One month into the new year, and things are running smoothly. As I anticipated, my workload has decreased a lot, and I’m using my extra time to work on GORR.
November: 8.52 hours. This was eked out in little tiny chunks when I could find the time.
December: 29.94 hours. Halfway through, my workload decreased.
January: 58.88 hours.
These are hours spent actively working. Not staring into space, making tea, or browsing the internet. Not any of the things we get paid for at our day job that aren’t actual work. I’ve found that there’s only so much active work in me, in a day. My brain and creativity get burnt out. My ability to focus and create every day is finite. If I’m lucky, and have caffeine, and everything goes well, I can get about 4 or 5 hours of work in, during an 8-9 hour “workday.” Which, of course, is only possible on a weekend, since I have a day job. Weekdays, I get a couple hours, max.
My goal is to average 2.5 hours of real work (on the book) per day. And it’s hard to hit that, sometimes. I estimate I’ve got a couple hundred hours of work left, maybe more, before the book is available for purchase. I’ve written a blog post about what it takes to produce a book, if you’re curious about what I’m spending these hours on.
In related news, here’s something visual I’ve been working on today. It’s an extremely preliminary sketch of GORR’s cover. Basically, I’m just trying to figure out sizing/layout, etc. The end product is not going to be nearly so messy, I promise. And yes, I know she has six weird-looking fingers.
I’m excited about Gods of Rust and Rot. I think it’s turning out even better than Gods of Blood and Bone, and you guys are going to love it. I’ll be back again soon with more of the same type of updates, just keeping everyone abreast of the progress.
