November Announcement 2022 - Talking about stuff

Okay, here it is. I've got a few things to talk about with the recent schedule delays so let's get right into it.

First of: I'm sorry for the schedule issues. I can go with excuse this or excuse that and they are never wrong but truth is, it's a combination of things. I really had the health issues starting about 10 days ago and I'm really busy playing Pokemon this weekend. Those are definitely part of the delays. 

The underlying issue, though, is that I'm having some real trouble writing right now. I'd say, I'm experiencing writer's block. Maybe more of a sludge than a block. I enjoy writing, that's not the issue, I just don't know what to do with Owl. 

All the 'meeting old friends' chapters sounded good in my head but it dragged on so fucking much. I hoped to get back into it with the exploration of the Deep Green but I'm realizing how difficult it is to write wilderness without any real plan as to what's inside. 

I have a good idea of what comes after and it's something I'm going to have a much easier time with. Lots of dialogue! Nature descriptions and moving through wilderness just isn't as easy for me. Which is why I want to keep trying for a bit. That might lead to more erratic chapters. I find myself writing 100-200 words at a time about five times a day so... that's why it takes so long to get these done right now.

Now, the important part: schedule changes. I've decided to try the four chapters per week/one break week plan. December is going to be half of that. The first few releases next month are going to be skipped to get a break. That would be the 2nd to 5th, at least. I will decide spontaneously if I want to take the 7th off as well. There will be another break around Christmas from the 23rd to the 28th. 

That means, December will only have 2 and a half weeks of chapters posting. I will go for 4 chapters in each of those, adding Monday to the regular schedule which will result in a total of nine chapters in December. That's above my promised minimum of two per week when I activated yearly subscriptions so I'm okay with it. If you aren't, send me a PM and we can figure something out.

This leads to the next part: finances. I've settled for writing as a hobby. Making some money is great but it doesn't pay the bills. That's why I want to focus on uni a little more. The break weeks are going to be primarily used to catch up with lessons. 

I don't need more money than I'm getting right now but finances are a little tight. I'm getting a student loan soon-ish which should let me build up some savings and give me some more freedom. In short: I'm going to be writing for fun unless someone decides to drop one grand per month. That might mean more erratic schedules which will primarily be announced on Discord. If I completely drop a chapter, it will be announced on Patreon as well.

Okay. That's done. Now to the final part: Things I'm planning to do. Owlnother World will be finished. I'm seeing about a year until we get there at the current speed. It might be more, it might be less, but that's about it. After that, Dole will be the next big project. I might finish Pegasus Nebula in between if I don't find the time before Owl ends. Writing after Owl might be less strictly scheduled, I don't know. It depends on how well I can get through this sludge.

On getting through the sludge, I've been thinking about therapy. I haven't set anything in motion, yet. I'm hoping for some physical health improvements by the end of December which should help already. I'm also going to work on some other writing in the breaks to get my mind off things. It's clearly Owl that's the problem right now. I sat down for this announcement and haven't taken a break, yet. On that note, every little bit of feedback is nice. Even if you only hit the little heart, I see it. It makes me happy. It makes me want to sit down and write.

That's pretty much everything I wanted to talk about today. If more stuff comes up, I'll make another announcement.

Thank you for reading through this wall of text (if you actually did so) and thank you for your continued support.

Cheers, Baba Vader.

tl;dr: schedule changes starting December. 9 total chapters in December with a break at the beginning and one around Christmas. I'm working on my writer's block but until then releases might be a erratic for a little longer.