February 2025 Newsletter and Other Updates

It's been a while since I updated this blog, so you can count this as a February 2025 writing update. 

Newsletter Shenanigans 

The newsletter for February didn't go out as planned. What with Ramadan prep, some health issues, LifeTM, and other responsibilities, I didn't get the chance to prepare the goodies that I wanted to send out with last month's newsletter. In fact, I didn't even get the chance to properly round out Scareuary! 

You may already be aware, but the two goodies for this past month's newsletter were going to be a PDF version of all of the activities and events of this year's Scareuary, and a fancy character profiles booklet for The City of Light. I might share the Scareuary PDF some other time, but for now I want to move forward.

I'm hoping I'll be back on track with this month's newsletter, and that there will be some fun goodies to share soon. On my planner I have the reader goodie set out as Chapter 1 of The City of Light, so maybe possibly that's what you'll find in your inbox at the end of this month. If you're not already signed up, join here.

Fantasy Series Updates: Ironing Out the Plot Points

Aside from that, I have been sneaking some minutes here and there to work on my fantasy series, which has been my focus in the past handful of days. I have two new fantasy journals: one for writing scenes and snippets and taking notes, and another that serves as an encyclopaedia for the characters and worldbuilding. 

Currently, I'm re-creating a Major Plot document which encompasses the events of all the books, and which also includes events that took place prior to the books and which set the events of the books in motion. It's a very long list. As of my writing this, I have a list of over 60 plot points, and I'm about two books in. The series, so far, as I have it planned, it at least about 7 books long, but I've taken the liberty of also setting up a couple of off-shoots which tie back into the main plot, so we're talking easily more than that. 

The reason I'm doing this is because I have a feeling that I'm going to need to iron the whole story line (and timeline) out before I can confidently complete any of these books, and given that I'm currently working on finishing the third book in the series (I refer to it online as The City of Light), it's crucial that I make sure the timeline and the set of events make sense. I know that if there ever was a plot hole or other issue of consistency, I'd be very unlikely to actually go back and re-write or fix anything that I'd already published. So: prevention rather than cure.

There's also the fact that I've changed major parts of the story. A character that I kill off at the start of the book in The Pirates of Sissa now survives until the end and she plays a crucial role in the story. A character who was going to become an official traitor to the crown in The City of Light is no longer going down that path in the revamped plot. A character who got killed in an earlier draft of The Pirates of Sissa didn't get killed in the plot revamp, only for me to ultimately decide him dying was a more powerful outcome to that particular event. And because I tend to enjoy dialogue and political discussions among my characters, I've noticed my stories don't have a lot of action and tension, so I went back and added a lot more of that, which will also have consequences throughout the plot. 

It's all ripple effects, and I don't want to just go through with everything blindly and notice later on down the line that, Oops, this plot line only works if X is still alive and they died back in Book 3!, or something similar. 

I've also been working on some character portraits to release for The City of Light but they're really coming out odd and I'm not too sure if I like this new artistic approach I'm taking at all. I might share those anyway, because I'm tight on time and I don't want to take longer on the artistic part than I have to, but I also might just decide to share character profiles without any portraits or art. 

Adjusting: Online Platform as Unsustainable Time Sink

In the meantime, I am currently trying to figure out an approach to being online that's more sustainable for me. I'm not sure what that will be yet - maybe the most sustainable thing is just not to be on social media, for example - but once I figure that out, I'll be giving it a go and seeing where it takes me. 

I've had to do some hard reflection and I've come to the realization that I honestly haven't been putting as much into my writing as I should have and as a result I've wasted a lot of time. I've done a lot of work, but the results aren't really showing the sheer amount of work - hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours - that I have poured into my writing. And that's because a lot of time is spent on my online "platform" - my social media, my blog, my podcast, etc. - with very little return. Maybe it's the kind of work, then, that's just not working out. 

So, there's some adjustment that I feel has to be made there, and I hope that I can find a solution or a strategy that will take me a little further. Already, I've been a lot stricter with myself with my work process, but there are still a couple of leaks somewhere on this ship. 

If you've had a similar experience, reach out and let me know how you dealt with it and got yourself back on track. If you're going through the same thing and still struggle with it, it's okay - you're definitely not alone.

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