Hey guys! Another month is gone and spring is finally here. I love warm weather!
I had a very productive month in February but not so much in March--or it was productive in a different way. Anyway, let's look at my March goals to see how I did.
1. Finish revisions for Episodes 6 & 7
I'm right on schedule with my edits so far. They both grew by 2k to 3k words and has some challenges in them I wasn't expecting to have to tackle.
2. Post a YouTube video every Friday of this month
Not even close. I think I posted a video the first Friday and that was it. I got sick in the middle of the month so I didn't make a video and rested my voice instead. Once I got better, college got crazy. I haven't had the time to film anything.
Here are my new goals for April:
1. Finish Revisions for Episodes 9 & 10
Now, you may have noticed that I skipped Episode 8. Ep. 8 is entirely in flashback to tell the story of an important character that lived over 150 years before the rest of the novel takes place. The episode quality-wise if kind of a mess. I didn't even finish the earlier draft of it. I just made notes to put more in places later and moved on. I've been intimidated to revise it.
Episode 8's position in the novel has also bothered. I know that when I'm binging a show on Netflix and one episode ends on a cliffhanger and the next is a flashback episode that doesn't address the cliffhanger at all, it annoys the heck out of me. (Fringe did this a lot). As I was thinking about it, I discovered a way of incorporating this episode into the beginning of Season 2 in a way that feels more natural and that I like a lot better. So, I've decided to take Episode 8 out and Season 1 now has nine episodes instead of ten.
I've gone straight into revisions for the final two episodes, and I want to finish the edits this month.
2. Post more YouTube videos this month
I have lots of ideas for videos, and I want to get back to posting regularly. I still haven't decided what day of the week I want to post all my videos on, so I'm just going to be randomly positing videos this month. I have some review videos coming up and also videos about writing and poetry. Stay tuned by subscribing to my channel. Here's the link.
3. Start looking for Beta Readers
Since I'm nearing the end of my edits, the next stage is the beta reading stage. I plan on asking a lot of people since I expect only a few to say yes. I want a combination of people I know and people I don't know to get a more diverse sample of people. I just joined the Critters Writers Workshop and am planning on being active there.
4. Perform poetry for an Open Mic Night
There's an Open Mic Night at my school this month that I'm planning on reciting some poetry for. I did this back in February, but I didn't do it in March because I was too busy to prepare something.
Search Engine History for Writing Research
These are some things I've googled for research for my novel:
How to get past motion detectors?
Cajun insults -- (I didn't end up using any)
Autopsy table – imagesCabinet where they keep dead bodies’ name – (mortuary cabinet by the way)
Feeling of falling when you go to sleep
How long does it take fractured ribs to heal?
Does blood taste like iron?
Fire escape - google images
Tropical trees - trees that grow in mountains - buttress roots
Vitamin d deficiency
Sleep deprivation symptoms
Rejection Letter Count
3.
All of them came from the same literary magazines--one for each of the poems I submitted.
Total for the year: 9.
I don't have any active submissions right now.
Indianapolis Trip
The last weekend of March, I went to Indianapolis for the first time to present at a conference. My presentation was about the word "thing" that I've been researching. There were a lot of interesting sessions about popular linguistics, movies, TV show, popular culture, society, politics, etc. I went with my mentor and we also visited the Indy Motor-speedway Hall of Fame museum and various parts of downtown. Here are some of the pictures I took:
It has some beautiful architecture with some stain-glass windows. We couldn't go inside, unfortunately. I took lots of pictures for inspiration purposes for some of the architecture in my novel ;)
It has beautiful sculpting all around it. We walked all 330 steps to the top. Climbing up wasn't too bad but we took the elevator down and thankfully they didn't charge us.
Between writing, school, and my research, it's been a very eventful month and April seems like it's going to be even more busy! How was your March? Did you meet any goals or travel anywhere?