Greetings and Salutations, Blog Readers

Today we are discussing my being off track with my Flake City goals, and brainstorming ways to get back on track.

For those of you who are new to the blog (I see I have some new followers/subscribers, hello and welcome) Flake City is my own apocalyptic fiction story that centers around zombies for the apocalyptic action…

However, the story is not JUST about zombies or even the apocalypse. I have some fun stuff like magic, being your best self, and commentary on how various parts and types of government work, and the corruption that also runs in it.

Originally, I published the first volume of Flake City on this blog, doing something I called, “Flake City Fridays” in which I published a chapter every week. My goal was to do the same for the second volume, while finalizing the layout for the eBook, and be able to publish an eBook of volume one, while volume two chapters were being posted to the blog, and then finish up volume two and, with the experience from doing volume one’s eBook, do volume two. From there, I also wanted to make an immersive audio book, for those who like audio books. I am fortunate enough to have enough friends who are wildly talented, and some sound design experience, along with talented sound mixing friends, to make a high-quality audio book that would feel like the more immersive old school radio story shows.

So, where am I now? I published all of Flake City Volume One on the blogs, and then started working on Volume Two. I then dealt with a broken MacBook, losing many of my files. Thankfully, I had the blog as a backup for the first Volume, but after three restarts, I had to once again, restart Volume Two.

And now I am where I am now, not even halfway through Volume Two, and very little eBook work done on Volume One.

I have published a few small projects on Amazon KDP, like journals and coloring books, so I am passingly familiar with how to make these books come to life in the formatting side, but I haven’t buckled down and done the work, despite having a new computer, a fixed MacBook, and a full collection of useful programs to help make the work come to life, including Microsoft, Adobe, and Canva.

So why have I not been working on writing Volume Two, and producing an eBook and printable KDP book for Amazon sales?

As a writer, I rarely deal with writer’s block, in fact, I have even written blogs about writers block and how to beat it…

And the time has come to take my own advice. I can’t keep struggling through and not working on the things that bring me joy, and the things I want to build my future.

No, I don’t want to be some HUGELY successful and famous writer, in fact, the latter makes me feel sick. I don’t crave or desire any sort of fame, in fact, I would much rather not have fame, and instead have some sort of success…basically just have some people enjoy my writing, and maybe, just maybe, earn enough money with my writing to pay the bills.

It may seem small, and not dreaming big, but all I really want is to make my writing the way I pay my bills, to justify using most of my “working time” on writing. I want to spend the majority of the 8 hours a day one spends on working, on my writing. Sure, I understand it won’t all be writing. Some of it is editing, formatting, making marketing materials, researching…but it all feeds the writing.

My ultimate goal is to have a self-sustainable property fairly far away from major populations of people, with maybe some good neighbors near-ish by, within a few miles or so. Enough land to garden on, to raise some animals, maybe employ a person or two to help me with the property. I would like a cellar to store my jarred and canned produce, ample storage for dehydrated herbs and foods, solar panels, maybe even some wind turbines and a waterwheel, the latter more for aesthetic than anything else. A cheese barn, to make cheese from the milk i get from the cows and goats I raise…Modest dreams that many people are surprised by given how much I love Chinese takeout. These goals may not be the average 30 something year old woman’s dreams, but they are mine. Time to write and tend to the property, to be left the fuck alone, and not be at the mercy of whatever is going on globally or domestically. This goal has been more and more my desire since I was 13 or so.

At first, I just wanted the isolation, and more and more, I want the self-sustaining isolation, and to be left alone to read, write, create, and live.

I say all of this to speak it into existence, but also to inform the kind of life I want to have and show you I have no desire for major fame and accolades. I want my writing to support my lifestyle, to fill whatever gaps are left in my self-sustaining property.

But none of this will happen if I don’t put in the work. As my dear friend Nicole says: Dreams don’t work if you don’t.

Writer’s block or not, lack of time or not, I have to find a way to get my shit together and get back to my writing grind. Lately, it has been hard to even write blogs, much less creatively write, to put words to page and bring life to the world so clear in my head.

Lately, the world hasn’t been too clear. It has been tainted and murky.

No more. I can’t allow my world to get murky and confused, I can’t allow my characters to stay lost im time, locked in a moment.

I have to move forward, to write the words and bring the world to life. I have to find the time to not only write blogs, but to work on my creative writing for Volume Two of Flake City, and to make the eBook and KDP publishing book for Volume One.

So, I am taking my own advice on breaking the Writers Block, and I am getting my shit together.

 I have been brainstorming how to do that and revisiting past ideas and methods that allowed me to get my shit together and produce content at the rate I desire to produce it.

One of my biggest tips to break writers block has always been to simply start writing. To write one word, and another, until a sentence, normally crappy, is formed. Continue until good writing shows up, edit the bad stuff once you have kicked the writers block and are back to your usual writing self.

I also always suggest analyzing, by journaling, why it is you are struggling with writer’s block. Once you have figured out and explored those reasons, prepare your workspace for some quality writing, carve out the time, and get to writing, one word at a time.

Of course, this method works best when you write every day, that way the muscles stay strong and fresh, and you don’t have as much work to do to bump the writer’s block. For this reason, I have been trying to at least blog a couple times a week to make sure the muscles don’t go weak. But as far as muscles go, they are a bit…flabby.

So, I need to get back into fighting shape. My brain needs fuel and needs to work out.

To this aim, I am working on some things to build my brain power, more on that on another blog post, and I am forcing myself to get to writing.

I am reading more than I ever have, more than I was reading when I was publishing at the rate I wanted, and I am using the inspiration of these wonderful writers to push myself to writing my stuff and formatting my old stuff.

I am also considering bringing back “Flake City Fridays”- the aim here being to force myself to do another pass of editing and holding myself accountable by posting a chapter every week. My goal would be to, upon finishing those edits and posting them, I would put the edited file into the document for publishing, allowing me to format a little bit every week. My thought here is that I will be able to knock out Flake City Volume One, going over and triple editing it will help jog any memories I need for Volume Two, and will leave me primed for writing on Volume Two. If I stick to the schedule well enough, I can have Volume Two ready for Flake City Fridays a week or two after I finish reposting Flake City Volume One.

And, it lets me do three posts a week again, without demanding more blog writing from me, leaving some time and space for creative writing. I will use my daily blog content along with book reviews to keep the muscles going, like cardio or yoga, as it were, and then my creative writing will be my weightlifting.

I am drinking a gallon of water a day again, courtesy of my new water bottle I got from Sam’s Club, and I am working on more fruits and veggies in my diet. My only meat is coming from fish and tuna, but I am getting back to my healthy eating habits and better living habits once again.

Between reading, my new schedule, drinking more water, and forcing myself to do more writing, I think I can get myself where I want to be. I must. I can’t stand being stagnant on a project that brings me so much joy, more so when I know how much more fun Flake City becomes at the end of Volume Two.

So, here’s to me getting out of my funk, unblocking my writers block, and kicking ass once again. Let me know if you are interested in Flake City Fridays, for those of you who are new, it could be fun, and for those of you who maybe didn’t read it the first time, an awesome chance to read a better edited version. I may even get wild and add some of the graphics I had made for it, to make it a bit more fun.

Either way, I can’t let myself get lost in my writer’s block. I love Flake City and I have too many things I love about it to let it fall apart, plus, my own goals of paying my bills one day, in some part from my writing, depend on be doing the work.

So, like Nicole always says, “Dreams don’t work if you don’t”, and I believe that with my whole heart so…I am gonna get to work.

Thanks for Reading,

Abbi