December 16, 2023 - Update

Hi!

For those of you who have read these updates for a while you know I complain about my productivity. Probably a lot. Certainly, too much. I try and be real with you about how my weeks go and my struggles and since so many of those struggles relate to productivity, I guess some complaining couldn’t be helped.

A new issue appeared a couple of weeks ago. Pain in my wrist and forearm from typing threatened to further decrease my productivity. It scared me.

Scared me enough that I tried dictation again. A skill I have failed multiple times. Probably because of the pain in my wrist and arm, I approached it this time with a very focused mindset. I needed to make dictation work for me.

And like a Christmas miracle, it did.

I started last Saturday, and the beginning wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either. The four chapters I released tonight are the result of my dictation last weekend. This is also why I am releasing them at 4:30 in the morning. They took a lot more cleanup than I expected.

But it is getting easier, and my words are more natural.

Since the weekend, I got a stomach bug and lost a day and a half, and work deadlines have continued to sap my energy and creativity all week…even so I dictated enough for another five chapters at least.

You read that right. I have been barely managing three chapters a week, and this week I did nine. My first week of dictation.

It is hard to express how big a deal this is for me. The deadlines I place on myself and the goals I want to reach but only fall farther and farther from, have an impact on myself and everyone around me. This week was like the sun poking through the storm. I have confidence the sky will soon be clear.

That means far less self-imposed stress and the ability to finally write some other stories I want to tell while not impacting the Divine Apostasy.

What a great week.

I opened up chapters 57 and 58 for Root.

I opened up chapters 59, 60, and 61 for Harvester.

I added chapters 62, 63, 64, and 65 for Step Master, Blapy’s Favorite, Divine, and Axiom.

Enjoy!

Thank you for all the kind words and comments. I appreciate people’s encouragement and advice. You are all such great people. Thanks for being a part of this story.

Take care,

AFK