A Writer's Retrospective: March 2021
An unexpected hiatus and the loss of 15-20 hours each week necessitate a significant change in direction.
Photo by Jorge Caetano on Unsplash
Winter has thawed, leaving behind new growth. For many, it also marks the advent of new life, metaphorically and otherwise. Though the pandemic isn’t over, it no longer seems to be the endless prison that many thought it was mere months ago. Even so, storms remain on the horizon, most notably the vaccine-resistant variants of COVID-19 brewing across the planet.
My personal prospects mirror those of the world at large. With spring comes tennis season. We tennis players have taken a shine to it, what with it being one of few pandemic-approved outdoor activities. However, I have already experienced some ups and downs with it. My recent ankle injury is the first. What I’d hoped was a mild sprain required weeks of rehab. I won't need surgery, fortunately. I'm still not quite as confident in my footing as I used to be, even though my footwork is objectively better.
My writing has undergone a similar journey. Last month, I finished my previous novelette, Knightly Virtues. Yet, I didn’t feel particularly accomplished, nor did I think the work was good—even for my low experience level. But I lacked the skill needed to identify the problems. Consequently, I decided to spend some time looking for the missing “x-factor.” I encountered The Emotional Craft of Fiction, by Donald Maass soon after. I stopped writing for a couple weeks: one week to read it and another to simply have a break.
Value Alignment
I asked myself last month, “do I want to keep doing this?” What I said and what I did couldn’t be further apart from each other. Ultimately, I will keep going, but in a different way.
Last Month's Action Items
February saw me reach new areas in the blogging sphere while also making progress in developing my fiction. I took on a lot of action items to celebrate the successes. I made no plan to implement them, however, so the results are mixed. Further complicating this was my unexpected hiatus.
Update my writing calendar.
Instead of formally updating my writing calendar, I decided to ignore it. With the sharp reduction in writing time, I have to triage: spend an hour drafting/editing my fiction (top priority), ideate and outline blog posts, then see if I have time to do anything else. That’s the new calendar. My weekend is a checklist of other tasks. I’ve reduced that list to:
Continue drafting & editing
Perform critiques for my group, when needed
Engage with other Medium writers
Draft articles
I rarely get to #4 these days, never mind studying my craft, working on my eBooks, scheduling social media posts, writing my newsletters. It may serve me best to focus on one thing, as my divided attention does neither my fiction nor my blog justice.
Pitch an article to at least 3 publications.
The short version is, I let fear turn into procrastination; it’s the same thing that kept me engrossed in Maass’ book, rather than doing any actual fiction writing for most of the month.
There is some frustration at work, too. Having my work published in the Writing Cooperative means that I technically have a publishing credit. (A variety of more accomplished Medium writers see it this way, too.) That publishing credit doesn’t afford me much clout, however.
I would like to write something for Better Humans or Better Marketing. I don’t think I have much to contribute, but I shouldn’t psych myself out before I even try. I need to take the time to read those publications (with a writer’s eye), outline or write something, and pitch it. I can do this outside of Medium, too. If nothing else, I can publish it myself.
This is just a new level in the game, and I’m reluctant to go there because it’s unfamiliar and uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be, though, because I’ve “failed” several times in this adventure and bounced back each time.
Find out how to adjust my Facebook approach.
It isn’t only my Facebook approach that needs improvement—my whole social media strategy needs an overhaul. Not only do I lack engagement, but I have failed to give it; one likely begets the other.
Twitter is a bit of a mystery. I’m not sure if I’m posting at the wrong times or using the wrong hashtags, but the engagement has decreased since last month. I’ve slowed down posting because the return on the time spent is quite low. I think my target audience simply isn’t on Twitter.
I have two audiences: (1) readers of adult fantasy fiction and (2) beginning writers. Beginning writers apparently don’t frequent #WritingCommunity Twitter…they’re on Tumblr and Discord. Some of them are on Medium, but it’s hard to say how many.
Continue developing promotional materials for my mailing list.
I made infinitesimal progress on my eBooks. I would like to continue the project, but I’m not sure what the value proposition is. I want to build a mailing list for my fiction projects, so a manual about writing is not going to do it. I could build a separate mailing list for that and my blogging work. However, with tennis now eating 15-20 hours a week, I can’t spare the time to pursue multiple writing tracks as easily. I need to rethink my goals and my approach to them within these new constraints.
Draft 1 short story unrelated to my current project.
I took a stab at this. I came up with a short story about a deranged fellow and a stranger roped into addressing his sincere, but nonexistent concern. I don’t know how the idea came about. I’m not even particularly fond of it, but I’m pleased that I managed to escape the confines of my bucket list project, if only for 500 words. I can finish the story later, but I’m more interested in coming up with more ideas, possibly in other genres. The exercise was useful.
Start reading a contemporary adult fantasy novel.
I let go of Drizzt to start reading Robin Hobb’s Ship of Magic, the first entry of The Liveship Traders series. The book switches POV many time early on, giving us a sense of each major character. Althea, the liveship’s companion. Kennit, the would-be pirate king. Wintrow, the beleaguered child-priest. Each one is interesting to me for different reasons. The tension is ratcheted up at the start and doesn’t let up through the first quarter of the book. The difference between Hobb’s capabilities and mine is abundantly clear. I’m motivated to continue studying and practicing the craft.
Start outlining my novel.
This is an example of a goal that lacks detailed acceptance criteria. I opened my new outline template and started typing in it. I’ve fulfilled the letter of the task, but not the spirit. I’ll revisit this in April, since I need to have it done by the end of June.
Reading
I’ve made some progress by simply reading while I eat meals. This is how I got through Mercedes Lackey’s Arrows trilogy a few years ago. That and having my Kindle on my person at all times. I finished a quarter of the book—let’s hope I can maintain or exceed that pace henceforth. It’s a good incentive to get up early and do something before work, too.
Writing
I had no illusions that I would be able to write well with no training. Still, I didn’t respond appropriately to my conspicuous lack of experience. I should have been studying and practicing from the moment I decided to do this. Thankfully, it only took me a couple months to start making a concentrated effort.
The emotional journey
My favorite thing about The Emotional Craft of Fiction: it completely changed how I think about my purpose as a writer. Like many other writers, I wanted to tell a specific story—perhaps not even a specific story, but to create a playground populated with my favorite tropes and archetypes. While there is nothing wrong with starting out writing this way, it does nothing for the audience. (Unless the audience is you, the writer.)
Reading this book convinced me to think of my writing as an experience that I create for the reader, a product for others to buy and consume. This means that, as Maass says, we writers need to create an emotional experience for them. The same can be said of blogging. I’ve incorporated the knowledge into my outline template, so I might think of the protagonist’s emotional journey while I develop the plot—or the reverse.
Critique template
Last month, I made some delicate strides in giving critiques—I started valuing my opinion enough to do my job and give feedback. Said feedback was anemic in some cases, but useful in others. I decided to tackle the prospect of giving a strong critique—one that would make my critique group say, “wow!”
To this effect, I made a critique template in Word based on the topical critique described in the r/DestructiveReaders wiki. My critique partners gave effusive praise about my critiques this round. I couldn't be happier with the result. I can use this critique template on my own writing, given sufficient time away from the prose and thoughts thereof.
These two improvements in my writing have made me significantly more comfortable in my writing. Now that I can articulate the questions that need answering in my edits, I’m actually enjoying editing my work and exchanging critiques with my group.
Blogging
I’m still not sure how to hook potential readers, much less identify and resolve sagging middles. I can say that my prose is somewhat more efficient. I love editing out “simply,” a favorite filler word of mine. I notice when I use 5 words where 1 will suffice.
Because of my aforementioned time constraints, I’ve spent less time writing articles. Yet, I have hope that my output will increase, given the creation of a yet another new template. This one combines the insights of Desiree Peralta and Nick Wolny. Peralta describes how to test an idea before committing to writing it. Wolny deconstructs the templates he uses to write his articles.
In other blogging news, someone stole an article of mine from Medium and posted it on a random website that seems to be made entirely of stolen content. User services at Medium informed me that I would need to pursue the issue myself, since the copyright owner has the most clout in this situation.
They also kindly provided the web host and the email address at which copyright claims could be filed. This is my first time with copyright infringement, so I look forward to getting comfortable with the steps to resolving it.
Marketing
As described above, I’m floundering on most platforms. My mailing list has not budged—this is completely understandable, as I haven’t offered anything substantial at this time. My Tumblr following, however, is starting to grow—with seemingly no effort. Considering that’s where the inexperienced writers (to whom I would cater) seem to live, I’ll have to consider increasing my efforts there.
Achievement Summary
Read (and took copious notes on) The Emotional Craft of Fiction.
Received effusive praise for my critiques, based on my new critique template.
Created a new blog post template; came up with 6 blog post outlines.
Read 25% of Ship of Magic.
Started drafting my fourth novelette, Amateur Synthesis. (1900+ words)
Edited half of my third novelette, Lunar Eclipse.
Conceived a stronger third act for my second novelette, Knightly Virtues.
Action Items
Based on my performance in March, I’ll have to pare down my action items until become reasonably efficient at this writing gig. I’m better at generating ideas, but implementing them in a timely fashion remains a challenge. I’m thankful for my templates, which stabilize the quality of said implementations. This time, my action items include the “normal” work that I would do each month.
Revisit my goals weekly.
Finish editing Lunar Eclipse; request critique.
Finish drafting Amateur Synthesis; perform first-wave edits.
Outline the novel.
Find out how to get my stolen article taken down.
Draft 4 articles.
Pitch an article to 3 publications.
Draft 1 short story unrelated to my current project.
Final Word
I didn’t realize until writing this retrospective that I failed to check on any of my goals throughout March. Abandoning my weekly newsletter likely exacerbated the issue. Saturday or Sunday would be a good time to do that. I shouldn’t necessarily get wound up about not finishing every action item. Finishing 80% of them each month indicates a workload that is challenging, but not overwhelming (according to Agile development principles).
While I am slightly discouraged by my marketing problems, there are plenty of bright lights on the horizon in every other direction. The reduction in my writing time has forced me to decide what is most important (my fiction). I hope this will also force me to become more efficient with the time I spend writing. Making daily progress, however small, will be much more important, henceforth.