Never Tell Me the Odds: A Writing Update

On June 24th, I did something daring. I imposed a deadline upon myself: August 3rd.

My goal was to “finalize” The Machine, in hopes to have it done in time for Gen Con.

I didn’t even have the first draft done at the time, so making that statement was quite the gambit. Of course, things didn’t go quite as planned. But it kept me working every day.

I did manage to organize my horrible mess of scattered notes, finish the first draft (always a HUGE milestone), and get about 3/4ths of the way through the second draft (which is turning out highly polished).

There’s also this, which is a 2k preview of The Machine, accompanied with some original artwork by yours truly. I started work on that piece of art last November-December, so I had a head-start, there, but I did have to finish it to make that post a reality.

I also posted twenty-seven blog posts, established more of an online presence by building a brand on Twitter (Now “X”, I guess – I chose a weird time to join.), completed around ten pieces of artwork, and continued a negotiation, revising contracts.

Getting through most of my Devious Poetry series of posts took a ton of reasearch, but it was a huge weight off my shoulders.

And then, perhaps the biggest thing of all, I revised The Never-Ending Night, a Gaiman-esque short story I originally wrote back in 2009, and submitted it to Cirsova magazine. A gigantic milestone. In fact, this is the very first time I’ve ever submitted one of my stories for publication. And strangely, I’m not nervous.

Seems things are stacked up against me, however:

My response?

The Never-Ending Night wasn’t a minor revision by any stretch of the imagination. I had to convert the entire story from first-person to third and incorporate all the storytelling tricks I’ve learned in the past 14 years. Practically a rewrite. Phew!

Cirsova’s submission window just happened to be 8/1-8/7, coincidentally landing on the deadline I set for myself. So I made the tough decision to not to let this opportunity pass me by, setting aside The Machine yet again to meet that deadline instead.

On top of all that, the person who I’d been in contract negotiations with regarding the Trading Card Game disappeared for about a month, but he suddenly resurfaced. Our negotiations continued and I think we’ve finally reached an agreement, contract revisions and all.

So I might be able to finally share more information about this super-secret card game project I’ve been working on these past two years.

And then, after revising my Cirsova entry and running it through beta readers, and even submitting it to an editor and revising it yet again, a friend of mine was nearing a deadline and needed a lot of artwork, fast. (Seems his main go-to artist has been MIA lately, of no fault of his own.)

So what did I do? What any true friend would. I set aside The Machine yet again and got to work, helping him out in his time of need. Because unlike my deadline, him missing his would’ve had real-world consequences, both reputation and money-wise.

And then there’s the whole NickEnlowe.com thing. Yes, I now own this domain. And I own it for the next three years. No more ads, for starters. I haven’t even had time to explore all the new options I have at my disposal now, but I believe I can build out more pages, such as an author page.

I’m confident I would have at least finished the second draft of The Machine by now if it weren’t for that whirlwind of other distractions, especially the emergency art projects and the revisions to The Never-Ending Night to meet Cirsova’s submission deadline.

So back to my goal: “finalizing” The Machine. Tomorrow is technically the deadline, but I’m leaving on a trip to GenCon in just a few short hours. Finalizing just isn’t in the cards this time.

So do self-imposed deadlines work when there’s very little at stake?

Well, maybe not as well as I’d hoped. But I can’t deny these past few months have been some of the most prolific I’ve ever experienced since becoming an author. I cannot understate how huge revising and submitting The Never-Ending Night was for me, even bigger than completing The Machine would’ve been.

My goal was to have “completed something” to have more to discuss with other authors at Gen Con. I’d say revising and submitting a short story to Cirsova more than surpassed that goal.

So I’m off to the con to meet authors and have a great time! But before I go, I’m going to set a new deadline for finalizing The Machine: 9/9/2023.

If the momentum keeps up like this, I just might make a career out of my writing hobby yet.