Tao Wong
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Writing Update: June 2025 – Big Changes, Burnout and Projects
🕑 Added 2025-06-10 15:00:14 +0000 UTCAlright, this is a big update. There’s some major changes that need to be discussed, and I’ve been putting off writing this update for a while. However, it’s time for you all to know, so let’s get to it.
A Thousand Li & Celestial Cataclysms
That’s right, book 12 is out! At least in ebook. Audiobook is waiting for July 2025 when Audible (who have the exclusive rights to the series now) releases it.
For those of you who have finished the book might know, we have a sequel series set in the same world that features Wu Ying and friends; just in a different way. The series is called Celestial Cataclysms, is going to be 9 books long (not 12) and they are epic fantasies.
Yes, there will be progression fantasy elements, but that’s not the focus of the book. It’s multi-POV, it’s massive because we’re bringing in the Heavens and the Thousand Hells and, well, a lot of the stuff that has been hinted at in the series; major events are playing out in Celestial Cataclysms.
You can read CC without reading ATL (or that’s the goal); but you’ll find more enjoyment if you know the previous series.
Book 1 is finished in draft and is the major reason why we’re doing this shift. It’s 250k words before edits. It’s now with a developmental editor who is going to help me polish the work; and I expect when they’re done and I’m done with my editing, this is going to be a 300k word chonker at the minimum.
Release date – middle of next year, because that’s how long it is going to take the dev editor, me, the copy editor and the proofer to get it as close to error free as possible.
It’s massive.
And the second book will be just as long. I expect, pretty much, every book is going to be just as long, if not longer. Which is a bit of a cramp on my plans, because I write (on average) around 650k words a year.
So… CHANGES!
Oh – and there’s one other announcement beyond the completion of book 12, but that’ll come soon(ish) and it’s stupidly exciting.
The System Apocalypse
Book 4 of System Apocalypse: Relentless is being written, as is the second Liberty book. We’re hoping to see them by the end of the year as personal issues hold up both authors. Not much to be done.
For those who didn’t know, we ran a Kickstarter for the deluxe edition of books 1-3, and those are currently in the process of being made. You can still pre-order copies here as we’ll have a number of extra.
Lastly, we’re working on a third anthology. No open call this time, we’re bundling a lot of my short stories, some new ones from David, Craig and Jason in it and also some new stories together. We’ll run a short-run BackerKit for it.
Hidden Dishes
No change here, I'm working on book 4 right now. I wasn't feeling book 4's start, but got some words down and then had an amazing dinner and now I'm in the throes of wanting to rewrite EVERYTHING. Which might happen and I'll shift what I wrote for book 4 to book 5 and it'll be fine... because I think the new idea is better and more amusing and will be a bit of a change of pace.
Climbing the Ranks
Book 3 Kickstarter just finished. You can late pledge on it too if you want. We had about 20 fewer backers which is about what we'd expect for another book in the series but a decent amount of $'s. If you haven't pre-ordered or backed it, you still can and we'd - as always - be grateful.
We're working hard at book 4 right now, sort of. It's being written and it's my 'break' series, so whenever I get tired of writing the other ones or my brain doesn't want to work; I write Climbing the Ranks because it's fun. Though...
Dungeon Brawler
Dungeon Brawler is a ton of fun too! Like, I'm thoroughly amused by how much I enjoy writing in this world; now if only each book wasn't 170k words long. However, book 1 is all done, edited, proofed and now with the narrator. We've got early chapters going out on Patreon right now, so if you want to see what my new LitRPG take is like, go poke there.
I'm also working on the second book in the series, trying to get it all up and running so that it's ready by the end of the 3rd quarter of this year.
However, the eagle-eyed might have seen that book 1's pre-order has been cancelled. What, you say? But the book is ready! Why cancel it?
Production Schedule, Burnout and the Changes
Alright, so, let's talk about the production schedule right now and what's been killing me. In an ideal world, I would write in a year:
1 Climbing the Ranks - approximately 170k
1 Hidden Dishes novella - approximately 30k words
2 Celestial Cataclysms - approximately 300k EACH (600k words)
2 Dungeon Brawler's - approximately 170k words each (340k words total).
That totals... 1,140,000 words in a year.
If you see my previous posts about writing limits (https://www.mylifemytao.com/business-post-the-numbers-game-and-self-publishing/), I wrote in the last few years around 700k words a year. So 1,140 words (not including random additional projects, which I already have about 40k worth of this year) is just over a year and a half worth of writing.
That assumes a straight line, no words get junked; we write all these perfectly. One thing I've realised - with Celestial Cataclysms being 300k words long probably, there's a LOT of junk words or slowdowns as my brain reboots and reconfigures plot threads and what I want to do. Sometimes, whole sections are rewritten or added; just to make things work better.
So. 1.5 years of writing to put into 1 year.
I thought I could do it, if I pushed hard; I might be able to squeeze in a million words and get everything that I planned written. That assumed two things though:
Celestial would be around 200-240k words finished
Dungeon Brawler would be 150k finished
Neither one seems to want to do that, which means I'm actually VASTLY off-shooting. There's no way to squeeze that many words out of me, without burning out.
Which, I have.
I started the year full of gung-ho gusto and wrote 90k words! Every month after that was a decrease, till I hit my 'normal' of around 60k last 2 months, and that was a struggle.
But... you have like a year's work ahead, right? Sort of. Drafting is a year ahead, but editing and proofing and then narration is going to take a long time. So. Right now, what we're looking at is...
4 months minimum to write Dungeon Brawler 2. That puts us in October. Another month for my editing, another 2 months for editing and proofing by others. That means, we're in February EARLIEST for it to be ready for the narrator. If we time it right, they need a month to narrate, which means we can release only in March. Still, not too bad... but...
Celestial Cataclysms 2 starts October. At 60k (avg writing speed); we are at 5 months minimum. Realistically, we are 7-8 months to write because I'm not going to be able to stay completely focused. Let's call it 7 months to be nice. That means we have earliest finish in May 2026. Two months to edit. That puts me in end July (August start) to get to editors. Now, we can add 3 months to the editors, which means they have it back to me in Nov. Quick turnaround, off to proofers who get it back to me in mid-December. So figure January we can get it to Travis for narration. If we fit his schedule, we're likely at February 2027 at the earliest for the book to release, but most likely March '27. So, at least 9 months, if not a year before it's ready.
Dungeon Brawler 3 starts writing in MAY next year (2026), add another 7 months (see above). We're looking at January for it ready for proofing, which puts us in exactly the same timeframe as before in 2026, except in 2027. That means book 3 of Dungeon Brawler releases 1 year LATER than DB 2.
and then, CC 3 starts writing in Dec 2026. Again, adding 1 year to the writing schedule, earliest we have it available for writing puts it at January 2028 for recording, so March or April realistically for release.
You see how that timeframe gets eaten up, and literally gives 0 time for rest and 0 time for slipups? And in-between all that, we have Hidden Dishes and Climbing the Ranks which I'm assuming will fit in in-between the months when my brain needs a break from plotting big worlds.
That's the 'writer' side of my brain whose screaming about burnout and lack of time for slippage or rest.
Now, comes the publishing side.
DB 1 Oct '25 release. DB 2 March '26 release. DB 3 March '27 release. DB 4 May '28 maybe release. DB 5 ... ???
CC 1 - July '25. CC 2 May '26. CC 3 April '27.
Not horrendous for Celestial Cataclysms which is an epic fantasy and readers will wait a little longer. For LitRPG? A 1 year break between DB 2 and 3 would kill our momentum and lower readthrough rates hugely.
Impossible.
So we cancelled it.
The New Plan - Same as the Old Plan (Sort of)
No, really. I'm not insane. It is sort of the same writing schedule, except this time around; I'm not putting a release date for Dungeon Brawler at all. I don't know when I'll release it; though current idea is to hold it till August 2026 or so. Then we release book 1 and 2 and 3 all in short order, within 3-4 months of one another because I've pre-written books 1 and 2 and (hopefully) 3 will be ready soon after.
If I'm really lucky, 4 will come out soon after in 6 months and 5 the same.
However, the biggest thing is I can shift Dungeon Brawler release ENTIRELY if things don't go wrong. I have no pre-orders except on Starlit Publishing's site, and won't have the series release nailed down till we know for sure we can hit it. That means if we have slippage in the production schedule like we did here (or, as I suspect; Celestial Cataclysm books get even bigger); we have time to just drop writing DB books for a bit and catch up.
So, the guaranteed release schedule for now is:
1 Celestial Cataclysm book per year starting from next year
1 Hidden Dishes novella a year
1 Climbing the Ranks book
Random short stories and other works as my brain squirrels on me.
And Dungeon Brawler will be kept in the backend, getting stocked till I have at least 3 books ready (or close to it). The series is only 5 books long, so I might even just wait till like I have 5 books ready and I can slam them out.
That's my writing schedule for the next... uhh... 3 years? Maybe 5? And realistically, 9 years of writing with Celestial Cataclysms.
At least, hopefully. If CC actually sells well. If it doesn't... that might be a problem, since it literally is taking up 7-8 months of my writing schedule. There's a minimum that it has to do or else; well... I can't afford to write it. sighs Or at least, not quickly. It'd end up being a side-project that gets pecked away at while I write stuff that sells.
But that's a different beast, and we can talk about that in a business post.
I know, GIANT update. Questions, drop them here.
Comments
Tao Wong
I probably won't. One thing about being old and having burnt myself out before (previous jobs) is that I know what it feels like to get close to the edge. All this is basically ways of me adjusting as the work gets a bit much. Shifting DB to an unknown release date is the biggest thing that'll help because worst case, I just toss it aside and focus on CC entirely.
Andre A
Less is more, slow is fast. Your stories are amazing, but it needs to be sustainable. Please don't burn out!
