Since I'm not sleeping ever again, apparently, I figured I'd start one of these threads to help keep myself on track over the next few weeks. I've been working on this book siiiince... February? March? Something like that, though I only just got the chance to carve out dedicated time for it since I'm between romance releases. It's a full immersion fantasy LitRPG type story in which a somewhat socially awkward guy who prefers going it solo has to learn to trust other people since it's literally part of the game mechanics. I'm bound and determined to get this thing out August 28th, even if it means some super grindy days. It's at 70k right now and will probably end up somewhere around 100k before I'm done with it. Here's the plan for the rest of the month: August 1-14: Write 4k new words per day M-F, 1 chapter edited (with all the game mechanics sorted) per day, 1 chapter posted to RRL per day August 10: Have cover designer apply typography to cover illustration August 15-17: Finish any editing, double check my systems and math, 3 chapters posted to RRL per day until all are up August 20-24: Let the editor have at it August 21: Take down all but 10% from RRL, maybe put up a pre-order at Amazon August 24-27: Apply edits and any more revisions that are needed, format in Vellum, send off to any ARCs, upload print version to CreateSpace August 28: Upload final ebook to KDP and hit publish August 28-31: Launch week event I submitted chapter 1 to RRL earlier. Didn't realize it would have to be approved by an actual person, so hoping it doesn't take as long as it says it can take. It's one of four going up today, as I want to get the story fully into the game world ASAP. My plan was to space them out. One around midnight, one in the AM, one in the afternoon, and the last before going to bed. We'll see how that works out with the approval process. I also wrote the blurb (could use some fine-tuning, but it's sufficient for RRL) and actually applied some formulas to XP gain and damage numbers, which is more mathing than I've done since college and kinda made me want to die, but now that the system is set up it should just be a matter of plugging things into a spreadsheet.
Oof, today was a bit of a day. Haven't been sleeping well, which meant a late start while already feeling bad. Got the 4k words I needed written, and RRL approved the book this morning so I got chapters 1-4 up as planned and edited the behemoth that was ch5 before formatting and scheduling for publication on RRL tomorrow morning. I can feel the stress of a close deadline starting to get to me, but I just need to keep doing what I'm supposed to be doing and I'll meet it fine.
Only got 2k done today for personal reasons, but I accomplished what I set out to do and finished the chapter. Will give me the opportunity to start fresh tomorrow and end the week in a good place. Aside from that, got another chapter edited, got one scheduled to post to RRL tomorrow. Story's doing... okay there I think? Consistency has helped. Not expecting it to make a huge difference, but every little bit helps.
Been a rough handful of days because of some drama going on in my friend circle. Book is officially over 80k now, which was the original target for it lol. I expect it to be between 100 and 110 when I finish. Posting daily to Royal Road has been going well. Not a massive following, but some consistent readers. I'm not sure what to do to increase readership, or if it matters. Maybe it'll pick up next week when I start putting out 3 chapters a day. I am second-guessing just how I want the real world to be included in this story. My favorite LitRPG are fully immersive. The real world is a distant memory, if it existed at all. Admittedly it then just becomes fantasy with numbers, lol, but it's my preference. Right now the MC essentially goes into a virtual world, and with the relationships he's building in that world (with people who only exist in said world), to me it would seem cheap and unsatisfying for him to go back to the real world later. So I'm tossing ideas around for that. Need to figure it out soon so I can rewrite the things that need to be rewritten.
Oof, this weekend was rough. I usually take weekends off, but I just had too much to do to finish on time. Did enough editing to catch up, and I now have 4.5 chapters to write over this next week. Shouldn't be too bad, though I'm looking forward to Friday. Going to take a 3 day weekend to recharge before I start on some short stories I promised for my main penname. Both are due by the end of August haha. Oops. Still on track for an August 28th release of Hunter's Bond, though, so all is well.
Didn't get a chance to post this earlier since it's been a crazy week, but I finished writing and self-editing Thursday night. It's going to the editor Monday and I'll be taking that week to figure out the formatting I want and to sort out some things I want to add. Hoping the editor gets it back early, otherwise I have three days to make changes hahaha. I sent an email to Ramon earlier in the week. He was very nice and is going to mention the book as an upcoming release and do a review. He also said he'd mention the launch event, which I'm stoked about!
