Day 77

Spoiler Alert! May contain planning-stage plot/character details or other spoilers!

22 Mar 2016

So I sat down yesterday afternoon to start building a website and launching my writer’s platform… and only got as far as installing Python before I realized I really needed a skills refresher.

After a couple false starts, got onto freeCodeCamp, which is an absolutely spectacular tool. Bite sized practice lessons, a full, step-by-step curriculum up to and including Full Stack Development, gamification-type tools that keep forward motion addictive, and eventually, portfolio projects that actually help non-profits.

It was a nice little ego boost to finish the first 13+ hours in less than half that time, although with previous coding experience in all subjects covered, I probably should have blasted through faster. The downside, of course, being that I am now obsessed with a new subject and all I want to do is problem solve coding challenges for the foreseeable future. I’m so predictable…

There was a terrorist attack in Brussels this morning; airport and transit bombings, so now my family is feeling anxiety about my impending travel plans. Not that I’ve made a ton of progress on that either… I’ve been costing out estimated portions of the trip, which has proved to be mildly productive in that it identified a necessary extension of the trip, as Auschwitz is closed on the date we planned to visit, but it’s also a lot of effort for kind of minimal results.

Trying not to think about the costs; I can sort of justify it by not having spent any significant money on a vacation for the last half dozen years, but it’s a little scary to think of money going out, and nothing (at all) coming in at the moment… Even though I’ve planned for this and all.

Increasingly, I’m considering the self-publishing route, but I’m worried that it might just be laziness recommending that path to me. Instant gratification, total control, etc.

Having a significant advance from a publishing house, not to mention their resources to polish up the book and sell it, would be far preferable in the long run, but in the short term, the idea of finishing this thing, kicking it out and making (minuscule) income is more appealing than going through months/years of process in the hopes that someone will pick it up. Not to mention, self-publishing lets me get away with some strange artistic choices (like too much inner processing and not enough action!) that I’m not looking forward to having edited out…

But I’ve made the mistake before of pulling the pin too soon, and I don’t want to see a year or more of effort flushed because I couldn’t hang on and put enough effort into polishing and presenting the story as effectively as possible. Again, really not sure about the switching-perspective first-person narratives; could use some outside feedback on whether it’s too contrived/boring/indulgent, but I don’t want to share with beta readers until I’ve reached the ‘end’, gone back and fixed all the continuity issues and cleaned up typos at the very least!

Just a little longer (…I hope…)

Tuesday

Start time: 10:30 am

Location: couch/living room

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