February Update: Always Shifting

The writing group I'm a part of has stopped doing monthly meetings. This is mostly a good thing, as it was the same 3-5 people saying the same things over and over. Mostly the meetings were to schedule things, and all of that now happens through the FB group. Overall, it's been nice having the first Sundays of the month back.

The one thing we're missing is the monthly accountability. Going around the room saying "hey, my accomplishments last month were these, and I hope to get this done this month." We've started doing a FB post for that, as well, but it doesn't feel quite the same.

That being said, I seem to have shifted to doing my writing blog updates closer to the beginning of the month the last few months. And while I thought it might be good to have a wrap-up of a month at the end of a month, I realize that these blog posts might be a nice way to bridge that gap.

So. At least for this month, I'll talk about what I did in January and what I hope to get done in February.

I'd planned on writing most of last month. All of that changed when an amazing dark sci-fi/fantasy magazine opened up submissions for novels and novellas in January. I'd already subbed to another publisher that had open submissions at the end of last year, so since I decided this has sort of become the year of publisher submissions, I'd throw my hat in the ring.

Trouble was, their word count limit was 120,000 words. Monsters of Lawrence was nearly 125,000. So, I spent January doing intensive edits on book one. It was fantastic. I cleaned up all of the clunky language that had made me cringe for years. I cut a lot of inside jokes from when I first wrote it nearly a decade ago. I fixed some of the lore that has evolved since writing another book and a half.

And at the end of January, I had a sleek, stunning, 119k-word novel. Even if it doesn't get picked up by the publisher, it was an overhaul it desperately needed. I hadn't done an intensive edit like that in about a year. It was going to have to happen to self-publish anyway. I am now ahead of the game (and with a much cleaner, tighter draft for when I sub to other publishers this year).

I've blocked out the rest of my year as far as publisher subs. I've got two more lined up, and then, I just may chuck it at one last one at the beginning of next year, depending on how everything else goes. Book three should be done by then. Written at least. Maybe ready for beta readers. I may decide at that point I do want to do it myself and not bother. Although on the other hand, I may send it just to say I did. It's the first time I've done any of this. I want the full experience from start to finish. I want to be able to say I did everything I could with it before either trunking or self-publishing.

At any rate. I didn't work on book three at all in January. That ended up working out, though. I got reacquainted with all my friends as I cleaned up book one, let the world sweep me up again. And while I was there, I figured out a lot of things I was getting hung up on with book three. And while there are still some issues, I've filled in some blanks and fixed some plot holes, so I'm ready to move forward.

Or I was, until I got the flu.

But I got better. And as of today, I've written about two thousand words on it, getting past the scene I was stuck on and figuring out what comes next.

My goal for the next 22 days is to write about 15,000 words. I'm excited about the things that are happening. I really love a few of the scenes I've written. I'm so excited to share this with my friends and family. I'm so excited to be done with it so I can read it!

Ideally I'll spend the next three months putting words toward it, finishing it up in May so I can spend the rest of the year doing edits. That being said, I may need a break before then. It took me most of last year to write 50,000 words on it. I fully anticipate getting stuck at some point.

But when that happens, I will probably go back to Druid Wars and get that off my plate. I haven't come up with the best way to fix the opening chapter yet, but the rest should be fairly easy to fix. For beta readers at least. It doesn't have to be perfect yet. Although I won't lie, the high praise I got on book two was nice. I'd love to be able to do that again.

And then I'll have to stare down Online Dating for Demons. But that's for Future Sara to worry about sometime closer to the end of this year.

Sally Prescott may not get any attention this year. Although I have figured out that the invention of the translating device dovetails nicely with her losing her wish at the end of the series. I haven't given up on her completely, but she's still rather back burner for now.

But that could change. My plans are always shifting. If I suddenly became unemployed, I might consider throwing season one out there just to make a few bucks. I could write an adventure a month if it suddenly became a way to make money. Hopefully it never comes to that. Sally deserves better.

Anyway! TL;DR: I spent January working on book one. I will spend February working on book three.

Here we go.