novels – Page 31 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

When will it end? When is it over? And when can I live?

Goal 1) TAP 2

My Goal: 500 WPD, 2500 WPW
Where I planned to be: 7500 words
Where I am: 5490 words
On Target or Behind: Very behind

How’s It Going:
Not well, apparently.

I’ve made some bad habits, and if I don’t get my words in the morning before work, I tend to lose all enthusiasm by the evening. Or, you know, forget completely. On top of that, spring semester starts Monday, and…

Well, if I can’t manage to hit my goal now, there’s no way I can do it with schoolwork piled on top.

So I’m gonna modify this a little. Keep the 500 word daily goal, but cut back to 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday. (That’s 2k words a week, for the severely math challenged.) Force myself to sit down and get it done FIRST THING after I wake up and have breakfast. And if I can thrash and actually hit my daily goal the vast majority of the time, I can still finish this draft by June 30th (my original deadline).

Am I still a little crazy? Yep. But if we don’t push ourselves, how will we ever grow?

_{Title is lyrics from Prayer Position by Periphery. Idk, I’m in a mood. And yes, I’m obsessed.}

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me

~~And I’m feeling good. Sorry, I had to.~~

Happy New Year! Finally… good riddance 2020. So far 2021 is looking pretty good. And it better fuckin’ stay that way.

Also late post is late…

Goal 1) TAP 2

My Goal: 500 WPD, 2500 WPW
Where I planned to be: 5000 words
Where I am: 4008 words
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
I really needed that week off, tbh. I never gave myself enough time to think all this through. Because the original idea I had for the sequel makes more sense as the third book (YES, IT’S GOING TO BE A TRILOGY, DON’T JUDGE ME), I kinda just slapped down an idea for the second without really… knowing what the hell I was doing.

And I got that tattoo on Thursday after work and said you know what? I’m gonna take another break. So that’s why I’m behind a little.

BUT. I was able to get my head straight and get some kind of direction down. Now I just gotta write the thing.

A fitting end to 2020

So, last Saturday I woke up not feeling so great, but I figured it was because I didn’t sleep well the night before due to heartburn. I was mostly just sore and achey.

Woke up Sunday feeling even more achey. I was like, is it what I think it is? Except the only symptom was body aches. I might have had a fever, but I couldn’t really tell, since we don’t have a thermometer and I tend to run hot anyway. Decided to schedule a COVID test for Monday.

Monday, still with the body aches. I called in sick to work, got my COVID test and was ready to settle in to wait.

Tuesday I call in sick again, and my boss gently advises me to see a doctor (BECAUSE I’M DUMB AND HE’S KINDA GREAT LIKE THAT). Of course, with my symptoms, they won’t let me come into the clinic, plus my primary is out all week, so I have to contact the express clinic. They can’t see me either, but they do set up a telehealth appointment. I chat with a doc for a minute and she orders a flu and strep test (she wanted to test for COVID as well, but since I’d already had it done, I turned it down) that they perform in a drive-thru type thing. About an hour later the doc calls to tell me I have strep.

Which… kinda snows me, because my throat didn’t hurt. Like, it was a little scratchy, but… I distinctly remember the last time I had strep and it was the most godawful pain I’d ever experienced in my throat. Like, I was drooling and dehydrated because it hurt so bad to swallow, and they had to pump me full of a bag of fluids at the clinic and gave me a shot of penicillin. So I’m like, cool, whatever, at least it’s not too bad and I can go back to work after a few days of antibiotics.

Only, I still gotta wait for the COVID test to come back before I can for sure return to work.

It comes in Thursday morning.

Positive.

So, yup. I’m the lucky bastard that ended up with ~~the plague~~ strep and COVID at the same time. For Christmas.

Can we please end the dumpster fire that is 2020 now?

(All that said, I took a break from writing this week. I’ve got enough buffer. And I’m feeling fine, no worries. My immune system is a beast.)

Maybe I should give these more interesting names. Like, “Sequel Time!”

Listen, I never said it was a good title. Besides, every post is timestamped anyway.

Well, last week I finally published my first book and managed to make a few sales. Thanks, y’all! And in doing so, I finished off all my goals for the year. Hooray! So, uh. Time for a new one. Now. Because I can.

GOAL 1) TAP 2 (actual title pending)

My clear target is: Write 50,000 words of sequel to The Atheist’s Prayer
My reachable deadline is: June 30, 2021
My working days are: Mon-Fri
My method of measuring progress: Word count
My end goal: Finish the thing (preferably 50,000 words)
My daily goal, and number of available days: Write 500 words, 5 days a week. So 2500 words a week.
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: To further my name as an author and hopefully sell more books.

Am I completely insane? The thought has crossed my mind. Can I possibly keep up with this kind of schedule, even during my final semester of school? I don’t know. But we’re gonna find out real quick. If I can, I might be able to revise it by the end of next year, and maybe turn this out in 2022.

That may sound like a long wait for a sequel, but by my track record, this would be lightning fast.

Aaaaaaand I already started on this, soooo…

My Goal: 500 WPD, 2500 WPW
Where I planned to be: 2500 words
Where I am: 2507 words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’m already starting out on shaky ground. Which is less than ideal. But the idea is there, words are happening, and if in doubt… that’s what revision is for.

I can do this.

What about the two books you just wrote back to back? I hear someone whisper. (Spoiler alert, it me.)

They are, unfortunately for me, a completely different genre than The Atheist’s Prayer. In fact, they’re even different subgenres from each other (dystopian and post-apocalyptic sci-fi, to be exact). And according to basically every source I’ve come across, genre-mixing is bad for business. So I will be working on them at some point, but I probably won’t ever mention them again here. I’m gonna be a good boy and stick to urban fantasy here.

That being said, running two struggling businesses might be the really insane idea. So the sci-fi may take the backseat for now.

…but if any of the snippets from projects Krasnaya or Survival piqued your interest, or you’re into dystopian or post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and you want to know more about those projects, you can drop me an email at author@meilozaborowski.com and I’ll do my best to keep you in the loop.

Goal Update 12/12

Goal 1) Publish SKoS The Atheist’s Prayer

My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
Where I am: Published!!!
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I did it! I’m still kinda excited about it/nervous, but I’ve already sold a couple and had at least one person read on Kindle Unlimited. Thank you so much if it was you!

And so concludes all of my goals for this year. “What’s next?” you may be asking.

~~“Next year,” my sarcastic brain helpfully responds.~~ What’s next is a sequel. And not just one, but absolutely two at minimum. Two.

I’ve got some fun ideas to torture poor Madison and his friends with. And I will continue to blame Matt for any shenanigans that ensue. But damn if he isn’t right.