Final Lap

Update 39 Feb 28- March 6 2022

It’s so close. I can see the finish line, just one more lap and then the sprint to the end. It’s getting so close.

After so many weeks, two restarts, massive revisions, total overhauls of the outline on five occasions that necessitated those two restarts, I am finally reaching the end.

This was a good week for writing for me. Let’s just get right into it.

Words

I only blew by my weekly goal by a little bit, but every word is closer to the end. I got in three sessions, each one hammering out a whole chapter. For a total of 9389 total words for the week.

The novel is sitting at 182,086 total words. I could see the end in the next two weeks. That could be easily doable. As long as too many other issues don’t arise.

Besides getting in the words I also managed to have some other fun on the side. I mentioned in last week’s post that I wanted to get back into art and also painting minis. And I did a little of both.

Hobby Time

I didn’t get in any real drawing time, but I did make some maps and design a ziggurat and sketch out some of the fights at the end of my novel. And then I sat down and built a bunch of orks and started painting them last week. It was a lot of fun to do some hobby, and also still get in my dedicated writing time.

I didn’t have to sacrifice one for the other.

I also managed to read a bunch of comics and reorganize a few sections of my office. Still worked my normal hours at work. It was all a pretty good time.

And I did it all while suffering from some weird head cold, similar to one I had last year. My head feels like it is full of fluid, my sinus is packed and it makes me often feel nauseous or dizzy if I move wrong or bend over to quickly. Despite all fo this I have managed to get everything done.

Going Forward

So, I plan on getting some mini pics in the next week or two and they’ll be on my Instagram, but I’ll also throw a few on here just for fun. I might also start talking about a gaming again. I have a ton of games I never played, some almost 20 years old (or older). I’m a fan of the SMT (Shin Megami Tensei) series. And have always wanted to play a bunch of the older games. I still have a ps2 and I’m thinking of starting Nocturne or Persona3.

Both games have a place in my heart as one of my best friends was a huge fan of these games when they first came out back in 2003, 2005 etc. And he hard sold me on playing the series. I always wanted to get them started. But then he passed away. And for a very long time, well over 15 years I have had several of these games and just couldn’t play them.

Well, I’m going to do that now. Again, I have to work it in around work, writing, art, etc. But the spring is starting to make me feel better. Once I get past this cold I will be back at it.

Finishing the Story

The three chapters I wrote this week have been a running battle. With characters on one side (half the chapters) gathering allies and trying to get to the final fight in time. The other chapters have been the rest of the group locked in that battle waiting for the allies to arrive on time.

The last chapter ended with the allies arriving on the scene. It has been a lot of fun, swinging back and forth between these two povs and playing with the tension on the story. Next week I get to start with the switch to the allies bursting in and I get to finish the fight. Spoiler the good guys win this fight (but it is only a single pawn in the greater world spanning conflict).

I’m really excited to write these chapters and they make me write faster. I enjoy my time more and I just can’t wait to hit the end, write the epilogue (which has changed up two or three times now) and then take a few weeks off.

Then I’ll start crafting the outline for the next book… and I need to get my desktop computer fixed so I can start sending out my query letters again.

Table Top Gaming

I still wish I could play Call of Cthulhu, but I have been having fun with my twice a week D&D games. My Saturday game finally split into two games. We had character creation during the previous week, and the first session this weekend. Both were a lot of fun.

During creation we were asked to make up two characters. One for now and one for when we die. I thought that was a bit annoying to make a back up character immediately. But will say that we all almost died in the very first session of the bloody game. It was a horror show of bad rolls and vicious monsters.

But we survived and I’m starting to get a feel for a new character and team dynamic. Curse of Strahd is a truly messed up game with literally a dozen different ways to start it. I’m already deeply intrigued, and also worried about how this is supposed to go.

We’ll talk more about it next week after session two.