05/06/2025

Apologies for the belated update, it's been a busy and turbulent couple of weeks. Nevertheless, I can say that the first draft is certainly getting there with sixty completed pages out of the hundred pages needed. The biggest obstacles at this time is definitely writer's block and juggling everything on my schedule.

Writer's block is a fascinating phenomenon. If my brain truly wasn't working properly with regards to what to write next, I wouldn't be able to write this post, yet I'm still doing it. It would be interesting to find out if it is a real and studied psychological condition, or if it's simply a colloquialism made by mentally constipated writers.

I think I need to stop treating the first draft, at least subconsciously, like something that has to be written perfectly, or even well at all. There's a looming worry that when I go over it again at the right time, I'll be so dispirited by what I'm reading that I'll lose any confidence I had in it. For a writer, this is common, but irrational. Of course anything you do for the first time won't be perfect. It probably won't even be halfway decent, but with each new iteration of what you create or do, and the more you learn, it will get better. Michelangelo didn't make David by staring at a block of marble and wishing him into existence. Not that this book will come close to works of art such as that, but you get the idea. (Hopefully).

Eventually, I hope to present some character designs on this website and on my Facebook page, particularly concept sketches of protagonist Joseph North and antagonist Vincent Asher. I may sketch out some designs myself and then see if I hand it over to my sister again for final, market-worthy, images.

Enjoy your coming weekends, you've earned them!

Josh