What’s up, Arrowheads!

The last time I gave y’all an update on my current WIP, On the Flip Side, I was feeling down in the dumps about my lack of progress in finishing the book. As you may recall, in December 2022, I began rewriting the manuscript from Chapter One after re-outlining. While I was happy with my new outline, I felt like I would never finish the book, especially since I was ten months into writing it at that point.

But then, in the eleventh month, God helped me get back on track. Keep reading for a complete opposite tale of what I reported in my last WIP Update!

If you haven’t yet read the first few updates, you can do so here:

• Update #1
• Update #2
• Update #3
• Update #4

January 2023

During my last update, I told y’all that by January 25th, I had reached 11,169 words total for On the Flip Side. During the last few days of the month, I ended up writing three more times, ending January with 13,332 words for the manuscript.

February 2023

When February rolled around, I was in game-on mode, ready to finally get serious about writing again. And boy, did I.

In a recent post here on Authoring Arrowheads, I mentioned that I wished I could get back into a writing streak like I did in early 2018 when I was writing Speak Your Mind. Well, for my birthday month, I got my wish!

Words POURED out of me in February, and I can’t thank God enough for that. It was definitely an answered prayer!

Out of the 28 days in the month, I wrote 18 of those days, so I was more consistent that month than I had been in a long time. And, here’s the kicker… in those 18 days, God allowed me to write a total of 18,486 words!!!! Considering that my monthly word count goal is normally 10,000 words, I was more than overjoyed at the amount of progress the month brought!

But, what really made me excited about February’s progress is that, during the week of Valentine’s day, I had a 10,000 word WEEK. Again, 10k is normally my monthly goal. Y’all, I can’t describe how happy I was to be genuinely engrossed in writing again! 😀

All in all, by the end of February, On the Flip Side had a total of 31,818 words, which put me much closer to where I was before I re-outlined at the end of 2022.

March 2023

I wish I could say that March was just as productive, if not more productive, than February, but by that point in writing, I slowed down to think through the scenes I was writing more. According to my outline, at this point I started writing the first few scenes in the “Fun and Games” portion of the book (the beginning of Act 2, leading up the the midpoint), and for some reason, the “Fun and Games” part has slowed me down on every book I’ve written. Since I knew it was a normal occurrence, I didn’t let it discourage me too much, and kept going.

For March, I ended up writing a total of 14 days, which resulted in an additional 8,809 words added to On the Flip Side. Though I didn’t quite meet my goal of 10,000 words for the month, I was SO HAPPY that I finally surpassed the total word count I had before re-outlining (39k). At the end of March, On the Flip Side‘s total word count was 40,627. Just a few chapters shy of reaching the midpoint, I’m thinking this will be my longest book yet. 😀

April 2023

After having two fruitful writing months, I’ve gotten a bit lazy in April, to be honest. At the time of writing this (April 17th), we’re over halfway through the month, and I’ve written five times so far for a total word count of 2,021 words. 😛

The thing is, I know exactly what’s keeping me from writing. The fact that I’m mere scenes from reaching the midpoint is intimidating, even though I know that I have a solid outline to go by this time. For some reason, when the time I normally write nears, I get anxious and don’t want to do it. For the five times I’ve written this month, I’ve literally had to force myself to write. Each time, I came out pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t that bad and I came out with a decent amount of words instead of like, fifteen. XD

Obviously, this hasn’t amounted to the same number of words that I was able to write back in February, but it’s still forward momentum. Hopefully, like the last WIP Update’s dismal report was, this will be the kick-in-the-butt I need to spend more time writing this month. 🙂

As I near the mid-point in this book, I have this to say: please pray that I do it justice. On the Flip Side covers the heavy and triggering topic of surviving narcissistic relationships, and I want to make it as realistic as possible while still pinpointing readers to ultimate refuge in Jesus. This scene is one I’ve been highly anticipating to write, and I pray that God will guide my words while writing it, so He can use it to help others who need the message it conveys.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you’re a writer, how is your current work-in-progress going? Tell us about it in the comments!

If you’re a reader, thank you for being patient while I’m in a season of writing one book and editing another. I’m starting to get antsy about not releasing a book for y’all this year, but it’s all in God’s timing. 🙂

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀