Make a Plan, Work the Plan!
Hey Friends,
As Summer 2022 hot and humid presence draws closer to our side of this spinning rock, I found myself thinking about my journey both personally and creatively. I’m someone who believes in setting goals, big and small, and working to achieve them. However, as a creative, one of the biggest problems I face is the influx of too many ideas. I often work passionately on one project, only to realize that I have faltered on another. This causes a kind of sluggish progress across everything I’m trying to produce, which devolves into more extended periods of silence from me as I work. Earlier this year, I decided to address this issue with the ultimate weapon in my arsenal of creativity, a plan!
As it stands, I have several projects in various stages of development. The most prominent ones are the following:
1. Edit and rewrite the rough drafts of 2 manuscripts (novels) that I have already completed.
2. Continue to produce my two current podcasts, Theatre of Heels and Stories by the Fire.
3. Finish my current manuscript for the sequel to Theatre of Heels
4. Produce Regular Artwork
5. Edit and Revise the Manuscript for my Podcast, the Sky’s Embrace.
So first things first. I currently have two completed manuscripts that need to be edited. One is a multi-POV (Multiple Point-of-View) urban fantasy with a word count north of 245,000 words, or over 900 hundred pages. That beast took the better part of 3 years to complete the first draft. I finished the second manuscript, a horror/dystopian novel, in under a year. That one was a modest 90,000 words or three hundred plus pages. To find out more about these projects, please check out my Patreon here.
I’ve dedicated Mondays and Thursdays of my week to broadcast two separate podcasts. On Moody Mondays, as I like to call them, I drop a new episode of the dark, campfire-story-like podcast Stories by the Fire. Currently, I have two short stories on it, with a third, longer story arc of my first novel, Leaves and Shadows. So far, I have shared twenty-two episodes of this story. As of now, I should complete this tale by mid-June. After which, I will take a month-long break to work on the next bit of content for Stories by the Fire. Currently, I have two tales slated to share with you on this broadcast. The first is an original Werewolf story I wrote. After which, I will take the next fifteen weeks to share my zombie, first responder, and medical thriller, Saving the Dead! Which I cannot wait to bring to life in the podcast verse!
On Theatre Thursdays, I share my superhero podcast Theatre of Heels. These tales follow Erica Belfry, a gadgeteer superhero fangirl who inadvertently found herself behind the scene of the superhero world and discovered its terrible secret. Every hero and villain, or heel as they are known, work for the same organization called the Board. The Board orchestrates the hero and heels battles for the public to unwittingly consume. What’s worse, now Erica is forced to participate as the wanted criminal Princess Crash!
I love bringing this tale to the world every week! It’s been a ton of fun to produce. I am planning on making more art for it as the story goes on to add a visual element to this fun coming-of-age superhero story. However, in just under five months, we will reach the conclusion of the first novel’s content. That is why I’m diligently working on writing the sequel to Theatre of Heels, so that it continues on without a hiatus.
If you read my story Theatre of Heels, available here, you may like to know that the sequel will occur just after the events at the end of the first book. I’m also excited to report that I will add a new POV from Spearhawk to this tale. I have so many fun new ideas for this story that I can’t wait to reveal.
After much deliberation, I have come to the difficult decision that I must put my story and podcast, the Sky’s Embrace, on hiatus. I have written a rough draft of this story, and I hope to edit it as I went, but it became clear that it will need far more love and revisions before it is entirely ready to be shared with the world at large. Don’t worry, the Sky’s Embrace isn’t going anywhere. It just needs me to give it some proper attention before we set sail with the crew of the Maiden’s Arrow. Thank you for indulging me. I promise you it will be worth the wait.
The final bit of the plan that I like to share is that I’m planning on elevating my engagement on this website. Starting with this post, I plan on sharing regular content with you faithful readers. I will begin by sharing frequent posts on all previous podcasts. This content will include a link to them on Spotify and the written chapters as well. Who knows, if time allows, I might even include some artwork! After I get this website caught up, I will post regularly on at least the Mondays and Thursdays of my podcast schedule. By the time I get everything up to date, I am hopeful that I will have more news to share.
As I always, I’m grateful for your continued support, and I can’t wait to share the things to come.
Until next time, stay awesome!
Chris
