As you may have noticed (especially if you’re on the discord) I’ve been struggling to get steady/focused writing done the last month (honestly, the last few months). I’d like to take a moment to go over some of the whys and my plans to try and be better, or at least offer more realistic expectations to readers/backers.

I try to be pretty open about my health issues and how they impact my writing, especially my mood disorder. For a long time I had a fairly steady cycle of ups and downs, but I seem to have gone through a major change in my cycle (which happens every few years). I’m still not sure where things are going to settle, but I’m no longer bouncing between ups and downs with a steady baseline. I seem to be stuck in a prolonged low, and getting steady writing done in lows is always hard.

Mental health issues are a reason, but never an excuse. To be my best self as a writer I need to try my hardest to be self-aware of my limitations and work within them. I’ve at times struggled with that thanks to the ups and downs of the mood disorder, and sometimes I let my hopes lead to promising more than I can promise.

I’ve learned a lot about what leads to the most things being written over the last few years, although once again thanks to my mood disorder sometimes I have to learn the same lessons a few times. One thing I’ve learned is too many projects lead to few of them getting far, and that I’m not super good at mixing different genres/styles of stories.

I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing genre burnout and over the last few years have gotten into a pretty reliable flow of Fantasy in the summer and Superheroine with a little bit of Sci-Fi in the fall/winter. I think that’s something that will continue to be reliable and that anyone who has been hanging around for more than a year or so knows what to expect.

Looking back on the last couple of years I can see that, as much as I WANT to, I shouldn’t be trying to mix different kinds of writing formats. I love the interactive CHP stories, but they take a lot of work/time to get finished and it is really something I shouldn’t be trying to work on unless I’m 100% focused on one of those books. Trying to have one of those as a side project while I work on other stuff (like I’ve been trying to do the last month or so) does NOT work for me. As much as I want to be able to bounce between that kind of story and a more traditional one I just can’t. I’m going to ask you all to gently remind me of that should I try again.

The other two kinds of writing formats I work in are traditional, single-story narratives written without anyone else’s input and poll-driven stories. I’m starting to think that the public poll-driven stories, as much as I love them, only really work for the Fantasy stuff. I have had WAY more creative success with writing stories that way but instead of having them be public stories working with a single backer via Patreon. It scratches the same creative itch but leads to a MUCH more focused story that feels more likely to either get finished or at least find a semi-satisfying stopping point with the hopes of being picked up later on.

With my move away from aiming to get stuff done to be published as ebooks and focusing more on publishing things for free I’ve been finding those backer-driven stories the best fit. Right now I’ve got three of those going on and I plan on continuing them till they are either done or I hit that genre burnout near springtime and need to shift to Fantasy stuff. With my writing output being so low I think trying to limit myself to those three projects, with maybe one other project mixed in, is the most realistic thing for now.

That means I probably won’t get a spooky season story done this year. If I DO take a swing as it gets closer to Halloween and the mood is stronger my plan is to take some of the stuff that got written for the abandoned CHP stories posted on the discord and try and turn some of that content into stand-alone stories. There are a couple of things from the Halloween Carnival story that wouldn’t take much work to turn into a story, and I could take what was done for the hypnotist story and fold it into a stand-alone story that would fit well with those. No promises, but if I do anything it will be that.

The Kero Girl story is nearing its end. I’d like to keep a lesbian story in my rotation, it’s a good creative palette cleanser especially when other stories are leaning heavily into misogyny and noncon kinks. My plan is to replace it with Superheroines of Sapphica City. When Kero Girl is done I’ll start re-reading/re-editing it and posting it chapter by chapter for free then when I get caught up continue it till spring.

There are big plans for the Lady Luna story and even with it being my “focused” story I’m working on the most I don’t see that being something that nears an ending anytime soon. The other backer-driven story is just starting and probably has a long way to go as well.

I will probably end up doing something for xmas season, but I’m not putting much thought into that till we get closer. Beyond that I would like to do something sci-fi, specifically with the unfinished Zanthippe Space Cop story. Trying to do an open-ended ended poll driven story based on the setting/character didn’t really work for me. Over the next couple of months I’ll be thinking about the best way to mine the content in the book and turn it into something else. It would be nice to try and finish the CHP book one day, but since that would require my full focus for at least a few months I just don’t see that happening. I think trying to find a way to pull bits out and turn them into stand-alone shorts would be more realistic.

The big takeaway for this next month: I’ll be keeping my focus on the three backer-driven stories I’m working on, with a small chance of a spooky season short using content I wrote for the abandoned CHP stories I worked on over the last month or so.