February is about over, and I haven’t been able to meet any of my goals for the month. With one week left, time is running out. I can’t necessarily say it was a failing month, though. Like always, I managed to get a lot of things done in the background. And I had an especially good week during the workshops at the university.

Despite not checking off anything for February in terms of goals, I’ve had one of the best months for productivity in years. I just haven’t been able to do much as an online creator.

Some of that might change in the near future, as I get things squared away for an office space outside of the house.

Great Feedback During the Writing Workshop

This week, we were put into groups in the Creative Writing Workshop to give feedback on the short stories we’re writing this semester. The idea is to “workshop” our ideas to get a better handle on writing creative pieces.

It was helpful to hear feedback on a first draft, which is why I often let beta readers give the story a good once-over before I actually start editing the manuscript. Apparently, everyone in the group enjoyed the story, including the teacher. She printed out the story and left me a lot of great notes.

The feedback from the other students was insightful and gave me a lot of ideas regarding the development of the story. But I also need to remind myself that a lot of what they pointed out gets fixed in the first round of edits.

You see, I write the first draft light to get the story out of me. Then, I go in and add a lot of details and development to improve the flow, character development, and plotlines. Usually, I’ll add around 25% more words before we move on to the final stages of editing.

Still, I heard a few things that make sense, and I might implement them in the future. Of course, the author always has the final say when writing the story.

Getting a New Anthology Posted On Wattpad?

I’ve decided to turn the stories I’m writing for class into an anthology on Wattpad. So far, I’ve got two that are about ready to go live, as soon as I’m done polishing them up a bit.

I’m not going too heavy on the editing process since this is a free book. However, I want them to be comprehensible. The trick is not to give too much away for my published books.

The anthology is a series of stories that happen between Kingmaker and Fury. They’re all centered around a tavern that usually attracts…questionable people. It’s a bit of a fun midsection of the series, and might turn into something regular, considering I am planning for four or five books for The Witcham Chronicles.

In any case, I’m hoping to get at least the first story published in the next few days as a running project. Some of the stories will be written outside of the class, as I’m aiming for an 80,000-word eBook on Wattpad.

I know I said I wouldn’t work on more than one project at a time, but I figured if I am writing short stories for college, I might as well use them as promotional content for the books.

Setting Up Social Media Sales Experiments

This week, I started working on the social media experiment to see if I can generate some book sales. It’s part of the plan to dive into all forms of marketing this year to determine which methods work best. The goal is to help others decide for themselves where they should put effort into marketing.

That’s perhaps one of the greatest complaints I see from indie authors on social media. Well, not selling a lot of books and having to deal with Amazon. But we’ll tackle the latter once I save up $400,000 to buy a printing press.

Saving my pennies as we speak.

Anyway, the plan is to use all of the “expert” tips I find online for using social media for free to sell books. Afterward, I’m going to run an experiment for paid ads on social media.

Essentially, I’m putting together a series of blog posts to go over the data regarding what marketing methods work best. By the end, it’s going to cost quite a bit of money, but it may pan out to drive enough sales to at least break even.

That’s the hope, anyway. In any case, the experiments and results may help drive a bit more traffic to WriterSanctuary’s blog and YouTube channel, as I am sharing all of the information I can get to help others sell their books. That should bring in a bit of ad revenue, as long as Google doesn’t sink the content or steal most of it through AI Overviews.

Goals for Next Week

There is one solid week of Monday through Friday left in February. Although I highly doubt that I’ll be able to check off all of my goals for the month, I’m hoping to at least get a few done.

Nothing I’ve set for myself is outside of what I can handle. So, I should be able to check off a couple of goals for February.

Working On One Million Words

The plan is to get back on track for writing a million words in 2026. In this case, it’s about making sure the average word count each day puts me over what I need to hit that goal. Since I track everything in my spreadsheet, I’ve set up a daily count goal of what I need per day.

It’s not like I have a lack of things to write about. Between having three primary blogs, a slew of ideas for books and stories, and YouTube video scripts, I have no shortage of topics or ideas.

No…to get back on track to write a million words in 2026 comes down to effort. Of course, I’m not going to stress if I can’t do this goal, mostly because of how chaotic my life is at the moment. Yet, I’m still confident I can achieve this one if I hunker down a bit and get busy.

Scheduling 5 Videos

One of my goals for February was to publish 12 videos throughout the month. This doesn’t include live streams. I am five short of that goal, which means I need a new video every day, Monday through Friday.

Now, this one is going to be more difficult, especially considering that I have to balance my education, and it takes about two hours to make a video. So, I’m not entirely sure I’ll have the time for this one unless I can streamline the process a bit more.

I might just double up on video content on Saturday and Sunday. They probably won’t be based on popular search topics, however. Maybe they’ll be more along the lines of my experiences thus far as a student at the university. That should be wicked quick to make with a few edits. Hopefully.

Wrapping Up ColoradoPlays Video Templates

I would love to get more videos up on the YouTube channel for ColoradoPlays. One per week might be enough to get some momentum going to monetize the channel before the end of the year. Remember, though, I don’t have a lot of time available.

The idea is use a specific template and flow for the videos that will reduce the time it takes to publish the content. If I can knock it all down to an hour for each video, I can easily whip one of those up every Saturday.

If I can get all three of my channels to generate some kind of ad revenue, I could probably afford some help with all of the different brands. That’s the plan, anyway. I would love another writer or two and perhaps someone to help with the videos.

Finishing February Strong

So far, the time management aspect of February has been spot on. It’s been one of the more productive months I’ve had in years. So, I’m not completely disappointed with my progression as a creator. On the contrary, I’m actually quite proud of myself in terms of managing my time better.

While I may not have had the word counts I would have liked, a lot of great things have happened in both my personal and professional life. The end result is a much happier me, while seeing a much brighter future in store.

I’m still very excited to see what happens next. February has gone quite well, but I believe I can still end it on a strong note.