March was a weird month for writing. I wrote nearly every day up until Spring Break, and with kiddo home and lots of plans to keep her busy, I didn’t have time to write. And then after Spring Break, I had a bajillion things to catch up on between Patreon and my non-profit work that I didn’t have time to squeeze any writing in for the rest of the month. I still managed to write quite a bit in the first two weeks though, even if I did fall short of my 30,000 word goal. I wanted to get to 90,000 words on BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL by the end of the month, and even though I didn’t reach it, I did get to 85,000. That’s a win to me!

I also attended Writing Day Workshop in Kansas City this past weekend, my first time ever going, and it was an interesting experience! It’s definitely aimed toward more beginning writers, rather than seasoned, but the information was very good, and I appreciated hearing from agents about the writing and publishing process. I didn’t pitch any agents while I was there. With nothing finished, it felt a bit silly, and I probably would have been a spluttering mess, but I kind of wish I would have done it anyway. Agent feedback would be a good indicator of the marketability and salability of my current work-in-progress. Sometimes I feel like it’s too weird and complicated, and other times I feel like it’s The Book™ that will help me relaunch my career.

While hanging out with my friend Brittany in KC, we talked a little bit about my book and some of the apparent issues I’m having (or will have), and she helped me figure out that my main characters need a little more development. Writing BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL has been relatively easy until now, when my main character and the Beast finally meet, and we figured out that’s because I didn’t really know where they stood with each other. I have a little better understanding now, but I think I will try to work on it a little bit more before I dive back into writing the book.

Word Counts in March:

BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL: 23,718
Patreon: 1464
Blog/Newsletter: 1134
Ozark Book Authority: 897
Other: 1341

Total Words Written in March: 28,554
Total Words Written in 2019: 106,550

I already broke 100,000 words written this year!

Plans for April:

I’ve been busy planning for a non-profit event that I’m hosting this week, but once that’s over, I should have a lot more time to devote to writing again. I’ve hated not writing anything these last couple of weeks, but I’ve been so busy with non-profit stuff that I just did not have the time. That will change this month! I want to aim for 35,000 words this month and get BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL up to 120,000. I mentioned needing to work on my characters a little bit more, so I’ll need to do that first, but I don’t expect that to take me too terribly long, and once I do have it figured out, I should be able to write even faster because I’ll understand their motivations better as I write.

Patreon Round-up:

I got a new Patron last month! Huzzah! I’m up to 9 Patrons now, and earning $29 per month on the platform, which has been tremendous, really. It’s because of that income that I was able to go to Kansas City this weekend and attend that writing conference. Otherwise, I would not have been able to afford the cost. So thank you, Patrons!

Here is everything I posted last month:

For $5+:

POEM: Ready Player Two – a poem about parenting as a gamer

For $4+:

VIDEO: Character Relationship Development on BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL – a 27-minute video going over the process of redefining my characters in relation to one another

For $3+:

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: Mapping a Castle – a blog post about how I went about creating my fictional castle according to 13^th century blueprints and design.

For $2+:

EXCERPT: “Afraid” from BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL – Kenna’s first encounter with the Beast.

EXCERPT: “Ancient Power” from BLOOD OF SALT, TEARS OF PEARL – Kenna discovers the center of magic in the forest.

For ALL PATRONS:

Sneak Peek at This Month’s Postcard! – a glimpse at the custom artwork for the mailed postcards

Note: I was unable to produce any artwork in March due to time constraints, so I will be doing two art pieces in April to make up for it! I have something super cute planned, and I hope you guys will enjoy it.

As always, if there is anything in particular you would like to see as a part of my Patreon, let me know! I’m always looking for topics to cover in my writing and editing videos and my behind-the-scenes posts, so suggestions are welcome.