other doctor stuff as necessary
Finish editing Angel's Sigil (the re-titled sequel to Demon's Lure)
Write some more of The Princess, Her Dragon, and Their Prince
Optional things to work on if I feel like it
Final edits for Frost
Read some more books
Outline/notes for The Twilight Etherium or some other new book.
I finished the Angel's Sigil edits this morning, so that one's a gimme. Logically, I should put down a word count goal for Princess, probably 40,000-ish words, but I'm not because ... I don't want to.
I am on track to release four books in 2018, even if all I do in the rest of the year is finish final edits for Frost. Four books in one year is enough. In an ideal world, I would write another three drafts this year too, so that I have three drafts to edit/release in 2019, which is how I started out this year. If they average 100,000 words each, that means I need to write about 40,000 words per month. My average word count so far this year is 24,500. I've been mostly editing this year, so switching gears to mostly writing makes sense and 40,000 words per month is an achievable goal. When I'm focused on writing, it's common for me to write more than 50,000 words in a month.
But it sounds exhausting to make that an actual goal month after month after month. July is Camp Nanowrimo, so that'll be as good an excuse as any to buckle down on writing. For June, I want to feel like I can rest on my laurels and coast if I want to. In the last five months, I've written one draft, edited two books, done initial edits on a third, and released two books. It may be that it's time for me to stop telling myself "if you slow down for a few months it means YOU WILL NEVER FINISH ANYTHING AGAIN." If I only finish one more book this year, that will still be plenty.
The other factor at play is that in May, I wrote 16,500 words, got ready for the release of one book, finished initial edits on another, and did some editing on a third. My feeling about this is "I was slacking". Like REALLY ME? Is this what slacking looks like now. Please stop. Maybe I need a break to read some more books and recharge. I certainly don't need to set the goal posts WAY OUT THERE.
This entry was originally posted at https://rowyn.dreamwidth.org/629954.html. Please comment there using OpenID.