One Piece: Pure Corruption

First of all, I'll go ahead and wish you a Happy New Year. Which does come with an actual update, Chapter 064: James Conrad.

But obviously, this was a terrible year for Pure Corruption. Why was that?

First of all, going from Evernote to Joplin made my productivity take a hit. While Joplin is the better program, it means I cannot work on chapters remotely in the same way I've done previously when the opportunity arises. There's also some weirdness when getting the text from Joplin to publish, but I think I can iron that out.

But much bigger was really just what went on for me personally. This year was a real rollercoaster, there were ups and downs, and in the last few months, mostly downs. I'm not gonna go into details, but money issues and family drama, two things that haven't been entirely unrelated, have got me down for a while. The dark season isn't helping my motivation either, especially not since the weather has been very grey and rainy. Kenny don't like.

The money issues have driven me to, after five years at the same job, start looking for new or more work, too. I currently work half-time, and I've decided that my goal for 2025 is to get a full-time job, within the field that I have a Master's Degree in. At the same time, I'm also going to try to get some more hours at my current job, as well as look for some extra work. Things that would be good for me personally, but would leave me with less writing time.

And, then, there was... one more thing. Ever since I started writing Pure Corruption, I've strived to make it the project that I work on. I have other ideas, ideas for wtitings, and while I've written the occasional paragraphs for the occasional oneshot, I have actively chosen to not add another big project to my WIPs... well, until this year. One project just called to me too much to ignore, and I've been working on that on and off for the past six months-ish. This is not a project that would be as big, or take as much time in total, as Pure Corruption. Once I have reached a certain state of completion on it, I will also start bringing in more people to work on that, kind of. It's a project that I'm hoping should be finished during next year, and even as I work on that, I won't ignore Pure Corruption. I love Pure Corruption. Sometimes things just... don't line up for me.

And this is also why the chapter progress page got neglected. First I forgot for a bit, then I guess I was a bit ashamed.

I'm seeing a way forward for me. 2025 is going to be a year of breaking some old habits. Hopefully, that will translate into more motivation to work on things as well, especially as my money situation gets more cleared up.

Until then I will try to keep you updated.

See you in 2025.

/Kenny

Yeah, I'm disappointed too.

It wasn't supposed to take this long to get back on track, but having to start using a whole new program, even if it is a better program—which it absolutely is—takes a bit to get used to. My submission process appears to have gained a step for reasons I'm not getting into here.

But at the very least this anniversary comes with Chapter 063: Cassandra, the following chapter is in the final editing process, and I finally figured out how to start the next chapter. I know what's going to happen in the chapter, but sometimes it takes surprisingly long to figure out a good and interesting way to actually get my characters there. Hoping to get into a writing flow again.

As usual, thank you for your patience, and I hope you want to keep reading One Piece: Pure Corruption (I should probably talk about that title some time, huh) for another year.

/Kenny

...and then things fell apart a bit. I'm finishing the year with an update—Chapter 062: A Celestial Dragon, which I hope you will enjoy—but I had really hoped to get another one in before December was over.

But, well, some things worked to prevent that. My workflow took a bit of a hit when the program I use to do my writing, after 10+ years of use, had some nasty changes for free accounts which would make it unusable for me going forward, and they removed any kind of reasonably prices licenses too. I did end up finding some workarounds, but I'm still looking to move everything over to another program, and any change like that is going to impact the workflow. And of course I was mad about it for a few days too. And even if I didn't do anything special for Christmas, I did end up coming down with a post-Christmas cold, draining my energy. I think I'm getting better at least.

So there you have it, at least I got that up, and I want to wish you all a slightly belated MERRY CHRISTMAS (or whatever you celebrate!) and a slightly early HAPPY NEW YEAR, and I will see you in 2024!

/Kenny

After the considerable delay from when it was supposed to be published it's finally here!

Volume 07: Feathers, and the first chapter in it, Chapter 061: Being a noble.

Gonna be some things in this volume I've planned for a very long time (which, to be honest, is true of pretty much every volume, but anyway).

So please enjoy!

/Kenny

So I never actually said it to anyone other than my proofreader/editor, but I had the ambition to get all of Volume 06 published before March was over. And guess what? I succeeded, because now Chapter 060: Debriefing, the final chapter of the volume, has been published. Woop!

Of course, I'm already working on the next volume too, and now there's gonna be a planned break for about six weeks—my intention is to start publishing the next volume on May 14th, the anniversary of Pure Corruption. So I hope to have multiple chapters done or close to done by then!

Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you in May!

/Kenny

It's almost worth throwing a Chapter 059: Parade over, even!

Ahem. Yes. Not only is the penultimate chapter of Volume 06 up, but the final chapter of the volume has entered the proofreading/editing process, so that one should not be far off either. So yeah Pure Corruption is already having a better year than the last one.

Woop.

/Kenny

The important part is that Chapter 058: Kickoff is published.

I struggled with this chapter for a long time. My summer job drained me (but I'm still going to apply for that summer job this year, because cash cash money), and then I just ended up in one of those situations where I had stared at the same chapter for so long that I drove myself mad over it. Eventually it all came together... and then some last-minute editing discussions delayed it further. I had hoped to get it published before 2023, but anyway. I'm noting that I only published two chapters in all of 2022 and I am incredibly embarrased over that.

If there's one thing I've really figured out now it is that I need to just stop obsessing over details. That's the one New Year's resolution I'm making for myself in 2023: When it comes to writing Pure Corruption, I'm going to stop trying to get every single little detail absolutely perfect. It's more important that I get the chapters done, obviously I won't just half-ass them, but I'm not going to let perfect be the enemy of good. The worst case scenario is that I in retrospect realize something needs to be fixed, and then I cna just... fix it. It's my story. My page. I'm never gonna do any big retcons, but I am open to fixing smaller details in post. Like we journalists do.

Looking over things, I also realized there's only two more chapters in this volume (barring having to split one for length), so the progress page has been fixed accordingly. The progress bar for 059 is honestly not really telling the full story, as the chapter is already almost done, and is just one important paragraph, some connective tissue, and one final coat of polish away from going to proofreading. So expect that soon. Ish.

/Kenny

I've worked more than usual over the last few months. Gotten more hours at my regular hourly thing. Working more days than I've done before. Not only that, I've gotten another job, which is starting as a summer temp job for 6-7 weeks, but I've spent two days there this week to prepare, and was told there are opportunities for me to come in some more days before I start the summer work period.

For me, this is great. My income hasn't been quite comfortable enough previously that I've had no money worries, but now it's absolutely getting to the point where it is.

But on the other foot, this does mean less free time. At my hourly employment, I often work Saturdays. I worked today, even. And the summer thing, and any extra days, is full-time—for me meaning a work day is from 08:30 to 17:15, not counting the commute.

This... has the unavoidable consequence of making Pure Corruption suffer. I've talked before about how since it's something I don't make any money from, it's a hobby, and has to compete for me free time with other things I also really want to do that I don't make any money from. Yes, I fully acknowledge this means that I might not have the full level of dedication to Pure Corruption that I wish I had. It's something I've tried working on, too.

But today's the birthday of both me and Pure Corruption. And while I failed you last year, this time, I've got a double for you. Both Chapter 056: Fire Water Burn and Chapter 057: Nooks and crannies have been published. Those two were originally one chapter, but it ran too long so I split it up.

Thanks to everyone who's still sticking with me, and I'm still adamant about seeing this project through.

Until next time!

/Kenny