Peter Kim

What’s up everybody,

I’m going to pause updating this journal for a bit in order to focus on writing my novel. I’m pretty deep in the rewrite so I think going on Airplane Mode for a bit to finish will be a good thing.

I’ll still be around! You’ll still be able to hear me, if you really want to. I’ve started a podcast just for fun where I talk to other artists about their creative life. And even though I have a voice for newspaper, I’ll try my best to find amazing people to talk to and share it with you.

When I hop back on here I’m hoping to have some good news for everyone 🙂 thanks

– Peter

What’s up everybody, September’s wrap-up is gonna be an audio, so click and listen, please 🙂

• Rewrite Challenges
• On Reading
• Your Support
• Future plans

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since I posted an update on this blog. Which is a little unfortunate because it’s something I try to do consistently. I’m not great at social media, so I thought the least I could do was to manage a monthly blog post. I also like these posts because it helps me get my thoughts on the page. On the positive side, I haven’t been posting as much because I’ve been keeping myself busy with this novel.

Anyway, personally, things were going pretty well here in Korea for quite a bit. For the most part, it seemed like people had a little more freedom to move around compared to the States. But recently we’ve been having a spike in Covid cases, (some people thought it would be a good idea to attend a big rally.) There’s even a few cases in my neighborhood, so people are just trying to stay cautious to stem the outbreak. However, before this, I did manage to accomplish a few things.

For starters, one thing I managed to do is spend more time with my friends. Over the past several months, I’ve realized I’ve been neglecting that area in my life. I haven’t really been making a big effort to connect. There were a lot of factors, and locking myself inside to finish this novel was certainly one of them. However, this month I tried to make up for some lost time so to speak. I’ve been meeting my friends more often and it’s been great to reconnect with them.

Work life was getting back to normal. My classes were about 50% online and 50% offline. Having my students back in class was a lot better. Being in the same room with them, seeing their faces, and making connections with them was great. I generally enjoy the the mixture of both online and offline classes. It changes up the routine of the day and that’s a good thing if you’ve been teaching for a while.

However, with the spike in cases, all of my classes are back online. And, at the risk of sounding ungrateful in a time when a lot of people don’t have jobs, I’m going to say that I’m not looking forward to another long stretch of online classes. Mainly because I just get burned out from teaching online. I’m just going to try to focus on the positives and be grateful that I still get to work. And realize that I’m not alone. Everyone is doing their part and making the adjustments in spite of the inconvenience.

Oh I’ve been studying a little bit of martial arts whenever I have free time. It started out as a pleasant distraction and something that’s been healthy for me in terms of moving my body around. I’ve even been sparring a little bit and let me just say I’m really good at stopping punches with my face. With all the sitting that I’m doing these days, it feels great to move around.

And finally, perhaps you’re wondering what’s going on with my novel. As of writing this, I’m closing in on a first draft and should have one done by the end of the year, something like December 2020. After that, it’s going to be revision and refinement until the story is ready. I’ve been thinking of publishing the novel in serial format on this site, but I haven’t decided anything yet. So overall I’m happy to say that things are moving along. Of course, some days are better than others but that’s just the nature of creative business.

In the next couple of months, I’m going to keep my head down and continue working hard on this project. There’s still a lot of work ahead of me. So I’m just going to be patient, enjoy the process, and not think about the finish line too much. I get a tendency to want to sprint toward the end of a project, but I know that being patient here will pay off in the long run.

And I’m going to try very hard to post regular updates. Hopefully I’ll have some exciting news in the next couple of months to share with everyone. Until then I hope you stay safe and take care of yourself. Even if we are far away, just know we are all in this thing together.

Talk Soon,

Peter

Hi everyone,

Quick novel update. I just finished a good month of working on the novel. Some good news is that I’m basically done my outline and now going forward I’m just going to be mainly focused on the writing itself.

I’m happy with my progress so far. The words on the page are really the most “me” I’ve ever been in my writing. So I can’t wait to share this with everyone.

As for my plans for May, I’m going to take some time off to relax and chill with friends. Just be a normal person for a little while without all those story details bouncing around my head. But then it’s right back to work.

If you’re reading this, thanks for stopping by 🙂 I appreciate the support!

-Peter

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say hello and post something for my monthly wrap-up. I try to do a montly post where I summarize what’s been going on because it helps me keep track of things. This month, the post is going to be light.

This month, I just want to update everyone on how I’m doing, not really writing related stuff. South Korea hit its peak in cases some time ago and it looks like it’s heading toward its down swing. It’s a little less tense, but schools are still out until the end of April until further notice. I’m teaching my classes online, staying inside as much as I can, and trying to stay active during this time.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m hoping everyone is staying safe where you’re at!

-Peter

Hi Everyone,

Haven’t been updating as much. Thanks so much if you’re still checking in on my progress.

Writing wasn’t great in January or most of February. Mostly due to burnout from work. This time of year is always busy, and I was doing way more hours than I like to do. I love teaching, but I realize that if I don’t get to be creative then it really starts to bum me out.

And just as I was complaining about work, everything with the coronavirus hit. I think it’s a good reminder to not take things for granted, especially things like health and career. On that note, I hope everyone is healthy and in good spirits.

On a positive note, with the extra down time, I’ve been getting back into working on my novel. I recently made some good strides in a section that was giving me some challenges before. Right now, I’m revisiting some areas in the outline. From the late second-act onward, the story wasn’t super developed. Now I’m taking the time to make it stronger before I get back into writing the words on the pages. The important thing is switching from writing mode to outline mode, which can be a little different in terms of what you focus on. In an outline, it’s more broad strokes.

That’s all for now. The post seems thrown together, a bit like patchwork, but I will try to keep everyone updated as much as I can. Maybe I could put out some videos or find other ways to keep everyone in the loop. Until then, thanks for reading!

-Peter

Better late than never!

Super late post y’all but I’ve been really busy the start of the year. Trying to manage the added work and demands on my schedule.

Quick recap: January was pretty challenging. Lots of things popped up that challenged my focus, but I’m satisfied about the way I handled things. 

One of the things I’ve realized is that there’s always going to be some kind of adversity in your life. Conditions are never going to be perfect. You’ve gotta learn to play through the struggle, under any circumstances.

Going into February, I’m focused on managing my energy levels and adjusting my expectations.

Short post this month everyone,

I had a really productive month in December and I’m really happy with the results. Not so much writing was done this month, but it was more about shoring up everything in my life outside of writing, and in that regard, I feel like I’ve done some really good work in that area. So, even though it wasn’t the most productive month in terms of my writing output, I’m still super happy about what I’ve managed to accomplish.

The short story is in the final stages before release. Still aiming for a January release. Sorry for the wait!

Didn’t really write too much this month since I was mainly focused on my personal life, but I still managed to get some good productive writing sessions in. I usually try to write every day, but this month, I tended to have longer writing sessions only about three times a week. Overall, I think things are heading in the right direction.

‘The Double’ is currently in the editing process. Took a little longer than expected because I got inspired on the rewrite session and wound up doing more work than I anticipated. For anyone interested, the editing process on my short stories usually lasts about three weeks to a month. I’ve got a good group of people who are helping me put this project together so I’m super excited to share it with everyone.

During this stage, there’s a lot of non-writing things that I need to do. I finished designing the cover and will soon need to start getting all the files ready for publishing. Some consider it a tedious process but it’s necessary in order to create a good reading experience for people.

Next month or January, I’m hoping to publish the short 🙂

Hello everyone,

Gonna keep this post short hopefully and then get back to writing. Hope everyone had an amazing Halloween!

This month was a challenge for me. After having a really good stretch of productivity in September, I ran into some tough challenges in October that seriously threatened to derail the efforts that I had been making thus far. For a good amount of October, I was sidelined as I let bad habits creep back into my life. Basically, I stopped doing the things that I need to do every day in order to be happy. Despite the setback, I managed to regroup and close out the month on a positive note.

Lots of ups and downs this month, but here’s two things that happened with my writing:

1. I closed out a short story called The Double. I’m excited to release it. It’s been a while since I shared a short story with everyone and I’m hoping to put this out fairly soon.

2. Also, I continued Part 5 of my novel. I realized that a lot of my Part 5 outline needed to be reworked, so October was mainly spent fixing my outline, writing dialogue, etc. So not much writing words-on-the-page got done. But I’m happy to say that I did finish the outline.

Lessons learned:

Momentum is a powerful thing. Everything you do has a compounding effect; the choices you make now are having a big impact on your future. If momentum is not working for you, then it’s working against you. You’re either improving or deteriorating. Yes, plateaus are real, but plateaus can lead to frustration, which can lead to deteriorating. I can’t let the force of momentum carry me the wrong way.

Going into November, I got a pretty good outline for Part 5, so I’m hoping to have some fun in just focusing on the writing words-on-the-page element of it. As far as the short story is concerned, I think I’ll put it through the editing pipeline this month. I’m going to bring on some people to help me with it also.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading everyone! If you ever want to leave a question or comment, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

-Peter

Alright everyone, I’m going to keep this post focused mainly on the writing, because for some reason, I’m not really feeling putting out a super personal post as I usually do.

This month of September was a vacation month for me, so I spent about two weeks with family. It was a great time and I got a lot of energy from it. It really left me in good spirits. I always get this sense of responsibility when I’m with family. It’s a good reminder of why I started writing in the first place. I didn’t grow up in a great area, and I always looked at writing as the lottery ticket that would get me out of the hood. I saw it as a way to help my family. That rags-to-riches story. Over the years, my motivations for writing have matured, but every once in a while, I’m reminded of that hunger that I felt when I was a poor kid in Philly.

I also spent some time introducing my family to some close friends. I can’t begin to say how lucky I am in regards to my friends. They really treated me and my family well. What can I say? It really makes me want to be a better person as well and invest more in my relationships. I haven’t been the best in this area, Lord knows, but I’m going to do better.

So, not too much happened in the writing department. I adjusted my expectations a bit due to the family vacation, so I knew that my output wouldn’t be as much. Still, I think there was about a stretch of a week during the visit where I didn’t write. Despite not much output happening, a lot of internal things happened to me as a writer. Mainly, I just feel much more composed as a writer than ever before. I looked back at some of my blog posts from previous years, and it’s very different than how I’m feeling now. I was much more insecure and unsure of myself. It took years of hard work, failure, and lessons learned in order to overcome those things, but I feel like I’m really getting into the zone with my craft. And I know there is still a lot more hard work, failure, and lessons learned ahead of me.

As you may know, I closed out Part 3 (technically, Part 3B) of my novel. I’ve been focusing more on quality so it’s fairly well-developed. But it got a little bit rough toward the end and I think I got a little impatient and lost focus.
The current status of the novel is that I’m now on Part 4 of 6. As a reminder, each part of the novel is about 10k words each, so when I finish the draft, I’m anticipating it to be around 60k words. My process has been much more focused on writing quality, so it’s been a slow and steady pace but I’m happy with the results. The previous segment that I finished was fairly well-developed, but I’m hoping to improve upon that as I go into Part 4.

Going forward, I’m just hoping to stay focused on and committed to the craft. I want to show up every day and put in the work needed to make this the best possible story it can be. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into this writing thing. But I know that if I want future success, then this is where I earn it.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I haven’t been super detailed in my last few posts and I’m trying to figure out a way to address that issue. But just know that I’m in a good place now and I find myself starting to build some momentum in the right direction.

In October, I hope to update everyone and tell you that I’ve maintained a consistent quality throughout the writing.

-Peter

Hello everyone,

It’s that time again for another recap of the month. I hope you’ve all had an awesome summer so far and stayed cool. It looks like the weather is changing so hopefully we get some relief from all the heat we’ve been having.

Here’s my breakdown of what happened for me this month in writing:

PROCESS:

June and July was mainly focused on recovery and getting back to some sort of equilibrium with my life. But this month of August for me was mostly getting back on the horse again and starting to build the daily habits that I need to do. I’ll be honest with you, it’s still a huge task just to summon the energy every day. A lot of the days in August were extremely hot, and I just did not feel like doing anything. Plus, the energy and motivation just wasn’t there. I attribute the low energy to a poor diet, lack of exercise, and mostly not totally being in the right mental and emotional state to really work at the high level needed to write a novel.

RESULTS:

I closed out a short story this month. An idea that I had that I really wanted to share with other people. Currently, it’s being reviewed by some trusted readers and soon I’ll start the revision process on it. Hoping to release it quite soon! The story is about a man who is unsatisfied with his life and his marriage. I’m still thinking of a title for it. Excited to put it out there!

In summary, I would say that the writing process was inconsistent but there were some good moments. This month wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but it was necessary. Definitely I’m getting back into my daily grind and I’m hoping to keep building momentum going into September. Next month, I’m going to be super focused on the novel.

Thanks,

Peter