There’s no doubt that the first quarter of the year has been a rough one for me. Canceled vacations, clients, a slew of birthdays, and much more prevented a lot of things. However, I still managed to keep it from getting out of hand.

In fact, By the last week of March, I wrote more words in the first quarter of 2023 than I did in 2022. So, I’d call that a win.

Yet, I didn’t get to a lot of the things I wanted to get done.

I can’t really complain, though. At least my mortgage and credit card bills are paid and I can send my daughter gas money.

The fun of being a parent of a teen driver.

Focusing On What I DID Accomplish

Despite not getting to a lot of the projects I wanted to complete, I did manage to accomplish quite a few things. And that’s one of the tricks of keeping yourself in a positive mindset.

It’s not about the things you couldn’t do but the victories you secured along the way, even the small ones. Because any victory is still a victory.

For example, I could be upset that I haven’t been able to publish my second book yet. Or, I can relish the fact that by taking my time, the book is going to be far better than the one I wrote last year.

Some of the changes I’ve made over the last few weeks even brought a tear or two to my eyes. Even if no one else likes the story, it’s by far my favorite book now.

Some of the victories I am focusing on include:

• Finally switched themes for several blogs, which I’ve wanted to do for the past few years.
• Seem to have fixed getting views and watch time credit on YouTube from the blog.
• Had written more words in the first quarter of 2023 than I did in 2022.

Sure, it may not sound like a lot. But considering a couple of these have been issues since 2021, that’s something of which to be proud.

What Kind of Goals Am I Working On in April?

The hard part about April, at least for me, is that it only has 20 workdays. That’s because I try to focus on a Monday through Friday schedule while taking time off on Saturdays.

Then Sundays, I write up the Buy Me a Coffee posts and my weight loss update…which is fun for me.

Anyway, it’ll be a bit of a push to accomplish some of my goals for the month. But if all goes smoothly with client work, I shouldn’t have too difficult of a time.

Wow, I say that a lot.

Making This a Monthly Update

I’ve been trying to think of what to do with this blog for quite some time. Technically, anything about writing is usually published at WriterSanctuary.com. And writing is who I am.

So, to start getting this blog more active, I want to make these monthly updates for goals and aspirations. This will include all of the brands I’m building and projects in which I’m involved.

In fact, I’m adding a new block to Asana to remind me to write this update every month. Then, I’ll compare the goals I set to what I actually accomplished.

Wrapping Up My Second Book

I don’t want to rush my second book, but I would love to wrap it up for the beta readers soon. The plan is to have the second round done before the end of April while working on publishing through May.

Then again, that depends on whether the story is ready to go by then. I’d rather spend my time putting out the best story I can rather than just trying to get it up on Amazon.

Currently, I’ve added more than 3,000 words while polishing up a lot of the back story and character development. And the underlying tone is slightly different than the first draft.

Breaking the Monthly Word Count

As April only has 20 work days, that means I’ll need at least 4,769 words per day to break my monthly record. In reality, that’s not overly difficult as long as I can stick to my schedule and clients don’t need extra things done.

Sure, I could do some writing on the weekends. But with how stressed I’ve been lately, trying to squirrel away any bit of time away from my computer is ideal.

It’s not like I don’t have enough to write.

Trying to Finish VII

The rewrite of VII on Wattpad is taking a bit longer than I thought it would. A big part of that is because I am completely rewriting half of the book from scratch.

Some of the chapters just never really sat well with me.

I say that I’m “trying” to finish VII because I decided to give my next book the lion’s share of my week for personal projects. This means I’m only scheduled to work on VII three times per week as opposed to five.

After all, I’d rather finish Kingmaker as that’s the book that’s going up on Amazon and (hopefully) Barnes & Noble.

Getting Back to Regular Video Uploads (hopefully)

This month, I’d like to get WriterSanctuary’s YouTube channel back on a routine schedule. For some odd reason, it’s been getting quite a bit of attention lately and I would love to see if I could monetize it.

As it stands, I won’t make that mad AdSense money from YouTube until September of 2026. Let’s see if I can shorten that a bit.

Especially since I fixed the issue with views and watch time being recorded from WriterSanctuary.com.

Part of this is going to be a series of videos I’ll be making soon. I put my viewers to a vote on whether we should build a blog or write a book completely from scratch. Whichever of these two wins, it’ll be quite a long series to produce, and I’m super stoked about getting started.

Try to Do More on Social Media – Ish

It’s funny. As I start to consider doing more on Twitter, Elon announces that unverified accounts will essentially be shadowbanned. Since I have no intention of paying for something that was free to use in the past, looks like I’ll be moving on.

Anyway, the idea was to do more on social media to build up an audience.

Perhaps I’ll focus on putting out some Shorts on YouTube and/or pics on Instagram. Not to mention that I’ve always been curious whether Pinterest is a valid platform for marketing a blog.

Regardless, I’d like to promote a few things to people who might be interested, such as my next book.

Eh…I’ve never really been good at social media. I’d rather communicate in person, to be honest. I never know what to post, especially since I don’t have all that riveting of a lifestyle.

I’m not one to just slap something up for the sake of posting.

Getting the Pumpkins in the Ground

Now that the snow has finally melted (knock on wood), I need to get the pumpkins in the ground.

Every year, I try to grow as many pumpkins as I can for the kids. Last year, the heat wave and neighbor cats killed all of my plants.

I’m hoping this year will be different.

What Goals Are You Working on This Month?

I definitely have my work cut out for me. And while it may sound like a lot to accomplish, it’s all within the scope of what I can handle every day.

When you create your own goals, base them on what you’ve been able to accomplish in the past. You don’t want them too easy, but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure, either.

What kind of goodness do you plan to create in April?