I will finish this story in Summer 2025.
I’ve been “running” my novel series Catgirl System in efficiency mode for about three weeks now. The story updates online, new chapters are posted. I tap at my keyboard as is necessary to finish these updates, and when that’s done, I think, “Well, that’s done.”
I haven’t been writing or drawing new things beyond what is necessary. Catgirl System, rather than being a fun and lighthearted exercise that also happens to be posted online, has become simply a… “well, that’s done.”
Why? Many reasons. One of them is because I hit another period of perhaps overcommitting in areas of my life that aren’t Catgirl System, and not prioritizing well when I did have free time. For instance, instead of giving myself a normal and sensible weekend around the end of October, I had some kind of a janky partial weekend where I would have fun with people while thinking, “Okay, but I also have to do more work today to make up for it!” And then, wouldn’t you know it, I was still working up to the bell. If I had just taken days off, I probably would have been more efficient on the days I did dedicate to working.
And by “working,” I don’t mean Catgirl System, I mean the stuff I do for a living. Because as said earlier, the story has only barely been happening. I made a spreadsheet to visualize my work over the past few weeks, and the results are, well…uh…um.
The “Week Stats” boxes are meant to fill in with beautiful color as I write more original words of Catgirl System every week. As you can see in the spreadsheet above, one of those boxes is kinda slightly pale yellow. Wait, you can’t see it. It’s too pale.
When things aren’t running consistently in Catgirl Writing Land, the way is wide open to distraction. I knew this would happen going in, and it has happened to me many times before, but this time, I didn’t push back—because instead of seeing it as a roadblock or even as a project to replace Catgirl System, I’ve been seeing it as a way to explore what I should do afterward.
What’s Next?
I want to start selling gamebooks in 2025. I want to make concerted efforts to table at events for small publishers who work in graphic novels, books, zines, and anything adjacent to that. I want to become an expert in a niche that’s not as saturated as LitRPGs. I want to work on more shorter projects rather than a single long series, at least for now—working on my current four-book series has given me the impression that “I’m not doing anything new” and “I’m just spinning my wheels.”
And I want to start preparing for this sooner rather than later. But I do want to finish what I’ve started.
So I’ll finish the last book of Catgirl System concurrently with learning about gamebooks and experimenting with the form. I hope to print copies of Catgirl and sell them at events alongside a growing library of gamebooks and this zany rabbit magazine that I for some reason have like eighty copies of.
I think bringing work to in-person events might be satisfying in a way that struggling to move copies on the online equivalent of big-box stores never can be. I hate advertising on social media and would much prefer to talk to fellow creators face to face.
And y’know…I never wanted to be a “king of LitRPGs” or anything like that. I always wanted to be seen as an interesting experimenter and tinkerer doing something unusual and fun. But if I had wanted to become one of the top dogs, I know for sure that I couldn’t have done it.
Yet somehow—and probably because it is so much more niche—I think it’s possible for me to become some sort of modern “king of gamebooks.” I mean, I have to get way better at it, and I have to actually practice and write some this century, but…somehow it seems both more possible and more enjoyable both to do interesting tinkery things in the niche and to become skilled enough that I can’t quite be ignored.
I don’t have it in me to make another LitRPG longer than a single-book story. A collaboration? Uh, maybe, I guess, but that idea doesn’t thrill me right now. I’ll move towards what excites me the most and seems most possible.
First:
Finishing Catgirl System in 2025
Alright, I have to get serious about this. No more expecting me to “get around to this right after I finish Job X, Email Y and Social Gathering Z.” I need to consciously lean on the writing and brainstorming strategies I’ve already accumulated and devote scheduled time to what is, in the end, an assignment. And in doing so, I’ll inevitably have fun making Catgirl System again.
Like I said elsewhere, I do like the story, the characters, and the world. Creating the story is not torture. But my anxieties about the story have risen as I get closer and closer to the fourth and final book. I just don’t think its core plot is as strong as I want it to be.
But…that just means I rework it to make it stronger. Make the final stage of this story more interesting, something I’ll have no problem immersing myself in. And if I give myself a deadline of The End of Summer, I feel like I have enough time to spend a good amount of it doing that brainstorming to improve the last leg of the tale.
Hopefully it’ll work out well. Wait, revise that—I’m determined to make it work out well.
There are a few small tasks I have lined up to complete this November: finish revising Book 1, finish writing Book 3. Honestly, the second may turn out to be a bit much, but if not by November, then by the end of the year. And I have to remind myself that I can slow down the release schedule if I need more time. It’s an arbitrary goalpost, after all.
Thank you for reading, and Patrons, thank you for Patreonning.
For more death-defying tales of intrigue, check out me regretting stuff I put in my demon lord story, or climbing out of recurring cycles of self-deprecation (inasmuch as this is possible). Alternatively: the power of dance!