Scribes & Archers

We’ve survived another month of 2020 and we’re one month closer to the monster year being over. So let’s look back on it, shall we?

Writing

August 22nd marked the completion of my Calligraphy Guild rewrite! I finally finished the structural fixes and ended up with a 64.5k draft to build off of. I started on my character and worldbuilding edits almost immediately, but so far I’ve only gotten through chapter three (of eighteen). I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pick up the pace some in the coming month.

I also started a short story this month, based on a random idea I had that I thought for sure was just a random fun scene that would never go anywhere. XD I haven’t done a whole lot with it yet, but you’ll probably hear about it again sometime in the future.

Reading

• Where Do I Start? An Overview of Indie Publishing by Molly Evangeline
• The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Of Myth and Monster by The Phoenix Fiction Writers
• From Scratch by Tembi Locke
• Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan
• Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye
• The American Spirit by David McCullough
• Ships, Secrets, and Survivors by Sarah Rodecker and Helena George
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I read a decent amount in August, though only a handful of the books I read were really fantastic.

Of Myth and Monster was amazing, and I’m super excited to share my review of that one next week.

The Two Towers and Fahrenheit 451 (both rereads) were great.

Where Do I Start? was a little bit outdated, being written before CreateSpace and KDP merged, but does provide a good overview of what goes into good indie publishing.

Sword and Verse had amazing worldbuilding… but a romantic thread centered around one character cheating on a betrothal ruined it for me.

Plans for next month

If I’m able to recharge and improve my mental health, next month is going to be pretty busy, since I have some big projects planned. If I can’t get my mental health up, I’ll just have to drop a project or two. But ideally…

I’ll be working on finalizing Preptober Prompts. The official announcement, including who’s co-hosting this year, will be going up on Friday, and I’m really excited for this year.

I’ll be editing Calligraphy Guild. If I keep up a consistent pace, I can probably be done with the third draft within the month, which will be super cool.

I’ll be starting independent classes. I’m kind of “unschooling” my own school year, even though I’ve graduated, and taking this year to study a variety of subjects I’m interested in. A lot of my classes will be done through Coursera, but then there are others (such as the Early American History & Civics subject I swapped in last-minute) that are mostly composed of books from around our house or from the library.

I’ll finally be testing for my driver’s license! I have an appointment with the DMV on the 26th, and I can’t. wait. My driver’s license has been pushed back so many times, and I’m so glad to be finally coming up on the freedom to leave the house when I’ve had too much of my siblings and just need to breathe somewhere quiet and peaceful. (I love my siblings, but having them around 24/7 for months on end has been a little much.) And to do grocery runs when my parents can’t, and to get together with friends, and to explore, and… I’m just very excited to finally be able to legally drive on my own.

September TBR:

• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Women of Kern, Book Two by Maris McKay
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• Cloak of Night by Evelyn Skye
• A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess
• Whatever else I’m in the mood to read

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How was your August? What are your plans for September? What projects have you been working on lately?