The effects of taking a break from writing

Alright, so that title might be a bit misleading since I haven’t really taken a break from writing, I’ve just shifted my focus and schedule around quite a bit. Before this month, I was writing, editing and uploading a chapter every month for a little over two years. Now, I’m ‘taking time off’ to work on the detailed outlines making up the finale of the story. So I’m not writing less, but I am writing quite differently.

 I got rid of my old schedule and haven’t introduced another deadline. Instead, I’m looking at these outlines as ‘taking as long as they will take’. This decision was made to give my mind some room to breathe and to give me creativity enough time to recover and view the finale with a fresh set of eyes. After all, I have no following to speak of, no Patron’s clamouring for the next chapter and threatening to unsubscribe, so I wanted to use that to my advantage. The only pressure I’ve felt on this project has been from myself to prove that I could maintain a steady stream of writing over a prolonged period of time. I’ve definitely proven that and, even when I didn’t upload a chapter this week, I did go ahead and commission a piece of artwork just to fill the void.

 The effects of a looser schedule took a while to sink in. At the beginning of this month, I didn’t notice much of a difference. I was working hard on the outlines and I’ve made fantastic headway with them and rectified a lot of problems I’ve always had with the story overall.  I still had that itch to write and I was doing it and pleased with my progress. But it was only weeks later, towards the end of this month, that I’m beginning to really see a difference between ‘then’ and ‘now’.

 An important fact to keep in mind was the fact that I was doing freelance writing work over quarantine as well, which contributed massively to my creative burnout. For months, when I wasn’t working on my novel, I was working on someone else’s ideas. Often while dealing with customers that were less than pleasant or helpful, if I’m honest. So for months, I was up against deadlines on a near daily basis. I shut down my freelancing service when I went back to work and this ‘break’ followed soon after to focus on my own writing.

 My general mood is a lot better right now. I feel personally happier, less stressed and less tense on average in my day to day life. I find it easier to live in the moment rather than looking ahead to the next page/next draft/next chapter. So that’s pretty cool to begin with. But for my writing, it really gave me the space and time needed to get my thoughts together. It’s taken the better part of a month for my creativity to recover and begin to flow properly for the first time in almost two years, but it’s only now that I have a chance to breathe that I realise just how much pressure I was under for months at a time. I adjusted to the pressure so that after a while, I didn’t even notice it until it was gone. Like a backpack on a long hike; it’s heavy at first but with a little practice you can ignore it and when you finally take it off, you breathe a huge sigh of relief.

 That is what this break has been like for me. And with that weight removed, I slowly felt my creativity return until it feels like it’s back to normal. I feel a lot more engaged with Ruins of Dalaghast now than when I was writing it non stop, and during the outlining process, I’m finding a lot of ideas easier to come by than when I was half heartedly brainstorming while writing months ago. I still have quite a lot of writing to do before this project is over, but I am definitely reconsidering how I schedule the final few chapters moving forward.

 So, I guess the moral of the story is to take a break and let your creative mind breathe every once in a while. It’s taken a while for my own writers mind to begin working again like it used to, but it’s definitely getting there and writing is much more enjoyable nowadays, as I’m taking a relaxed approach to the subject, than when I was writing a chapter a month. It was stressful, but doable, and something I wanted to do for myself, but its effects can only really be gauged accurately in retrospect. I hope this helps someone out there who might be struggling with the same ordeal. Until next time, take care and keep creating.

 TLDR: Take a break every once in a while. Especially for larger projects.

Another general update

This will be the first month I haven't uploaded anything Patreon exclusive since beginning this entire project just over two years ago. I would feel terrible about this, but that avenue of revenue never took off for me, so it's not like there's anyone to be disappointed by the lack of an update on that side of things. 

I might as well address that here while I'm at it, since someone did ask about the Patreon; it was established as a way for people who enjoy my work to support it. It wasn't made with the intent to make a living off my personal writing, and I'm not annoyed it didn't take off. My plan for any money gained through Patreon was to use it to fund artwork of my characters/environments/related content. It was never created as a way for me to make a living and when I did need a little extra cash, I worked online as a freelance writer. So, while it would be nice to have a nice community on there, it hasn't stopped me from writing because writing is a sincere passion of mine. Hell, I've been writing a chapter a month for over two years without earning anything off it. 

This month has, nonetheless, been a very big month for me personally. While I didn't get anything for Patreon, I did finish up solidifying the finale of Ruins of Dalaghast. So now all that's left is to write it. On top of that, I am in the lengthy and time consuming  process of moving to a new place that should be ideal for me to live in. Both for my mental wellbeing and my writing. With that, I don't really have a lot of time and money to throw around at the moment getting artwork done for a community that does not exist at the moment. 

Just a general update for you all! 

Plans for 2021

I figured it was about time I made a post on all the different sites I have to let everyone know what my plans are for the coming year so first things first; I’ve dedicated the last two years to writing a chapter a month for my ongoing novel, Ruins of Dalághast and the coming year should be no different. If anything, I plan on dedicating even more time and energy to both that novel and a host of my other personal work as well from fleshing out other novels to uploading a bunch of short stories on different sites.

 Secondly, I’ve been a semi professional ghost writer under a different name for the last couple years and I’ve officially retired from that line of work to focus more on my own writing. I made good money, but oh boy was it a soul crushing way to do it. So that should help with my desire to focus more on my own writing. This is easier said than done though, since I have quite a few financial commitments to worry about in the coming year; primarily moving out and getting my own place. So as optimistic as my plans are, they might not pan out exactly the way I have in mind.

 Don’t worry though! I haven’t missed a month yet with Ruins of Dalághast (uploaded to Patreon), and I intend to keep that track record mostly intact moving forward. I will need time to plot out the later chapters in more detail, which might result in a month or two away from my regularly scheduled writing, but I’m actually planning to write even more chapters as this year goes on, so hopefully it balances out somewhere down the line.

 I will also be trying to broaden my brand a little in the coming year. I will be trying to post more to other sites like deviantart, while posting more to Tumblr and hell, I might even give Instagram another go with the right motivation. My Masterlist is quite long, but here’s some stuff to look forward to.

 Tales From Ashkarne – A tale of three souls within a war torn country of blasted obsidian where humanity has been enslaved by a brutal race.

The Sanctified – A series of short excerpts following a clandestine demon hunter from a rather unique order.

Rebirth – A science fiction, cyberpunk tale of a character fated to fight even after death.

 This will be on top of Ruins of Dalághast and doesn’t include several other WIP’S I have in mind to be fleshed out and worked with over the coming year. It all takes time, after all, but I will hopefully be more in touch than I have been the last two years. I have some readers on the websites where I publish my work, but I really would love for my writing to reach a wider audience, so I’ll be doing what I can to make that happen during 2021. Thanks for reading!

My Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

My published work online - https://www.webnovel.com/book/ruins-of-dal%C3%A1ghast_14482805405500505

Every once in a while as a writer...

I lose faith in the story I am crafting. I feel like there’s too much still to do, or so much that I’ve already done that I’m not satisfied with, that it’s all a little bit overwhelming. And I feel like this is an issue a lot of writers experience, so obviously it’s worth talking about. I’m torn between the idea that what I’m writing is utter trash and moments of mad inspiration where I suddenly realise exactly what I can do to fix ‘everything’. Those normally don’t last long, because reality sets back in and no matter how many notes I make, the mountain of work yet to be done just seems larger than ever.

 I feel like everything I write could be wrote better. I write the same paragraph a dozen times over, rewording it differently each time and always hoping that the next will magically be the one that simply works. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t.

 But the thing that keeps me going is the promise of what I have yet to write.  It’s the idea that being dissatisfied with my work means that I’m doing something right. It means that I’m always striving to improve upon the artform I’ve chosen to express myself through, and I feel like that viewpoint is what’s gotten me through plenty of moments where I just wanted to forget an entire manuscript even exists. Hopefully, this little ramble can help someone else out there find a little focus when these same doubts come knocking.

-Atlas

Ruins of Dalághast Chapter 1 - The Hunters Respite

Welcome everyone to an inhospitable region on the very edge of human dominion. While Volyumenth is known for many things, though mostly the bog water it tries to pass off as alcohol, it is also where this tale begins. At a small inn on the edge of the known world, our heroes gather! 

Considering how horrifically Tumblr tends to mutilate the format of any writing copy/pasted into it, I’ve opted to post this story on google docs and simply provide the link to it here. No login required, no viruses, no hassle whatsoever! 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lMbn0VNIcr4uKJI7fJtmvSHEFsEmACYp-gCBTABJi8o/edit?usp=sharing

Feel free to let me know what you guys think! 

If anyone is interested gaining early access to new chapters as they are released, alongside exclusive content such as artwork, please consider supporting me on Patreon! 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

A long overdue introduction

Hello all,

I realised that I hadn’t actually wrote an introduction for myself on here and wanted to fix that. Everything up until this point has just been posting my work with some terribly inadequate tags in place and I guess that’s down to the fact that whenever I visited this site, it was always in the course of my uploading schedule and I’d planned for my Tumblr to be more than that. I want this to be a bit more personal so hey, here I am writing an official introduction.

My name is Aidan Darcy but I write under the banner ‘AtlasWrites’, just to keep a cohesive name across platforms. Next, I suppose I should describe my current ongoing projects. I have one novel unpublished but complete and in desperate need of some serious editing. That one will be kept in the dark for the time being until I decide what to do with it. I am, however, writing another novel, parts of which I will be posting for free online. The rest, I intend to post in its entirety on Patreon, but I’m not here to shamelessly self promote that here.

 Instead, the novel is a fantasy called Ruins of Dalághast and will follow a group of hired blades as they delve into the legend haunted ruins of a fabled city lost for centuries. As generic as that sounds, I always try to do something very different with every story I tell and in this instance, I wanted to experiment with creating a dynamic and large cast of main characters for readers to journey with into the unknown. I wanted to see if I could create a variety of characters, throw them together and let them grow organically into something more as they work off each other. Not all of them can take the spotlight and get the time they perhaps deserve, but that was also an intentional choice.

 Dalághast itself is a way for me to write down several vivid environments I’ve wanted to explore for a long time and to elaborate on them, walk through them in the company of some interesting characters. To journey into that place with them, to step into a city of antiquity and ruin and travel its streets in the company of them, is a feeling I really wanted to convey as a driving force behind my writing.

 Other than this ongoing project, I’m an avid short story writer. Whether it’s walking, or on my lunch break, or just sitting around, I am forever creating new short stories, which is a drastic change in writing style for me but one I’m enjoying immensely. I typically stick to fantasy but have wrote several science fiction short stories I intend to dust off at some later point in my life and only recently begun expanding into other genres, such as anthological tales that deal with certain aspects of horror.

 Tales From Ashkárne is a series in production that follows three characters over the course of several months and even years in an inhospitable and cruel landscape where humans are subservient to a murderous, warlike race of blue skinned monsters. The events of these tales are all set in motion by a common occurrence; the ambush of a slave column by free men. Thereafter, three stories emerge; one escaped, one was captured  and one will lead.

 These are my two current ongoing projects, but my focus will change between short story projects as they are completed or more are added to the list. I am, for example, also writing about the Sanctified, a group of Demon Hunters and their ghastly adventures, alongside another series set to be unveiled in the coming weeks and months.

 As for my work schedule, I post a chapter a month of Ruins of Dalághast, and another chapter of Tales From Ashkárne, alongside working on whatever short stories I can in the meantime, so my writing schedule is pretty rigorous.

 Other than that, I’m looking forward to cultivating something a little different here on Tumblr and just being myself a little more openly and freely on here than my other platforms. With that being said, feel free to say hi and follow my work!

Atlas

Just a friendly reminder...

I write a chapter a month of a novel called Ruins of Dalághast that I publish on Patreon, without missing a post in two years. But! I have uploaded quite a solid portion of it online, for free!, that you are all welcome to check out and critique the hell out of. I am on Tumblr to reach more people with my writing and while that may seem daunting at times because it means that my work is now in the public eye, it’s also a great opportunity to hear feedback about what I’ve spent so long doing. 

If you like fantasy, particularly something a little grim and possibly Dark Souls inspired (I’m not playing Dark Souls 3 right now, you are!), then I’d love to hear your thoughts on my work. Feedback has been something I’ve always struggled with getting from people and so long as it is constructive, I am in love with being given thoughts on anything I write. 

My work can be read here. 

https://www.webnovel.com/book/ruins-of-dal%C3%A1ghast_14482805405500505

And I have snippets of other work on Deviantart

https://www.deviantart.com/atlaswrites

And for anyone interested in seeing my work months in advance, alongside any artwork I get done, or just plain supporting a struggling writer, here’s my Patreon. 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

Happy reading! 

Writing with a self imposed deadline

Sometimes, writing can be extremely draining, but incredibly worthwhile at the same time and I was reminded of this fact last night when I stayed up until three in the morning to finish off this month’s chapter of my novel and posted it to Patreon. I set myself the goal of writing a chapter a month and I haven’t failed that goal yet in over a year, though I definitely cut it closer than I would have liked this month. It was such a crazy, hectic month in my personal life that I fell behind to a massive extent but, despite the time crunch, I am extremely satisfied with what I was able to produce.

 This chapter in particular was also one I’ve been looking forward to writing since I first plotted it out, which makes it all the more surprising it took me so long to do. Normally I try to get these chapters finished, edited and uploaded by around the 25th of every month, but this time, there was just so much going on in my personal life that it was a real challenge. On the other hand, once I sat down to do it, writing this chapter was so rewarding; I deviated from my original outline and draft quite a bit just because the characters seemed to take on a life of their own in the scene, and that is always one of the best parts of being a writer. When the characters you created and built up begin to act so naturally that writing them becomes a bit of a spectator sport than actual work. It was extremely rewarding.

 I also set up a new chapter to be published on Webnovel on the same day, so they all launched at once, which I quite like too. I need to use the feature on that site to just schedule my releases over the next few months, since the uploads on there seem to be doing well (11k +views?!?) but my uploading has been sporadic at best. Anyway, links to both of my sites down below. To anyone who has read my work; thank you. It’s a real boost in confidence to see so many reading something I’ve wrote.

 https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

 https://www.webnovel.com/book/ruins-of-dal%C3%A1ghast_14482805405500505

So, this is the desk where I do most of my writing. But wait! What’s that on the desk? It is the majority of my WIP novel, Ruins of Dalághast, printed out and stored in that binder, just waiting for the day when I’ll have enough time to sit down and start editing it. 

Bear in mind that this isn’t even the entire novel, since it isn’t even done yet, and that each page is printed back and front, so this is quite a hefty document. Looking forward to the day I get to tackle it though, while continuing to write the rest of this book. 

Writing breakthrough and plans moving forward

As many of you probably already know, I have been writing and uploading a chapter of my fantasy novel, Ruins of Dalaghast, each month for the last thirty months and I've recently broken that streak to focus on writing a compelling end to the story. 

When I began this project, I had most of the story outlined but only vague ideas about how I wanted it to end. My outlines were extremely detailed and were what allowed me to actually write a chapter a month, from start to finish, with relative ease even when I was quite busy with other things. 

During my unofficial break from writing the book itself, I have been spending a lot of time not only writing the outlines for the next few chapters, but I have also been delving into the kind of story I want to tell and I've spent a lot of time developing the core ideas and themes that had set this project in motion. Truth be told, I found Ruins of Dalaghast to be an invaluable learning experience but ultimately lacking in several vital areas. 

This morning, after days of mulling things over, everything just seemed to finally click into place for me. A single idea took root on mind and I started scribbling down notes in a fresh document that quickly resolved most of the problems I'd been facing. It was a strange and unexpected experience, and it really did seem like it arrived out of nowhere, but I was able to solidify ideas I'd been struggling with into complete concepts. Several new ideas came to me as soon as these were set in place that have really allowed me to set in stone a lot of different aspects of this story I've previously been unhappy with or struggling to correct. 

It's hard to really describe the difference this made without going into heavy spoiler territory, but basically taking a break from my strict writing and uploading routine has really allowed me to breathe in a creative way. It's given me the room to take a step back and reassess the project with a fresh pair of eyes, so that I could clearly define what I want it to be. I'd had plenty of ideas starting out, but had been unsatisfied with their roots or their progress throughout the story but this morning, I was able to put all of them to rest. 

This doesn't mean I have all of the chapters suddenly planned out, but I am excited to continue working on their outlines and I am really excited to begin writing again. And all it took was a few minutes of frenzied writing after an idea suddenly found its way into my head. It really does feel like it came out of nowhere, but I know it's the end result of months of agonising over certain key details. Why it suddenly decided to resolve itself now, I'll put down to being able to take the time to plan and plot ahead. 

So, for Atlas Writes moving forward. This month, since I won't be uploading a chapter to my Patreon like all previous months, I will instead be uploading a piece of artwork I got commissioned of one of my characters from Ruins of Dalaghast. I will be uploading the sketch here and will be uploading the finished piece at a later date, though it will be available this month on my Patreon. I'll talk more about the illustration. When I upload it and there will be links to all my other areas of interest below. 

The book

https://www.webnovel.com/book/ruins-of-dal%C3%A1ghast_14482805405500505

My Patreon 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

Enjoy! 

New uploads

I really need to remember to update this site more, but I just uploaded my work to two separate sites. Chapter 7 of the novel I am writing month by month,Ruins of Dalághast, was just uploaded to WebNovel. You can see this, and the six previous chapters, at the link below. 

https://www.webnovel.com/book/14482805405500505/Ruins-of-Dal%C3%A1ghast

Feel free to check out my work and let me know what you think. Feedback is not only welcome, but sought after. 

Then I uploaded chapter 15 of this same project to my Patreon as an early access reward, alongside one or two other little behind the scenes benefits. 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

If you are interested in supporting my work, please consider joining me on this exciting journey! 

Atlas 

Chapter 9 released

Hey everyone, 

I just released the ninth chapter of my ongoing novel on my Patreon (link below), alongside the original outline I worked off for upper tier members. This one was particularly fun to work on, and as one of the longer chapters, I’m quite pleased with how quickly I was able to get this one done. I’m also quite pleased with the finished result as it stands at the moment, though it will need some touching up further in the future. 

Anyone who wants to read the earlier chapters can do so for free by following the link below. 

https://www.webnovel.com/book/14482805405500505/Ruins-of-Dal%C3%A1ghast

Anyone who would like to support me on my journey, feel free to stop by my Patreon. 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

New Chapter released

Just a heads up that I’ve just released my third chapter to my ongoing novel, Ruins of Dalághast, on Webnovel. Feel free to stop by and check it out! 

https://www.webnovel.com/book/14482805405500505/Ruins-of-Dal%C3%A1ghast

All feedback welcome. 

Chapter 9 release

The 9th chapter of my ongoing novel has been released on my Patreon. I’m terrible at this social media thing so I’m just going to leave the link below, say it was one of the most challenging pieces of writing I’ve done yet, and move along. But not before a reminder that it is a work in progress and that I am working on an incredibly tight deadline. 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

If anyone wants early access to my this work, alongside exclusive artwork I commission, behind the scenes outlines and my own short stories, feel free to support me. 

Ruins of Dalághast Chapter 5- just uploaded

If anyone wants to check out this chapter of my ongoing fantasy novel a month before it goes public, please consider supporting me on patreon. For just one dollar a month, you can get early access to all my work! 

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

Chapter 20 release!

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites 

 This month marks the publication of my twentieth chapter in this novel and a pretty significant milestone for me personally, because it also marks the twentieth consecutive month I’ve done what I set out to do. Writing a chapter a month isn’t really all that hard, but writing a chapter a month that I’m happy with is. Thankfully, I’m pretty happy with this one and, as a bonus, it was even pretty fun to write and work with. It’s a solid example of how, even with a detailed outline, things don’t always end up the way you’d planned, since I ended up changing several details in the finished chapter. This was definitely an interesting one though.

 If you want to help support my work, and get access to goodies like exclusive artwork and behind the scenes notes, consider supporting me on Patreon, where this chapter just went live.

https://www.patreon.com/atlaswrites

Otherwise, you can head on over to webnovel

https://www.webnovel.com/book/14482805405500505/Ruins-of-Dal%C3%A1ghast

Or over on royalroad

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26414/ruins-of-dalaghast

Where I also post my work.