It’s been a tough month on the writing front for me. I had hoped to have Corruption of Blood (Book 3 in the Blake Heira Series) to my editor by now. That hasn’t happened. I was also hoping to have Casualty of Silence completely drafted by now, which hasn’t happened, either. So, what have I been doing?

First thing, I’ve been doing a lot of research and preparation for my next series, starring a new character. I’ve been posting about the setting for these books in my series Creating Shildaria, which I’ve been having a lot of fun doing. It does take a lot of my time, however.

Second, I’ve been reading a book on storytelling called Save the Cat Writes a Novel. This has been a truly inspired book. If you are interested at all in writing long form fiction, I’d recommend it. I’m not quite done, but it has been a great read. I’ve also been reading the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. If you want to be a good writer, you should be a good reader.

Third, I’ve been putting my subscription to Masterclass.com to good use. I’m taking the Neil Gaiman class, which has been great and a secret upcoming class that I reviewed for them. That was a very interesting experience. I’d highly recommend that you check them out if you are interested in any of the topics they have. Writing, film-making, cooking, and performance are their focus, but they have classes on wine, basketball, and tennis. I’ve taken classes from Dan Brown, Daniel Negreanu, and Margaret Atwood in previous months. I have many more that I plan to take this year.

Fourth, I’ve been working on Casualty of Silence. I’m about 90% of the way through my first draft, so completing that is my first priority in the next month. I’m at the end, so I should be able to finish it up in about a week.

Fifth, I’m finishing up my 2nd set of edits for Corruption of Blood so I can send them to my editor. I’m still waiting on some beta reader feedback, but I’m going to work on some of the stuff I know I need to do. My editor gave me a deadline for getting that to her, so I need to get to that.

Sixth, I’ve been doing the series planning for my next books. My initial plan was to work on preparing for book 6 in the Blake Heira series next. However, some things have changed with my critique group, the Des Moines Writers’ Workshop, which will make me accelerate my plans on my second series. Initially, This was going to be five books, but I’ve decided to do nine instead. I have all of their concepts created, which really helps in the overall planning. Once I’m done drafting and editing, I’ll get into planning Book 1 of that series.

It’s been busy, but not not productive, yet. Here’s hoping that March will be better than February! Next week, I’ll be continuing my series on Creating Shildaria. I’ll see you next Thursday.