I often find myself obsessing about certain things or situations. For example, if something is wrong with my computer or my daughter’s car, I’ll obsess about it into the wee morning hours. It’s not always a bad thing, though.
This time, it’s about book five, and I haven’t even published book one yet.
Usually, when I get consumed like this, I forgo everything else until I solve the problem. That often means I don’t get as much done throughout the day as I’d like.
However, I was able to keep the obsession in check throughout most of the day. In fact, it was probably one of my more productive days in a long time.
Still Managed to Get My “Work” Done
The most important thing is that I was able to finish everything on my list in Asana. Nonetheless, it was quite difficult not to just toss everything aside and get hammering out book two.
All I want to do is work on my books this week. But unfortunately, that doesn’t pay the bills. I have a mortgage to pay, after all.
With all of the other projects I’m working on, I just can’t sacrifice time on a whim. That’s probably one of the most difficult parts of being me…not enough time in the day.
Regardless, as long as I can keep the workflow going, being obsessed about my books isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. I just need to make sure I can keep it reeled in a bit during the day.
Racked Up More than 20,000 Steps
This is how obsessed I’ve been with book five. Every spare moment I’ve had today was spent walking around the backyard listening to a single song while processing parts of the story.
That’s because I envision a live-action music video detailing the parts I want to show. It’s how I work out a lot of plot lines in just about everything I write, actually.
Anyway, at the moment, I am sitting at 20,307 steps for the day. That’s almost my all-time record of roughly 23,000 when I explored a bit of Los Angeles in 2016.
I suppose that does great for my current challenge of walking a million steps in 80 days. But sometimes I wish I wouldn’t obsess this much about certain things.
What I can tell you, without spoiling anything, is that “scenes” of what is in book five brought a few tears to my eyes. Of course, I can say that about the entire series I’m writing.
Even if I don’t sell many copies, this is definitely the best thing I’ve ever put together.
It’s the Song That Hits Perfectly
Ever since hearing the song on a YouTube Short video, I’ve been playing it all day. It was one of those songs that simply resonated perfectly with the series I’m writing.
There was no hesitation. As soon as the full version of the song was playing, the entire book fell before me. While that is cool to a degree, it’s not helpful when I am still several books back.
Or, when I have a boatload of client and blog work to finish.
I’ve been hesitant to start book two until Kingmaker is actually published. But I am driven to make something of this series.
Every note, every verse, everything in the song fits perfectly. So, it’s safe to say that I definitely have my theme song picked out for that particular book.
Actually, I have theme songs for every book that gets me motivated to write. For instance, book two’s theme is Disturbed’s rendition of Shout.
I know it might sound weird to some, but every author has their process. Mine often centers around music and visuals. What would the book look like if it were a movie?
Maybe I should have been a writer for movies and television. Then again, I’d be on strike right now if I were.
Need to Work on the Other Books First
I need to stop myself from obsessing about book five. I still have a lot of writing to go before I get to that point. Let’s try to focus on publishing Kingmaker and then working on Fury.
The frustrating thing is that all I want to do is work on the series. Some authors seem to have issues getting motivated or can’t think of more to write in a day outside of 500 words. My issue is that I simply don’t have time available.
Or, maybe it’s 11:07 pm and I’m tired and need to go to bed.
Regardless, I won’t get to book five until I crank out the other four. Perhaps I can get obsessed about Fury and have it done before Halloween.
Actually, how I feel tonight, I could probably write the whole thing before August. That is if I had enough time to do so.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited over anything I’ve ever written.
Got a Long Way to Go…
Let’s slow ourselves down a bit. I still have the final draft of Kingmaker to polish up. In the meantime, I’ll start working on Fury so that it doesn’t take another two years to publish a book.
Did you know that I’ve been working on Kingmaker since 2021? I don’t want to finish the series when I’m in my sixties.
So much to write, so little time…