Writing Review: March 2025

At the end of my last writing review post, I noted that I didn’t think I could catch my word count up to where it should be during the month. I was right: I didn’t. But I certainly came close. I was at 53% of goal at the end of February; by the end of March, I was at 94%.

It was a very good month, even though my posting activity on this blog fell by the wayside. I began posting Standing in the Dark on March 1. By doing so, I gave myself both a deadline and an incentive to get it done. It worked: I finished on March 22, and made final adjustments on the 26th, following beta feedback. I posted the last chapter of the story the evening of the 28th. Final word count came in around 80,600, which just barely squeaks into the definition of a novel for the thriller/suspense genre where it would reside if it were not fan fiction.

It was also a hit. As of the 31st, I had picked up nearly eight thousand page views between the two locations where it’s posted. I also had ninety-three formal reviews plus another thirty or forty informal ones received on Facebook. To put this in context, the average attendance at a Scarecrow and Mrs. King fan event is currently between fifty and a hundred people. Even if I factor in multiple page views per person, these numbers are still pretty impressive and are giving my ego a huge boost. I am calling this a major win.

The best description of it came from an email I received on the 29th. It brought literal tears to my eyes:

Well, how does it feel? Like you lost a lot of weight? Climbed a mountain? Achieved your goal? Satisfaction? All of the above? I think you did a great job basically writing a [novel]. That puts you in a whole different category for fanfic writers. You kept the story at a continual pace and a very believable scenario. You didn’t let the story be overtaken with angst, but used that angst to develop new characters and went on to develop relationships. You developed your characters well and believably. Went into depths very seldom examined. So many stories with angst are because of something stupid or out of character that the characters do. This was reacting to a situation no one brought on themselves.

As might be expected, I let myself have a few days off after finishing, but I’ve since started work on the next project which is The Perfect Daughter. As I’ve mentioned in past posts, its outline was green-lit in late December. I’m currently estimating about 20K, which makes it a novella, but it’s too early to be completely sure of the final count. That said, given my pace so far, I expect that I will have a pretty decent idea by the end of March. I am reliably assured that the initial anthology establishing this shared universe is likely to be published in April, which should give me a small boost.

That’s all good news. The not-so-good news is that, in order to finish Standing in the Dark, I wound up letting the blogging fall by the wayside. My stated rationalization is that very few people (if any) actually read it, but a writing buddy reminded me that I’m not writing this for an audience, as much as I am for practice writing non-fiction quickly and efficiently. As such, I’ve set a goal of getting back to the twice-a-week pace during April.

I also have not yet had the courage to submit “Whitewood” anywhere else. Since it doesn’t fit neatly into any particular genre or market, I’m thinking about self-publishing it. It would be about twenty pages in trade paperback format, although if I self-published I would probably focus more on the digital version. I haven’t yet made any decisions yet, but the concept is definitely on my mind. I’ll probably wait to see how well the anthology sells before making a final decision.

For April, I’m going to just stick to these two goals (The Perfect Daughter and twice-a-week blog posts). That said, to answer a question I’ve received in some of the Standing in the Dark reviews: yes, there will be a sequel. The working title is All That Mattered, and I already have the high-level outline written. I’m still working on the more granular scene-by-scene version. That will be what I turn to on when I need a break from my main writing goals during April.

The other major milestone I reached this past month was that I turned fifty, which by chance happened just a few days before I finished Standing in the Dark. When someone from my parish asked how fifty felt, my answer was that it’s been pretty good to me so far. I’m excited about writing again and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish this next month.