I just realized that when I shared my goals for March on Tumblr, I forgot to do it here. So here's my summary and upcoming goals. :)

February Summary:

• Finish short stories: 
  I did actually finish the three I wanted to, although it went into March before they were done because I added two more into the pile. These were "Adair's Domestic Fluff", "Is This Closet Mine or Yours?", "A Glimpse of the Past", "Rooftop Reprised", and "This For That (Re)Quest". I've definitely been on a short story kick this year!
• Write the rest of the stories for the prompt game: 
  I have about 14 prompts to get to that were sent to me in January on Tumblr. I'm gradually turning these into longer stories (instead of the drabbles I'd planned them to be) so I think two of the above stories were originally from these prompts. I'd consider this one at least a partial success.
• Get back into working on book 2:
  Other than jotting down some ideas, this one is a no. I decided to focus my attention on the short stories instead.
• Finish typing book 1:
  At some point I need to finish typing the last 1/4 that I have written in my notebook, but this got put on the backburner, too. That ultimately worked out for the best since that's going to become a different March project.

March Goals:

• Work on short stories: 
  There's one I have sitting in the back of my head that I'd love to write and have been brainstorming on a bit. That one will be 1st person which I don't usually write, so I'm excited about it! Otherwise I'm just planning on working on my Soulmate AU series for AU Tuesdays on Tumblr. I had a lot of fun spending the winter working on short stories, but I'd like to focus more on the novels again.
• Brainstorm book 2 subplots: 
  My plan is to work on my book 2 rewrite for Camp NaNo in April- I'd started this in November, but surgery derailed me. I have the main plot mostly sorted out, but I need to work on the character arcs for Blythe, Dray, and Rosalie. 
• Work on book 1: 
  Here's where my failure to type it up last month actually worked out in my favor. I was poking the end of the book and I realized that it's been so long since I worked on the story that I was drawing a blank on some of the earlier events. I was going to edit/rewrite as I typed these up, but I realized that probably wouldn't work if I've forgotten things. I do have the whole book written (minus a few gaps where I kind of glossed over things), so I'm just going to dive into working on draft 3. To start, this is going to be reading over what I've already written, chapter by chapter, and noting plot lines that'll need to be resolved later or that I didn't quite work out in the previous draft. I'm not going to do a whole lot of editing at this point unless it's something that needs to be changed to fit the current draft, so basically my plan for draft 3 is to make the book more coherent so the story is all in the right place. I'm itching to dig deeper and do the editing stage I love so much, but I know the story isn't quite there yet- it needs one more pass through before I waste time prettying up scenes I might not keep.

I don't know how far I'll get on book 1 and the short stories by the time NaNo starts since it's already halfway through the month, but I feel like taking that time off to write short stories was a smart idea. I feel closer to the characters and their voices now and I feel way more confident in my ability to shape a first draft into a final draft. I also discovered how much I love short stories and editing (that instant gratification of being able to edit in the same week/month into a finished product feels so good) and how much I hate writing first drafts. It never occurred to me that the reason I've been dragging my feet on the books is because early drafts feel like such a chore. Knowing this should help me, though! Now I see that it's a stage I have to get through and that it's okay if I don't like doing it because the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can get into the editing I love so much. I hear so many people say they love first drafts and hate editing that I don't think it really occurred to me that I could be the other way around. Long story short, I feel like taking a few months to write short stories made me a lot more confident about my writing. :)

~Meri