Themeattics

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘Round and ’round she goes, this Ouroboros of goals.

This was a bad week for writing, overall. No excuses, I’m just really quite terrible at realizing the amount of time these tasks are going to take and end up wildly underestimating and suffering for that. You’d think I’d be used to that by now, but oh, well. Eventually, we’ll get there.

Short post today as I’m re-assessing some things to try and not fall completely flat on my face, but first that requires a quick review of the past week’s plan and where it ended up.

• Residuum
  • Completely rewrite Chapter 10 in the new direction.
  • Write at least half of Chapter 11.
• Catalyst
  • Decide on whether Kahs is appearing in book one.
  • Generic outline for the first quarter. (Up through the First Plot Point)
• Project CT
  • Finish and print the PnP cards for local sessions.
  • Write the story intro for the game start.
  • Write the story leadup to battle 1.
  • Write the scripted events of battle 1.
• ThemeAttic
  • Make up post for 6.16.
  • 6.24 post.
  • Figure out the whole Substack thing.
  • Develop actual social media plans besides “Exist on site.”
  • Set up all noted social media accounts.
  • Figure out the world / design of Dweller shorts and/or CYOA stories for site.

To start from the successes, I put a not-insubstantial amount of time into social media research. It was miserable, but them’s the breaks. That allowed me to get a pretty good grasp on the plan moving forward, which is great. I didn’t end up pulling the trigger yet because I want that plan to be more tangible than it is so I’m not fumbling after a week. There’s also a couple of decent, EXTREMELY high-level “outlines” for Dweller and COYA stories for the site(s). To shed some light – Dweller stories will be shorts that I put up for early access on this/Substack and the COYA (Choose-Your-Own-Adventure) stories will be ones that I throw up a chapter or two and leave up comments / a poll for a few weeks to determine what happens next, then take that for the next few chapters. Obviously, neither of those names are set in stone, but that’s the plan.

As to the PnP – turns out designing and making things usable physically is a HUGE time sink. Did not prepare for that one adequately at all.

When it comes to the novels, it’s a combination of rust (not as bad as I’d expected, but still there) and aforementioned lack of time. Nothing cataclysmic. I’ll get it under wraps.

Oh, and yes. Before you ask, Shadow of the Erdtree did, in fact, ruin a lot of what I’d planned to make up for in time this weekend. I am a weak man, and Miyazaki is an absolute legend that cannot be denied. My bad.

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Where does that put this week? Well, obviously, a lot of retreading the same ground. I’m very clearly not going to make my goal targets for the month. It’s the last week, after all. The question becomes, am I the kind of person who is going to focus on maximizing the arbitrary number so it doesn’t look bad at the end, or will I sacrifice those easier pickings for pulling the trigger on goals that matter?

I’d like to believe it’s the latter, but I also know that I don’t have the mental wherewithal at the moment to sit down and force myself to crank out a few hours a night on revamping Residuum. I should, but I expect I won’t. Well…

Shit, the more I say it, the more I want to. Going to copypasta the rest of my writing goal list below and put some thought into this week. Imagine, if you will, I stopped clacking away mindlessly at this post for about 15 minutes just to figure out what I’m doing with my life, which leads to this list:

• Residuum
  • Ch 10
  • Ch 11
  • Ch 12
• Catalyst
  • Decide on whether Kahs is appearing in book one.
  • Generic outline for the first quarter. (Up through the First Plot Point)
• Project CT
  • Write the story intro for the game start.
  • Write the story leadup to battle 1.
  • Write the scripted events of battle 1.
• ThemeAttic
  • Fully prepare for a July 1 launch of social accounts and Substack.

And there we have it. Ambition, thy name is time. Going to make sure the family slaps me around if I’m not fully utilizing hermit time. The final sprint is here. Half the year is about to be over. I won’t let it go by like it has been. Until next week, Dwellers.