Writing:

May was not the month for writing, apparently. I scheduled myself to teach weekly writing classes, and also come up with all the material beforehand, last month, and as such, I spent more time prepping class material than I did writing fiction (as you will see in the numbers below; I didn’t even manage to do anything for Patreon). I still managed some writing, which I’m proud of, even though it’s not as much as I would like. I did spend a few days at the end of the month reworking the outline for BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL. I realized that I was advancing the plot too quickly for the amount of time passing, so I made some notes to adjust and move some scenes around to make it flow more naturally. It’s super unexciting work, but necessary. Still behind “schedule” on where I would like to be with the book right now, but I feel like with the changes I have planned, I’ll be able to pick up the pace again soon.

Word Counts in May:

BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL: 12,365
Blog/Newsletter: 976
Patreon: 0
Other (Writing Class material): 7,356

Total Words Written in May: 20,697
Total Words Written in 2019: 156,303

Woohoo! I crossed 150,000 words total for the year! To put that in perspective, I wrote less than 115,000 words in the entire 2018 calendar year, so I’m on a good track right now!

Patreon:

Due to the amount of work I had to put into my writing classes, and a few ill-timed bouts of chronic pain, I did not get the chance to work on any of my Patreon stuff. I did post one excerpt, and as an apology for not posting anything else, I posted the first chapter / prologue of BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL for all patrons to read and enjoy.

So, only a couple things this month:

For $2+:

EXCERPT: “Love”

For All Patrons:

BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL – Prologue

Plans for June:

Again, I’ll be aiming for 150,000 words on BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL this month. Kiddo starts summer camp in a couple of weeks, so I’ll be able to get back to regular programming and hopefully start churning out some book. Having the writing class in May really hampered my progress, so I’m hoping that with the adjustments I want to make, I can get back on track and start speeding toward that midpoint. I’m at 123,000 total right now, so that puts me to write 27,000 words in June if I want to hit my target, which I feel is mostly doable, considering my average monthly output so far this year. I really want to reach the midpoint in the story this month, because once I do, I feel like the rest of the story will flow out in a rush. Right now, I’m still working on a lot of buildup, weaving plot lines and character threads, lacing backstory and worldbuilding into the scenes, so that when the big reveals and battles come, they’ll hit the way I want them to. I’m proud of what I’ve written so far, and even 123,196 words into the story, I’m still excited to tell the rest, if only to prove that I can do what I set out to do.