In my last Friday Write-Day post two weeks ago, I mentioned how I might change up the format of this once-weekly post to both challenge myself and provide some more unique content on RSPC.

I thought about a bi-weekly update for about a minute, until I realized that nothing outside of paychecks are scheduled fortnightly, and scheduling my blog in that manner would be ridiculous.

So now it’s monthly. On the first Friday of each month, I’ll update ya’ll on my writing progress from the previous month and talk about my goals for the new month. I’ll have a new title card for this monthly series next month.

January Writing

Nada. January was a terrible month in terms of actually writing, but I achieved a few other writing-adjacent things:

• I successfully read the beta copy of The Sleeping and the Dead, and will be completing the attendant reader questions this afternoon. (I won’t write a review of this until I’ve seen its final form, but it was really good.)
• I published the first chapter of The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan on Wattpad
• I hung out with Jessie for the first time in two months, and we always discuss writing-adjacent things, as well as the usual best-friend subjects (work, boys, books)
• I have a loose schedule in my head for more regular, fresher content on this site
• Both Nugget and I survived my three-week paternity leave

Okay, so I didn’t actually write 0 words in January. It was something in the neighborhood of 400. And I’m totally okay with that, and not only for the reasons listed above.

I needed a break from The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. I’ve spent so much mental energy this winter thinking about the story at large, how to approach it, and the next steps for each of my characters that it honestly became distracting for my writing.

The last few weeks have allowed me to stew over it a bit and ensure that this is still the story I want to write.

I might be decreasing the narrative load of certain characters, but the most important question I answered for myself is this: I want to tell Arden’s story. This is really her book. The other characters will have their roles to play, but getting Arden’s story right is crucial, I think, for me as a writer, and for this world in general. That will be my focus in the near term.

Onto February!

I officially go back to work on Monday. I’m a little conflicted, because I love staying at home with Nugget, but I’ve also been looking forward to getting back into my normal routine.

Now that I have my office set up, my plan is to dedicate about one hour per night to writing. I’ll probably aim to do this between putting Nugget to bed and putting myself to bed.

Weekends, of course, can be leveraged for a bit more writing time.

This is all dependent on the notion that I can be a lot more disciplined with my writing than I have been of late.

I’ll also need to keep up with revising each chapter of Grand Mythos before publishing it to Wattpad in the final week or so of the month.

And, of course, I’m trying to read more consistently. Since I’m taking Nugget to daycare each morning, my commute to work will increase to about an hour total (if not more), so I’m signing up for Audible to use that time wisely.

Thus, it’s a bit hard to project how many words I can write per hour, per night, but let’s give this a shot:

Goals for February

1. Write 12,000 words for WoEL. It’s a short month and this is a new routine for me. Baby steps.
2. Revise and publish chapter two of Grand Mythos on 2/26
3. Read Parador, by Peter A. Dixon on Wattpad
4. Subscribe to Audible and start listening to books on my extended morning commute

Steve D