We’re into summer now. Unprocessed Thoughts was a little later than usual. Same old reasons –crunch time and juggling many projects. Working smarter has been a big of a learning curve. Still working lots. However, this month I was able to spend some time away from any work, which is always a positive thing. You can work too much and not even know it.

Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts

In June’s Unprocessed Thoughts, I chatted about the launch of The White Hand and learning to work smarter and not harder. That has been a continual learning process over the years while being a freelance graphic designer/web developer and growing an author career. Oh, then there is the attempt of juggling a social life, a relationship and being human. At some point, something is going to give.

Spinning your wheels by working hard isn’t healthy for you or anyone around you. Your quality of work will go down too. There are many ways you can adjust your life to make things easier. Leveraging tools and cutting back on certain activities has given me more time to appreciate the free moments that I do have. Letting your brain rest is an essential part of the creative process.

Mental Damnation IV

Fantasy was a big theme for July. I attended the first RPG-a-Thon and finished the first draft of Mental Damnation IV. The dark fantasy series naturally have a higher word count per book than my more recent works, and the chapters are longer. Writing the original three books took years. How would I be able to work on the fourth novel while prepping for the follow up to The White Hand? I had to manage my time better.

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First draft of Mental Damnation IV complete!! This final book in the tetralogy has been a thrill ride of intensity to write. Krista's journey comes to one hell of a dramatic and emotional conclusion. 5 weeks and 110,699 words from beginning to end. Already have notes on revisions for the second draft. It is the first novel I've l written primarily with speech to text software (mic on the table). Time to let the whole thing simmer in the back of my mind, then the revisions begin. Damnation waits for you all. #author #firstDraftDown #authorLife #bookstagram #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writeOn #mentalDamnation #writer #authorLife #writing #amWriting

A post shared by Konn Lavery (@_konnartist) on Jul 11, 2019 at 3:17pm PDT

Working Smarter

The initial chapter outlines, premise, and character sheets for Mental Damnation IV were drafted using the usual method I use. Writing the first draft can be done faster. Author Chris Fox can write 5,000 words an hour. Mind-boggling. There had to be a way for me to improve my words per hour. The answer was text to speech. This allowed me to write the first draft of Mental Damnation IV (110,000 words) in 5 weeks. I’ll be sure to write a more detailed blog post about speech to text technology.

Getaway: Terminus Override!

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Terminus 2019 is over! This was @leatherboots7 and my getaway for the year. We got to see tons of wicked bands and catch up with many friends over the weekend. Met @seiboldnoise again. His Standalone set rocked \m/ Finally snagged one of @iamx_thefragile amazing illustrations. Now back with the cat. #thatsAllfolks #terminusFestival #terminusFestival2019 #spankTheCat

A post shared by Konn Lavery (@_konnartist) on Jul 29, 2019 at 7:47pm PDT

Much like previous years, I attended the goth/industrial music festival Terminus. Including the preparty, it is four days of intense, harsh electronics and percussions. I got to meet Steven Seibold of Standalone/Hate Dept. and see CHANT live. HEALTH was the big headliner for the festival. This will most likely be the only getaway I have this year. Again, working smarter and not harder. Taking time off to see Tricky/A Perfect Circle last year meant I had to hustle big time to get work done.

I prefer to take the easier route this year. You can only go so fast before you burn out.

Beer Note: T Verzet Oud Bruin Crasp Berry

Berry beers are generally a good go-to for me unless they are too sweet. Boy, this one is not. Don’t judge a beer by its label. I thought this one might have been sweet but gave it a shot and it was not. This raspberry beer is super sour upon the first sip and has a slight berry after taste. The first sip is a shock if you don’t know what you’re going for but quite enjoyable after.