Writing Report S2 #21: Winding Up

Hey guys,

It's been a long, long time since I last did one of these, but it's all for a good reason. I'm just going to demarcate this change of circumstance by making this writing report the start of 'season 2' of my Writing Report series. All will be explained below, but for now, onto business:

This Writing Report is for 1st November 2016 and 2nd November 2016. Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

As you all know, The Keeper of Pulau Purba has been out for a few weeks. It has seen over 1000 downloads and some sales and library reads on Amazon since. With that novel installed in its rightful place in the never-ending library of the Amazonian concrete jungle, my attention could turn elsewhere.

For now, I'm in a transitional phase. I will still need to edit the second half of the novel, from Chapter 29 to 60, and in addition to that, I will be working on a new book. A collection of short stories, with the main genre being horror, but some of the stories might have secondary genres, such as sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, you name it. I've thought long and hard about it, and I've decided that I probably can't release the stories one by one - It'd be too costly, too time consuming, and it'd be a logistical nightmare added to the fact that I need to work on subsequent stories.

Anyway, with this in mind, I wrote about 300 words for the collection. Before Tuesday, I'd been doing token amounts of editing work as I read through my stories to regain the feel of them.

I plan to pick up speed quickly, just like before. On Wednesday, I wrote another 300 or 400. In addition to that, I edited 2 chapters of The Keeper of Pulau Purba. Assuming that my proofreader's speed isn't a limiting factor, it will take only 15 days to finish up with TKoPP.

But real life isn't made up of theories. I'll no doubt catch up with my proofreader, so on some days, I will concentrate on writing alone. It feels so refreshing! Working on new stuff!

One last thing. I've read stories of Amazon's horrific work conditions. I've even learnt a thing or two about it. Their principles are correct, but the execution horribly flawed - They'd forgotten everything about human rights and the benefits of retaining talent altogether. I plan to incorporate some of their principles into my writing. Specifically, the professionalism aspect of it, the drive for achievement. But I'm tempering it with common sense and self-preservation. I won't be driving myself into the ground, literally and metaphorically.