Writing Review: February 2025

In my last update, I noted that I had a goals list and a plan for February, and the month started out strong. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way. Final word count was 12,982, which was an improvement from January but still short of the goal of 18,500. The more telling statistic, though, is that I wrote 8,887 words (68%) in the first ten days of the month. After that, things fell off dramatically.

This is a pattern I need to remember as I go into March. This said, I’m also taking a few extra steps to work on my ultimate goal of getting my rear end into the seat for writing every single day. From there, my word counts often take care of themselves.

• I made the decision early in the month to go ahead and start posting Standing in the Dark today, March 1, even though it might not be complete, as an incentive to get it finished as soon as I can. As of this writing, I’m very close to finishing the fourth rewrite of Chapter 30, and this time I’m happy enough with it that it’ll be going to my awesome beta. There are seven more chapters after that. While I don’t think I can get them done in a month, I do think I can get them done in time to maintain a once-per-day posting schedule, particularly given that my stories from Through the Years 3 can be posted beginning April 1.
• I turned in final drafts on my anthology stories on February 1. I haven’t yet been given a publication date, but I do know that work is ongoing; it will be sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I’m going to shift my focus over to the novella The Perfect Daughter, which is set in the same universe. The outline has been approved by the editors, so it’s time to start working on the first draft.
• To that end, I also set up the Jennie St. Thomas web site although it’s content-free at the moment. I don’t plan for that to be a regular blog as that’s what I’m doing over here. (Note that there is no back link to this site; that is intentional.)
• Speaking of the blog, I only managed three posts, which is well under the goal of twice a week. I am going to be taking my next few posts in a different direction, though; look for items that are less about current events and more about evergreen topics. Hopefully, that will mean I’m able to complete them before the relevant information changes.
• I also got my tenth rejection on “Whitewood” this past week, which was a bit of a downer. While I know that this means I haven’t yet found the market, not that I’m not a good writer, it still came as a blow and a powerful disincentive to write. Just by way of solace, I pulled two of the fan fiction stories that had been taken down in 2020, revised them, and posted them in the requisite places:
  • The First Time (Star Trek: Enterprise)
  • Any Good Captain (Andromeda)

  I got my first review on one of them within two hours, and it was glowing to the point of gushing. That’s going a long way toward helping my attitude. All the same, I haven’t yet found the next place to submit “Whitewood,” and it may be a while before I do.

At the moment, I’m 18K words shy of where I should be for the year, and have only met 53% of goal. I’m not naïve enough to think I can make that all up in March, but I do think I can put a dent in it. Here’s hoping so!