March Came in Like a Snail and Out Like a Cheetah

I feel as though I was limping through the start of the year (for reasons stated in a recent blog post), and then I hit mid-March, and someone turned on the turbo drive. I suddenly had energy. I could focus. Motivation crashed back into my body. I sat down and I got shit done.

Writing

• First, I read through the draft and make notes. If I see any egregious typos, I’ll fix them, but mostly, I’m reading to put together a holistic editing plan. This usually involves creating a spreadsheet that goes chapter by chapter outlining what changes I want to make.
• Second, I take that aforementioned spreadsheet, go back to the novel’s beginning, and start revising for plot and character since they’re so intertwined (or at least should be). Here, I’ll cut chapters and add new ones. I’ll also move chapters around between POVs to see if they’re better as told from one perspective or another. This is generally the most intensive revision pass.
• Third, I examine character voice. I make sure that each POV character has a distinctive tone so they’re easy to differentiate from one another for the reader. I’ll also make sure each character’s dialogue is distinct and that it reads like people actually talk.
• Fourth, I revise for setting and worldbuilding details. This is where I make sure that the settings the characters are moving through feel real. I’ll add sensory details. I’ll develop the environments in which my characters live.
• Finally, I edit for spelling and grammar mistakes. This is self-explanatory and, honestly, the most tedious part of the process, but luckily, I’m good at tedious things. This pass is generally where I’ll either read the manuscript out loud or use a text-to-voice application because, sometimes, hearing something read out will help me catch mistakes that my eyes miss.

Of these steps, I have finished the first. Tomorrow, I intend to begin my second revision pass. I’m going to try to get through this pass by the end of April, which means I will need to get through about twelve pages a day. That might be difficult to calculate as this is the draft where word count will fluctuate the most between taking out no-longer-necessary chapters and incorporating brand-new ones. Even if I don’t get all the way through this pass in April, I want to at least have it done by the time I fly to the US in May.

Submissions

I’m trying to get back into the habit of submitting short stories this year. With the sudden increased prevalence of people submitting AI-generated material and swamping short story markets last year, even forcing a few of them to close for submissions while they figured out how to combat the issue, I became overwhelmed with a sense of dread that my chosen career had suddenly become untenable (not that short-story writing is all that lucrative. Once I have another day job, I won’t be in any rush to quit it in favor of the hundreds of dollars I can make selling short stories in a good year). I stopped wanting to write short stories. I also had a novel I’d been avoiding revising for mostly pandemic-related reasons. So, I put short stories aside for a while and focused strictly on long-form pieces.

But I miss writing short stories, and the initial wave of the AI assault seems to have died down somewhat. Or at least, the markets I submit to have processes in place for detecting and handling stories created using generative AI.

All that to say, I want to start writing and submitting short stories again.

To that end, I’ve set aside Sundays as my submission days, which means I’ll aim to submit one story a week while I’m revising my novel. I’ll focus initially on revising and submitting stories I’ve already written, but there are a couple of ideas I’ve had floating around that I do want to get to eventually.

In March, I submitted six times and received two rejections: one personal and one form.

Reading

Since I’m trying to write more regular book recommendations throughout the year and not just my end-of-year round-up, I thought I’d start tracking my reads each month.

In March, I read ten books. This is not typical. Like I said, I hit mid-March and suddenly had all this vim and vigor and motivation and a good chunk of that was siphoned into reading books and listening to audiobooks. Also, five out of ten of the books I read this month were novellas and only took a couple of hours to read.

I think it helps that I’ve been trying to use the library more. Due dates give me a deadline by which to have a book read. Also, I’m free to try and explore books I wouldn’t feel comfortable buying unread (which is saying something because I am very comfortable buying books unread that I haven’t even heard of before. It’s a problem and I’m working on it).

Books I read in March 2024:

• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell – 4 out of 5 stars
• Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee – 5 out of 5 stars
• The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman – 5 out of 5 stars
• Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – 5 out of 5 stars
• Drowned Country by Emily Tesh – 4 out of 5 stars
• Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo – 5 out of 5 stars
• Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo – 5 out of 5 stars
• To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose – 5 out of 5 stars
• Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June – 4 out of 5 stars
• Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzie Lee – 3 out of 5 stars

I’m currently working on writing a recommendation post for Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle and To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, which is currently holding the top spot in my ever-fluctuating list of favorite books about dragons.

Job Hunt

Now that I’m feeling better and have a pain management plan that works, I’m back at the job hunt.

This has been a frustrating experience, as job hunting always is, but the recent increase in AI adoption by many companies has really changed the landscape of available technical and content writing jobs. The first thing I noticed when I resumed my job hunt was a ton of jobs focused on training AI chatbots. Many of these are low-paying, freelance gigs with far more applicants than work available.

I’ve also noticed that the number of freelance or short-term contract jobs for writing website copy has gone down drastically since the last time I was looking for work. I can only assume that it’s because many companies are using generative AI for this work instead of hiring humans to do it. I don’t know if that assumption has any truth, but since there’s been a massive boom in generative AI use since the last time I looked for work, it seems like a logical conclusion.

That said, after adjusting my search parameters, I have been finding jobs that sound interesting, meaningful, and like things I can and want to do. So I’ve been trying to apply to at least one job a day. Hopefully, something will land soon before I get too discouraged.

Into April

In April, I’m going to try to maintain the status quo: send out one job application with accompanying cover letter each day, submit one short story each week, revise roughly twelve pages a day, and read as much as I’m able.

Thank you for reading. Like and comment on the post if you feel so inclined. If you’d like to support me a little bit more, feel free to leave a tip on my Ko-Fi.