C.L. Simchick's Blog: Thoughts & Musings

The Juice: Worth the Squeeze?

Hello there!

With the recent launch of my second novel, Attrition, I've since turned my eyes to the penultimate end of the Tomes of Pirudus series. This forward motion, while similar to how I managed the second novel, seems to have incurred some unusual side effects in my creative processes. In this post we'll dive into one of those side-endeavors and try to suss out whether or not it's worth the effort!

Now that the storylines found within the Tomes of Pirudus have been weaving and characters have found more of their personalities revealed to the reader, I have this unusual need to create artwork revolving around them. As a reader myself, I've always loved the dichotomy of my imagination against how the author intended to portray their stories. In light of this, I think some character studies are in order! This particular point is one that I struggle with, as it poses many questions. Is the time required to generate these art prints and playful sketches worth it in the long run? Will the readers appreciate or enjoy the content as I traditionally do in their position, or are they indifferent to such things? Will I regret the time spent away from writing the third novel in favor of generating art? Should I do a comic series?

As you can see, the questions easily pile up and start to become overwhelming! But the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of taking a step back from advancing the series and focusing on the generation of some additional context. The concept of a comic series or a few panels from some of my favorite scenes really sticks with me, so that may be something I dig into once I get some initial pieces out the door. Giving my narrative brain some peace and quiet for a few months may pay off in the long run as well; all the more reason to invest in a little art time for further fleshing out descriptions and overall appearances of the characters and locales found within my novels.

While the majority of this was just me babbling to myself about the choice of writing vs art generation, I think it truly has helped me dial into some of the underlying reasons why I had considered the pursuit in the first place. Taking a break from the creative writing process and recharging the proverbial batteries sounds amazing, as does taking some time to delve into another branch of the creative arts. Honestly, I can't wait to get some pieces out and have some eyes on them - I love how different people imagine things in different ways. That's the best part about being a creative: Seeing the world through the viewpoints of others, through their opinions and feedback!

Thanks for tagging along on this journey!

Expedited Writing, You Say?

Hello there!

At the time of this writing, it's been nearly a full 11 months since the release of my flagship novel - Trials of the Serpent God. Since then, I've been busy writing the sequel in a fevered rampage that I often considered to be haphazard and, sometimes, even detrimental to my health (I kid). Now that I'm on the precipice of the sequel's launch, I'm looking back to the writing process that brought me here.

Consider this: I had actually completed the first rough draft of the TotSG sequel, Attrition, in late January of this year. All things considered, that's barely ~8 months of writing. I'm sure someone would hear that and ask, "How confident are you in the quality of the content?", and that's a valid point. But here's the thing: I think I'm more confident in the sequel than I was with the original! 8 months may be a short time to churn out a novel with 60k words, but those months were some of the most focused content creation I've ever done.

And how did I manage to delegate the time needed to write so much in so little time? I haven't a clue. I did my best to plan, of course, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. When I started, I budgeted out a timeframe and planned on writing 3 pages a day. While that might not seem like a lot, you miss a couple days and you're quickly behind by a considerable margin. There were spans of a week or more where I didn't so much as touch the draft, yet others I would find myself in such an inspired state I would churn out dozens of pages over the course of a few days. Inspiration is a hell of a thing, I'll tell you that much.

Expedited Writing, as I like to call it, worked for me in this odd occasion. Fits of inspiration did wonders for retaking lost days, but I count myself lucky to have gotten such boons from time to time. Without those bouts of creative fervor, I'm sure the novel would have taken the full year that I had planned originally. If you're considering churning out a piece of literature in a timeframe beneath a year, especially one in the novel category, be mindful of the peculiarities that can interrupt a foundational plan for progress.

Tome of Pirudus, Book 2 - Attrition - comes out in the next few days! Keep your eyes peeled here on Goodreads, as well as Amazon, for its release. I'm excited!

Writing and Procrastination

Hello there!

Today I want to be different than normal. I won't batter you with nonsensical diatribe and instead we'll just dive right in to a question I ask myself all the time: Am I procrastinating too much?

Now when I refer to procrastination, I am of course referring to procrastination in the face of completing a piece of literature. Whether it comes to writing said literature, I often find myself feeling guilty over not writing for several days at a time - only to feverishly turn out dozens of pages within a few days. Is this a sustainable way to read and write? Honestly, I don't know. It's worked so far, but I'd love to hear the opinions of others.

In some ways, I believe procrastination to be healthy (in moderation). Giving oneself a respite from the mental taxation of daily life is difficult enough without then forcing creative works on top of it. Funnily enough though, the times when I'm exhausted or frustrated from daily life are often when I feel most productive in writing. I'm sure there's some psychology behind the "relaxation" factor of writing and focusing creative energy into something I can call my own, but I'm no expert there.

In other ways, procrastination feels like a blatant shirking of duties - which I guess by definition it is. The question there is: Am I duty-bound to write? Sure I have some fans and people who enjoy reading what I write, but the only driving force I can truly feel is that of my own creative energy - which is sometimes lacking. Is it truly procrastination, or am I just taking a mental break?

I'll let you decide on the validity of procrastination for yourself. Just keep in mind that procrastination isn't necessarily a bad thing if you keep it in check, and if you're really against it I'd encourage you to give it a try every once in a while.

2021: An Author Retrospective

Hey there!

It's the final week of the year. I know it, you know it, your neighbor knows it - it's that weird time of the year that everyone has varying opinions about. Personally, I have to force myself to slow my hopeful roll towards the forthcoming year and take some time to reflect on the events of the current one. It helps to organize some of the mental chaos that's built up all year long and allows me to fully embrace the cliché of "starting fresh". Since I'll be reflecting mainly on things related to writing and authoring, I'm hoping to keep this post relatively short - so bear with me!

2021 was an interesting year, all things considered. It's the year I was able to, for the first time, refer to myself as an author - albeit a self-published one. In the spirit of a true retrospective, I'll break this down into three categories: Start, Stop, and Improve.

Start allows me to identify weak areas in how I conduct myself in regards to writing. When writing Tomes of Pirudus - Book 1 (TOP1), I often found myself either writing fervently or not having the desire to write at all. The main focus that I want to start moving forward is that of, well, focus. Setting a clear roadmap for progress checks and doing a greater amount of forward planning will allow for a more cohesive storyline and ensure there's always something to be written. A supporting focus for this category is to start branching out. With my ultimate desire to have multiple book series published, I think it's wise to invest some time splashing out and exploring some other novel ideas.

Stop is a category that is truly an exercise in humility and involves making conscious efforts to excise those actions that drag you down more than they lift you up. The first, and probably greatest, thing for me to stop doing is blatant procrastination. Personally, I am guilt of blatant procrastination when it comes to writing. It took me two years to fully finish and publish TOP1 and it's something I'd like to see come to an end. By setting realistic goals and managing my expectations against the free time. have, I believe I can (at the very least) alleviate some of my procrastination and direct that energy towards writing. A supporting focus for this category goes hand-in-hand with "branching out". I need to stop feeling the fear of splashing out into something different than I am currently writing and embrace the potential that is new content.

Improve is an interesting category, and the one that I sometimes find to be the most difficult. For this past year though, especially related to writing, I find this one to be pretty simple. I need to improve my pre-publishing preparations (try saying that five times fast). Commissioning covers, running marketing, and generating some excitement over a new book is something that you learn how to plan better over time - and I've certainly learned. I've learned to budget more time for the post-creative process to ensure the book gets the love it needs to be successful on launch.

Well, there you have it. I did my best to keep it short and sweet while still getting these thoughts and musings regarding the beautiful year that was 2021 (don't read into that, it was not that great). If you have any thoughts for how 2021 went, or even your own retrospective, I'd love to hear about it!

Once again, thanks for dropping by.

On the Topic of Inspiration...

Hey there!

Thanks for dropping by on the inaugural post of my Author Blog. I'm sure you're itching to hear all about my author story and how I got to be where I am, but I think that's content better suited for future posts. For my first post though, how about a seldom-seen view into the inspiration for my flagship novel series: The Tomes of Pirudus (TOP).

I'm sure normal authors (as you will come to understand, I'm anything but normal) have a more traditional creative process when they're drafting up novel ideas and it may be the case where I eventually end up following that path, but it certainly is not the case for TOP.

So you might ask me then: What do you mean by that? Well, you're in luck because you're about to find out. Grab a beverage and take a seat while I spin you a yarn.

There was a time of my youth where my miscreant friends and I would gather at one of my besties houses and play rag-tag games of "capture the relic" and "deathmatch" in the yard. Mind you, these games were played with literal sticks and small tree branches which saw us smacking the ever-loving heck out of each other until we were all too sore to continue. Now I see that mortified look in your eye and I already know what you're going to say. I'm sure it sounds something like this:

But...why? Why would you partake in something so archaic and barbaric? Surely the potential for injury outweighed any sort of fun or friendship.

You have to keep in mind that we were a group of pre-teens at that particular juncture, and each of us grew up with various levels of RPG and fantasy content inspiring our respective childhoods. This barbaric behavior we developed in a suburban neighborhood, we realized, was actually derivative of something none of us knew even existed: LARP.

For those of you not in the know, LARP (Live Action Role-Play) is an often-ridiculed activity enjoyed by both RPG nerds and fantasy aficionados alike. Typically done in a team-based setting, participants don armor, weapons, and often times entirely separate personas to do battle amongst one another. These weapons are traditionally built specifically for LARPing and are usually made of stylized high-density foam.

So now that we've covered what LARP is, we can get back to the story. As we grew older, my friends and I quickly realized that LARP was far more fun (and safe) when we created our own weapons and armor out of foam-based templates and an exorbitant amount of duct-tape. Many a fond memory involve staving off a lawnmower-riding, axe-wielding maniac hell-bent on capturing a relic stuffed inside of a treehouse. The older we grew, the more formalized the games became. We eventually drafted an official codex of rules, formalized our characters, and detailed our respective backstories.

As you may guess, this is where we connect the dots between the relation of my childhood ridiculousness and my flagship TOP series. My backstory revolved around my character, Gol Senz, and his exploits within his home country of Pirudus. I detailed out the major players within the territory and established my motivations for involving myself in our "war games". The more I wrote for my character, the more I questioned the validity of investing actual time into fleshing out an actual book series.

I had always wanted to write and publish something. Over the years, I've drafted and abandoned countless works simply because I got distracted and didn't have the heart to resume them and fully dedicate to their stories. That changed when I started on Trials of the Serpent God, thanks to the dedication I put into my characters backstory.

So the next time you think about what could possibly inspire such a novel, I hope you can take comfort in knowing what brought this story to life!