There were a lot of cogs turning in the background this week. I’m still working on creating a good flow for regular content while trying to publish my next book. And so far, the plan looks promising. But as I’ve said many times before, a good plan means nothing without action to back it.

You can spend hours grinding over schedules, goals, and plans to come up with something truly amazing. However, all of that time is wasted if you don’t put in the effort to make those things come to fruition.

In other words, I need to get off my ass and make some things happen if I want all of the goodness that comes with success.

Setting Up Videos 5 Days Per Week?

I’m going over the schedule to see if it’s at all possible to upload five videos per week for the next five weeks. And since I started shifting more of my attention to WriterSanctuary, it looks as though it might be doable without sacrificing too much.

So, why am I considering five videos per week for the next month and change?

• Running an experiment regarding video ideas and sources for TubeArcanum.com
• Want to know if a constant flow of videos matters to YouTube’s algorithm
• I need the watch time for the channel
• I make more money from YouTube than any other venue except for content clients

I know, there are times when it feels like I am a glutton for punishment. However, it does feel like some of the dust is starting to settle around here. I might actually be able to stick with the plans this time around.

Yeah, I’ve said that before.

It would be nice to make more than $50 per month from YouTube, though.

Despair is Coming Back Soon!

The rescheduling of my tasks also gives me time to get back to working on Despair, the audiobook I was producing on YouTube and Wattpad. The closer I get done writing Fury, the more pronounced Despair becomes. You’ll have to read the Witcham series and Despair to understand why.

Anyway, I plan on rewriting and re-recording the episodes. I’ve come a long way in my skills since I started the book, and I would love to put out something everyone can enjoy without it feeling somewhat cringy.

I also plan on making each episode about 2,000 words or so. This means the videos might be around 12 to 15 minutes long as opposed to the eight minutes in the past.

So, when will I be jumping back into Despair? Soon, actually. I hope to get back to the planning phase next week and then use a two-hour block of time on Thursday and Friday to produce the video. It takes about four to five hours to record, edit, add sound effects, and publish a single episode. So, I want to give myself enough time.

As soon as the new episodes go up, I’ll announce them on both this blog and WriterSanctuary.

Still Waiting for Feedback On Shadows

I’m still waiting on the feedback from the beta readers for Shadows of Atlantic City. I’m not overly upset that it’s taking so long as I am still working on the book cover anyway. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’ll get published this month.

I would like to wrap everything up for Shadows as soon as I can. I am attending Read Between the Stars again in October and would love to bring Fury along to sell books one and two of the Witcham series. And since it takes Amazon about a month to ship out 60 books, my time is ticking away rapidly.

The first draft of Fury is almost done anyway, but I have a feeling I might have to restructure the book. I’m afraid there might be too much going on, and I don’t want to confuse my readers. But I won’t know that until the beta readers have a crack at the manuscript.

Nonetheless, I would love to wrap up Shadows as soon as possible.

Continued Work on the Game Module

I was able to squeeze in a bit more time to work on the Neverwinter Nights module for the Witcham series. As I brought up before, I would love to make games that happen in between the books to connect the stories.

The games themselves will work as standalone titles, meaning you don’t have to read the books to understand what’s going on. However, they will be laced with Easter eggs and hints as to what’s going to happen in the next book.

Personally, I’d love to make the games out of something more current, but that would mean learning a new piece of software. As it stands, I really don’t have time to do that while trying to publish books, blog posts, YouTube videos, and going back to school in August (hopefully).

I know Neverwinter’s Aurora toolset and can make a decent module.

Anywho, the game is coming along nicely and I love writing the dialogue and questlines. Perhaps one of these days, I’ll have enough money set aside to hire some help to use something like Unity or Unreal to make the game. Then, I could sell it on Steam and make a few extra bucks.

But, as I said in the past, let’s not put the cart in front of the horse. I have a long way to go before I can do something like that.

It’s All About Time Management

The key to getting all of my ambitions completed is time management. However, it encompasses more than just being able to follow my schedule. I have a tendency to do things out of order or to add a new task in the middle of the day that has no bearing on anything I’m trying to accomplish.

A lot of the time, this behavior derails my weekly goals. So, it’s not just making sure I get time to accomplish my tasks. I’m also making sure I’m doing the tasks I set up in the first place. Anything extra can be done at a later date.

Yes, there are things in my life that suck a lot of my time and vastly important things I need to address. It’s insane just how much chaos I can absorb in any given week. Nonetheless, I often get in my own way and sideline a lot of my plans that would have contributed to some great things.

If I can keep myself from adding new tasks and focus on the ones I have for the day, everything should be completed in a timely manner. And ever since I started planning out the future of WriterSanctuary in Mindomo (mind mapping app), I’ve been more focused on getting things done.

I have a clear outline of what I want from WriterSanctuary and my writing. There are even segments that have requirements before I add new tasks to my plate. It’s been extremely helpful to curb my enthusiasm for adding more projects before completing the current ones.

I suppose we’ll have to see just how effective mind mapping is in this case. But at the moment, things are progressing nicely.

May Is Gonna Be Close

The initial goal was to make May my best month to date for both word count and time management. However, I spent the first half of it dealing with a sick cat, my daughter’s graduation, and a slew of personal situations that needed addressing. Still, I’m not too far off from having an exceptionally good month.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a lot of awesome moments in May. I’m excited to start school at the University of Colorado (hopefully), my cat doesn’t have cancer, I was accepted to join authors at Read Between the Stars, and I’ve met some great authors during the interviews thus far.

Despite not getting a lot of my projects done, I’d have to say that May has still been a pretty great month.

I’m still going to try to make it the best yet. So, I won’t be overly disappointed if it doesn’t work out that way. There is still a lot of great things to come, and I am truly excited about the near future.