Sylvia's Soliloquies

Trimming the Fat - 6/4/19

It feels like I haven't been on here in forever, even though it was only a couple weeks ago that I posted about Delilah Cross being out.  I suppose that's what happens when I go from being on Wattpad every day to only when I can fit it in.

I'm currently nearing the end of my training for my new job.  It's clear, already, that I'll be needing to work 25 hours a week and we have another client ready to go that will add hours to that.  Admittedly things are particularly crazy right now because we're trying to cram as much time in with my predecessor before they move on.  Things should slow down starting next week (famous last words), however, this experience has helped me realize that there are certain things I need to let go of.

I've gone through and started to trim the fat on my projects.  For now, writing really is for me and not to support my family.  I don't need to be doing all kinds of marketing strategies to reel people in.  So I'm no longer doing my podcast and I will be sticking with leaving books on Wattpad, while offering it with an extended epilogue on Amazon and my site for only a dollar.  It would be great if someone honored my work with a payment, but at this point I'm not going to stress over it.

I'm also holding off on developing visual novels.  At least in the format I was doing it.  I don't have time to code, make art, and write.  However, I am excited about using other resources to help me build a game.  I'm currently working on an Episode story, which is a lot of fun thus far.  And at some point, once I've saved up some money from this new job, I'm going to get a nicer computer and buy RPG Maker for it.  Both still require a lot of work, but at least art assets are covered and coding is minimal.

So for right now, I'm keeping to my July deadline to get stories formatted and published before beginning work on Falling for a Memory.  It should be interesting to see how that book goes since I'm going to try approaching it with the mindset of fun versus profit.  I've been trying to do that anyway, but now there really isn't the financial burden weighing me down.  That's how I went about writing Finding Mrs. Claus and I still think it's one of my best (along with Her Christmas Legacy).

So, yeah, that's where I'm at.  I'm also painfully behind on reading books on here, but hopefully starting next week, I'll have a little more time to catch up!