Novels and Narrations No 7

Last Updated on February 24, 2021 by ThoughtsStained

Hello, lovelies!

Welcome back to another monthly update on my writing! As you may have seen in January’s update, I’m trying to be more intentional in putting my writing first and really develop a writing habit again, focusing on editing BLOOD PRICE before diving into new worlds and stories for the first time in years.

So, let’s see how February went!

Monthly Recap

In January, I wrote almost half a dozen times and I was pretty stoked about it (especially when you view that in comparison to writing half a dozen times over the course of 2020 as an entire year). As you can see from February, we’re still making strides in developing a regular routine, as I wrote 11 times this month, as of today, February 24th–so, almost half the month! 🎉

Also, before anyone thinks that, for two days I suddenly became a machine, I ended up reaching the end of Act One this month in BLOOD PRICE and decided to go back through during one weekend and read through it all again, to make sure my overarching goals were implemented thoroughly. Likewise, these are all numbers in *edits*, not necessarily new words written. I’m not that impressive. 😂

While I did have some spurts where depression got the better of me (or, just too damn busy with everything else), I am pretty jazzed with my progress. Most recently, I ended up cutting out a series of scenes that my editor mentioned slowed down the pacing and the flow and wow, was she right, even if I resisted a little bit on the onset (which ended up cutting 4,000 words in the process). I am about to rewrite the new scenes with a different focus in mind for Kajsa and I’m pretty excited about it, because these new scenes are going to:

• Increase the pacing
• Keep the tension amped up
• Help bring one plot thread further into the fore
• Foreshadow a major event at the end

So, I’m pretty excited about that, before I get to dive into some of my favorite bits of the novel, which is the entirety of act two (previously vague because of spoilers, but I dunno how I can write a character who is so strong, because lord knows I couldn’t survive what I put her through).

March Goals

On the downside, I am a bit behind on my goal of finishing by April 1st. Not to the point where I think I won’t be able to get it done. The next section requires some heavy rewriting and then I’m changing a secondary character pretty substantially, so those changes will need to happen throughout the story, but quite a few of the major edits needed to happen in the beginning. The rest will be more threading things through and making sure it all ties together by the end, so I’m still confident!

Goal Summary

• Finish (!!) this round of edits
• Continue building routine
• Stop beating myself up when I fall short

I’m pretty excited to continue moving forward with this story. I was telling a friend the other day how it kind of blew my mind how much I loved this story and how proud I was of draft six and yet, I’m…kinda obsessed with how draft seven is turning out? A part of me panics with that realization, making me doubt how I can be confident at all when I was confident before, yet this story obviously still needed so much work. Yet, I’m choosing to instead just be proud that I listened to feedback and was willing to do the work again when it needed it. 🖤

My fellow writers, what are you working on? How can I support you? Let me know in the comments and thanks for supporting me in my own journey!

Cheers.