I have great news!
March’s lack of progress disappointed me. I hated having a single chapter to show for the entire month. I also hated knowing my overall progress lagged in completion. As much as I love writing, I don’t want the re-writing process to drag out into 2022 — especially if I can prevent it. So, I set an intention to make April a more productive month. I wanted to see if I could get not one but two chapters re-written before the end of the month rolled around. That meant saying no to more social engagements (even the socially distant ones), and really committing to writing these chapters.
Well, guess what? IT WORKED. In April, I met my goal and re-wrote two chapters!
In one of the chapters, I took a break from the protagonist and visited another character’s POV for the whole chapter. Since this is the third act of the story with a major turning point planned, I knew this would be the best time to write a chapter where I focus on character development rather than drive plot. This works because 1. I’m giving the audience time to breathe, to collect themselves before the rest of the story continues and 2. I’m letting the audience see another character as well as the protagonist from that character’s perspective. Up until then, the audience only knows who the protagonist is — from her motivations, to her past, to her physical appearance. With a new POV character, the audience has more information just from a new source.
For May, I want to hit the same target: two re-written chapters. If I push it, I can do three to finish out part three, but I’m not going to aspire to that. May is going to be a personally crazy month for me. At some point, I want to take a week off to just write — get up, sit down at the computer, and write for 7-8 hours like I do at my Day Job — for five days straight. Unfortunately, it’s looking like I can’t do that until June or July.
On the bright side, I’ll have more time on the weekends! My podcast, Pop Medieval, is on hiatus until the Fall Semester. Doc and I recorded our season 2 finale, and that will go up this weekend. If you’re dying for new content, we’ll be back with fresh episodes in a couple of months. Until then, please check out our back catalog and subscribe via your favorite podcast platform so you can be alerted when the new ones go up.
(And if you’re wondering why I’m using Schitt’s Creek gifs in this post…well, I’m planning on writing about it in the near future. Please watch this space.)
