may: Finished draft and learning new skills

Hello again!

I'm not entirely sure whether to say things are starting to get back to normal, but I think it might be getting close? I don't know, I keep thinking that and then something else goes wrong. 2020 is a heck of a year so far. :/ We're getting through it, though! Everyone is staying safe here, knock on wood, and I'm still working at my essential job. I'm working three days a week now and getting unemployment for the other two, so that's about normal, but I miss my friends. I just realized the other day that we're almost halfway through the year and I haven't been to a single author event where we used to go to an event at least once a month, sometimes three or four, and we had big plans to go to Independent Bookstore Day and visit twenty bookstores in one day that got cancelled. And my bank account is doing good now that I can't go to Barnes and Noble every Friday, but at what cost?

But I made some good writing progress because my hours are still cut down! I focused this month on editing and learning how to write new things. My mom got a Masterclass membership for Mother's Day that I am shamelessly taking advantage of, and I signed up for a couple more Hugo House classes while they're online and I have a bunch of free time. I'm also having a lot of fun trying new poetry forms and learning how to write short stories. I had forgotten how much fun learning is when you're not doing it for a grade lol.

Numbers:

Words Written: 26,250

Days Worked: 29/31

Progress:

The House on the Rocks- I finished my fifth draft! I feel like I might have said this before, but this feels like the very best I can do, which is exciting, because that means I've actually finished a final draft!! My next step is to submit to agents, which is brand new, so I wrote a query letter- which has so far been the most difficult part of the book, ARGH- and I sent it in to get feedback and teach me how to improve it. It's going to be a while before I get the response, so in the meantime I'm taking a break to see if I can think of any more changes. But I'm getting close!

Runeless- I took a short break from my draft last month instead of meeting the lofty goal I set- I got a little burned out from how much I worked on it in April, and I'm at the point where I'd like it to be done so I can start editing it already. I reworked my outline- I was a straight-up pantser for the longest time and now I'm plotting a five-book series based on prophecy and destiny and foreshadowing so I need to know every detail, why- and did some worldbuilding to prepare, and now I'm going to write the next five chapters in June. That way I can write the last five chapters and finish the book (!!!) for Camp Nanowrimo in July!

Resources:

For anyone who's close to publishing, you should look at Jane Friedman's website. She's worked in publishing for years- I found her through Writer's Digest, which is a great endorsement by itself- and her website is full of resources for writers. It's where I learned how to write my query letter and synopsis, and she also offers consultation and editing. I sent in my query letter and the first five pages to get feedback from an agent's perspective, and I'm going to be looking around at her website to see what else it has. If you're interested in publishing, you should definitely check it out!

Stay safe out there, and talk to you at the end of the month! :)