Monthly Recaps

Before I started this blog, I had a Youtube channel. Actually, I still have a Youtube channel. But I’ve been having issues with my editing software and my computer running slow so I haven’t really been able to post as I had planned at the beginning of the year. But as part of my effort to be engaging and accountable, I wanted to do monthly recaps of my goals. I could just let these sit in my folder, but I actually want them to live here on the blog with the other months as well. But instead of making multiple posts of months past, I decided to just make one post for the months I missed. I don’t actually think I wrote anything for January. I think that was just a video. I don’t feel the need to transcribe it and post it so I’ll just leave you with February through April for now. Next week I’ll post May’s recap. So, basically, one post a month will be my recap of the previous month and how I did toward my goals. Engagement and accountability. Plus, I really want y’all on this journey with me! Thanks for coming along. Recaps below…

February Recap

So, I think I had predicted that February would be busy with work. And it was. But not as bad as I thought but it was a tough month for me creatively. I’m not even sure why. I had two weeks of little to no productivity. Well, little not no. And I had a week and a half of good productivity. While I did do things every week, they were things that lead to my yearly goals vs. my weekly goals. So, I’m trying to remember the big picture and not ignore the small steps.

So, I didn’t hit my two thousand words a week any week and that’s okay… kinda. But I did write and do some brainstorming on my works in progress. And I thought I found the argument for one of my stories that I was sure I lost but I didn’t. It is, sadly, still gone. One of the big things I needed to do for February was read through Flight of Hope again with the added parts. But I didn’t. And mainly because I couldn’t decide if my strong feelings were going to overshadow any truth that may have come to me. So now I’m on a search for a couple of new beta readers. I also came up with a couple of more new story ideas because I’m definitely short on those (NOT). But one involves several siblings and their different businesses and a couple are family-owned businesses.

March Recap

So, this is the end of the first quarter of the year and I’m thinking I may need to rethink my yearly goals. Mainly my goal to write two thousand words a week. I thought I’d be able to hit it weekly no matter how busy I was with my day job. And it shouldn’t be a big task but it has been. And with that, I am unsure if I will be able to complete the two works in progress. Writing is just coming slower than I thought even though March was busy for me with classes. The month was not a complete bust despite my word count. Again, I moved things forward, progressed. So that I’m happy about. I did work on Arranged. I figured out I can’t restart Break My Fall until I do a read through of what I have so far. It’s currently at around 60k so it’ll also give me the ability to close any gaps that I felt and rework any of the plot that I need to. And the biggest thing from the month is that I began to plot and outline a new story idea. It will contain siblings who are in family business together. Right now, I have it at eight (8) siblings. HA! But I will probably trim that down considerably. Or maybe not. Let’s see what this muse is going to do.

April Recap

Last month, as I was thinking about my progress, I thought I would need to reevaluate my goals. As of right now, they are still the same. I didn’t change any. I’ll reevaluate again at the end of the second quarter. But on the first week of April, I put down a sticker in my planner. It said “progress over perfection”. I clearly needed that reminded. I think it is so easy to get caught up in perfection or having everything exactly right that we ignore progress. Or at least I know it is easy for me to do that. I’m trying to walk more in this thought of progress over perfection and I’m learning to give myself grace as well. I want to make actual progress instead of just the appearance of progress.

In some research that I was doing during the month, I came across some articles about imprints and authors starting their own. This is so intriguing to me! Several authors have started their own imprint and released their books through their own imprint. There is a big part of me that really likes this idea. My own imprint. My imprint printing my books. Wow. I can see it now! I haven’t fully decided whether to go that route yet. But I’m keeping it in the back of my head.

I am still actively working/writing on Arranged. I came up with another important plot point for the story as well. I think previously I expressed some concern about the novel being shorter for the genre for what I have plotted right now, and that is still true. I think this will definitely help plus it’s relevant. I don’t want to come up with ideas just for the sake of ideas. I also think the more I get into this, the more the characters will reveal themselves to me and it’ll naturally flesh itself out in some parts. That is usually how it works for me, thankfully. I, also, completed some much-needed research for my main male character. I still have a bit more to do but I’m not sure what will serve me now and what won’t. I think I’ll figure that out once he’s introduced into the story and their relationship starts to develop. I don’t mind stopping for research because there’s usually not a major plot point resting on my research.

I really have to start the Break My Fall read through so I can get back to work on that. It is still around 60k words. I haven’t decided if I want to pursue traditional publishing with this or self-publishing. If I go the self-publishing route, I would like for it to be released next year. So, I have a lot of work to do on it.

I did some brainstorming on my eight siblings’ story, but nothing too much to report right now. I’ll plot and outline as things come to me, but I probably won’t start this story until next year. I’m excited for it but there are other priorities and I am okay with that.

Also, I set up this here lovely website! Yay!

Until next time, happy writing and reading!