《Of Astral and Umbral》Update: Wrist Health and My Creative Process

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Hi there, everyone!

I’m still waiting for my wrist to heal at the moment, but I wanted to give everyone an update on that—and on some changes I will be making to how I post chapters for my various series.

Re: Wrist

An overly generous friend of mine bought me an ergonomic keyboard. Many authors swear by this keyboard because it allows them to write thousands of words a day without hurting themselves. There’ll be a learning curve while I learn to use it, but this this will hopefully assist me in maintaining my wrist health.

Since I have a history of RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) and carpal tunnel, it’s important I do what I can to prevent it—and I hate dictating (speech to text.)

Re: My Creative Process

For much of last year, I was releasing four chapters a week between two series. While this is great for y’all, it isn’t so great for me. It’s a lot of pressure and very little free time for me. There’s also an issue due to how my creative process works.

I’ll be making some changes, and for you to fully understand why—I need to explain how my creative process works.

A lot of authors can simply dive into whichever project they need to work on in any given day. My brain doesn’t work that way. I wake up in one of the following modes and am stuck with it until it’s reset by sleep:

Of Astral and Umbral Brain Deck of Souls Brain Mooncaller Brain (Secret Project) Brain Editing Brain I Hate Everything and Want to be a Vegetable Brain

This becomes a problem when I need to write, say, an OAU chapter but I wake up with DoS Brain turned on instead.

Using a rigid schedule stifles my process and results in me spending 4x longer or more on a chapter than I would otherwise need to. It’s the chief cause in “late” chapters. 2,000-4,000 words should only take me a few hours. However, with a deadline, and if I wake up with the “wrong” mindset, it can take me 12+ hours of work to write that single chapter.

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So, what am I going to do about this?

I need to use a process that works for me instead of against me.

Instead of forcing myself to focus on a specific story that my brain doesn’t want to focus on, I will be working with my brain’s “mode” of the day. If that means writing DoS, I’ll write DoS. If that means editing, I’ll work on editing. If I hate everything? I’ll be taking a break for that specific day.

By doing this, I can give each of my series attention every month and do them proper justice.

This should actually increase my productivity, it just means that I won’t be putting out 8 chapters per series per month.

So, here’s what you can expect.

I will no longer be working on a rigid schedule. Each series should get a minimum of 1-2 chapters a month per series.

It will likely be more than this, but there are factors like work, illness, and travel that could throw a wrench into things. For example, I will probably be going to Dragon Con with a bunch of GameLit/LitRPG authors later this year and won’t be able to write while at the convention.

Patreon will continue to get chapters earlier than Royal Road, Wattpad, and my personal sites. I’m also planning to change up my Patreon tiers to include more rewards y’all might like.

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