Adrian Faulkner's Blog, page 21
March 16, 2021
The Legendary Quest – The Climb #752
I know it seems like I do nothing but play games at the moment. It just feels like all the games I play have events or deadlines around now.
The latest of these is Warcraft but it’s a deadline that’s been set by the guild rather than by me.
Going for my legendary, I decided to skip upgrading and go for the highest tier. In hindsight this was a mistake. The legendary needs soul ash from Torghast but I’d only been unable to unlock Tier 4, which meant my weekly soul ash wa...
March 15, 2021
Grinding Games And Edits – The Climb #751
I’m slowly plodding through edits. Whilst I’m happy with my progress I think I would be faster if my back brain didn’t feel a bit lost. My head has been so in BAK for the last few years that even though I have worked on other stuff my back brain is trying to sabotage me by asking if it’s as good.
The conclusion I’ve reached is that whatever first draft I write next, it has to be fun. Just as people like to contrast the light with the dark, I like to mix the serious with...
March 4, 2021
New Opportunities – The Climb 740
I know I said that I have a backlog of tasks I’m trying to clear off. But hear me out.
One of my major aims of the last year or so is to diversify my writing. I think whatever happens, I’ll always primarily be a novelist at heart. There’s something about the freedom a book gives you as a writer that I love. There’s no-one to consult or please with a first draft, and whilst editors and agents might then give feedback, that’s in service of the story you want to tell.
O...
March 3, 2021
Future Character Developments – The Climb #739
Among my various writing projects I have an idea for an epic fantasy. Weirdly, this is one where I know the plot, but I don’t know the story. Or is it the other way round? Basically I know what happens but I don’t know who the characters are or what they do.
Maybe that’s not strictly true. I have two characters. One a smart talking badass (think Han Solo, the cowboy trope, etc), and other other who is a mage. Other than the plot / story and these two characters the ...
March 2, 2021
Monthly Follow Ups – The Climb #738
The beginning of the month is my time to follow up about a bunch of things. Typically, when I have something I’m waiting on, I create a task in the future to ask the question of whether I’ve heard back. That way, I can ensure that I don’t forget about things. If things have moved on in the meantime, I can quickly tick off the task as complete. If I haven’t I can take an action to follow up.
What I’ve realised doing this exercise today is that there’s a lot of things acr...
March 1, 2021
Understanding The Market – The Climb #737
None of this is specific, just an amalgamation of experience and observations over the years.
When you start out you want to set the industry ablaze. You’ll be blind to the flaws of your novel and as much as you try to convince yourself otherwise, like a proud parent, you’ll have a gut feeling that it’s something special.
You’ll find out that the industry is in bloom, that more people are reading. You’ll tell yourself not to, but you’ll research what they are reading...
February 28, 2021
Mass Leveling in Warcraft – The Climb #736
I’m still a bit knackered from my mammoth walk yesterday. I feel a bit better for it, and I don’t intend to leave it too long before I go again, but today was very firmly a rest day.
So today, I read a bunch of comics, did some idea work on a writing project and played a bit of World of Warcraft.
The main thrust of Warcraft has slowed down a lot now the campaign is over. Whilst we still have a couple more weeks of weekly renown to go before we hit the cap of 40, the...
February 27, 2021
Taking Myself For A Walk – The Climb #735
I took myself for a long walk today. There were a number of factors that fed into this decision. Primarily, the weather finally seems to be turning. We’re moving from winter into spring. My support bubble C’s a good barometer for this as their ailments flair up with seasonal changes and they’ve been having a rough week. Today there were blue skies and I’m not exactly sure how a spring blue sky looks different from a winter blue sky but I knew this was the former.
I...
February 26, 2021
Pandemic Frustrations – The Climb #734
Spring always seems to be my productive season. I don’t know if it’s the increased daylight or the better weather leading me to spend more time outside but I always find that it takes until the end of February for my New Year’s Resolutions to really kick in. I think I’m perhaps the type of person who needs to build up to things.
Motivation and focus have been my main obstacles during the pandemic. I do have motivation or I wouldn’t find myself getting frustrated wi...
February 25, 2021
Dopamine Lows – The Climb #733
If I ever come back and read over these editions of The Climb I don’t want to think that it’s currently easy. Yeah, I’m getting things done and moving a lot of other things towards completion but it still feels difficult.
I feel I’m doing about as half as much as I could do; that I’m not so much swimming as stopping myself from drowning by flailing around a lot.
I’ve been thinking a lot about priorities over the past week. It feels like with my micro progress, ever...
