#WIPMarathon March Update!

It's time for another #WIPMarathon update, hosted by Ifeoma Dennis!

Last report wordcount: Last month, I finished drafting Faerie Blood (the first in the urban fantasy series I just announced!), then did a major edit and fleshed the draft out from 53K to 70K words.

Current report wordcount: All the edits! Beta feedback and more edits! I'm now working on the final proofread of Faerie Blood.

I also drafted the second book in the series and got 17,000 words written.

WIP issues this month: I will never not go through a phase in edits where I think the whole book is broken. Also, starting a draft is always hard.

Four things I learned this month in writing:

• Writing sprints. They're the one way to ensure I actually stay focused. My old routine: write 1000 words, get distracted by other work and emails for six hours, write another thousand, repeat. This got me 2000-3000 words a day, max. New routine: writing sprint, ten minute break, repeat. Four half-hour sprints gets me 5000 words without reducing the hours I have to do other work throughout the day. I call that a win.
• There are lots of ways to do writing sprints. I use the 5KWPH (5000 words per hour) app, which accompanies 5000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox. I prefer this to Write or Die, because the idea of losing my words freaks me out too much!
• Don't brag online about your productivity or you'll get knocked out by the plague and lose all momentum. Lol. *cries* (My amazing writing streak lasted four whole days before the plague came along and wrecked everything. Le sigh.)
• I learn best through actually writing, even if I don't intend to publish everything. I think I've mentioned this before, but the reason I've written so many books is because generally, the only way to see if something will work is to try it out on the page. And yes, this does mean I have a lot of shelved and stockpiled manuscripts that I'll probably never publish. But each one of them was a learning experience. I have to be really dedicated to a story to push past the messy first draft stage and revise it into something readable, and to be honest, this new series is the first time I've felt that since I finished the Alliance and Indestructible series.

What distracted me this month when writing:  I did my first book signing! :)

Then I came down with the plague and lost a week I really couldn't afford to lose. I had to actually stop writing so I could meet my freelance deadlines because I could only spend a few minutes at a time in front of a computer, and the bill-paying job won out. But I'm back to drafting now. :)

Goal for next month:

I have two book releases, Ablaze (Indestructible Book 2) and Faerie Blood. I need to finish writing the second book in the Changeling Chronicles and put it through the first round of edits.

Last 200 words: It's a sequel, so... spoilers.