March Madness Random Check-In! #WIPMadness

Hello, hello!

I hope you are all busily accomplishing lots of plotting and writing and revising this month. As for me, the month is actually going better than expected. I have completed my two projects that I wanted to complete this month, and as of today I have started working on query-type blurbs for each of these books. Writing blurbs has got to be the hardest job of all in my opinion, so even though my spirits are high today, I'm not sure how long that will last!

Besides the blurbs, I'd love to get onto writing the first draft of a book I've been putting off for a while during April, so I plan to spend the rest of the month looking at my notes on that one and seeing if I can find some inner drive and motivation.

How about you? How has the month shaped up so far? With one week left, what do you think you could conceivably accomplish toward your goals before April 1st?

March Madness Random Check-In! #WIPMadness

Happy St. Patrick's Day, fellow writing friends! How is your progress going through this mad month of March?

I continue to work through my second project of the month, a novel I am revising. Thanks to Spring Break, I haven't had to homeschool my son this week in the mornings. I usually spend about an hour first thing in the morning, focusing on whichever project I'm working on at the time (My aim, which my wonderful family is very good about supporting, is to focus my creative energy before speaking - or tweeting - to another person.) This week, I've been clocking in about three hours each morning, and I'm getting surprisingly close to the end of this pass! I'm very happy about this, but the part I'm not so happy about is the amount of crazy notes I've left throughout the manuscript for "Future Denise" to fix, because I don't know how to fix them during the scope of this pass.

So, yeah, good news and bad news, I guess. How about you? Have you set a schedule for your writing this month? And if so, have you been sticking to it? How have your goals been coming?

March Madness Random Check-In! #WIPMadness

How are the writing goals going, March Madders?

I can't say I've been having a super-easy March, so far, but I have been writing! I finished my first revision project a day later than anticipated, and have since been working on a revision of my second project, a book I haven't looked at in almost a year. It's fairly normal for me to struggle getting into a new project, and that was definitely the case with this one (especially since the first order of business was completely rewriting the beginning! Worse than a blank slate, for me, is having a completed project with a complete vision that you have to take and somehow tear apart and start from scratch with.)

Anyway, I'm proud to say I have been plugging away, despite my lack of feeling "in the groove." And actually, come to think of it, I'm feeling a little more in the groove each day now. So apparently perseverance works for something!

How about you? Are you still working away at your proposed project? Or did you switch it up to work on something else? Or were you just sitting around, refreshing your screen, waiting for this incredibly inspirational post to spur you on?

March Madness is Here! #WIPMadness

Hi, and welcome to all my dedicated writing friends! As  many of you know, in March each year, I hold a secondary NaNoWriMo-like challenge here on my blog. This year it's a little lower key, but we can all still support each other with our goals, right?

So set your goal for the month in the comments below. This can be a first drafting goal or a revision goal or an illustrating goal, or even a blogging goal! We don't have all the stringent rules of NaNoWriMo (but still just as much camaraderie and fun!)

Join in! Even if you've never dropped by here before, you are more than welcome, and we hope to have a few little prizes along the way to bolster motivation.

As for my goals, they are going to be split this month. I had hoped to finish a project by the end of February, but with my fabulous ability with keeping track of details, I neglected to remember that February only has a short amount of days (Thankfully ONE extra this year!) It would have been a challenge to finish by the end of the month even if February had 31 days, but keeping that in mind, I plan to challenge myself and finish this project by March 3rd. Then, on March 4th, I plan to start on a revision for a novel which I just got some fabulous suggestions for from a critique partner. My goal is to complete this revision by the end of March.

These are both challenging enough goals that I think I'll have to work very hard to complete them. What are your goals for March? I encourage you to set a bar that's not overwhelming, but will still motivate you with its challenge.

I look forward to keeping up with you this month to see how we are all progressing! Happy writing, revising, and whatever else you are working toward this month!