Day 137: February Recap

Snow, snow, and more snow.  The flu and head cold.  Shoveling.  Fighting road conditions.  Catching up with writing.  Yes, this was the month of February.  I am not sad at all to see the month in the rearview mirror.  My hope is that March is in like a lion and out like a lamb. 

In the fall, I heard rumor that our area was going to have a high snow fall.  Sure, we had a nice storm or two at the beginning.  I know in November we drove through a storm to get to Billings, not fun.  But really, the winter was pretty mild.  Of course, no one warned me all the snow would be dumped in February.  Wow, what a ride.

A couple of times I found myself falling down the rabbit hole of seasonal depression.  Well, and sick depression since between the flu and a cold, I was out for the count for a good week and a half.  However, I let myself rest, watched movies, read, and pulled out the paints when my energy started returning.  I kept reminding myself this is the season to write and enjoy the indoors. 

The reminders helped me up my writing the last half of the month.  I became behind with the flu and such.  So, the last ten days or so, I doubled my writing goal.  I ended with a total of 20,076 fiction words and 21,698 nonfiction words.  I didn't reach my time goals, but at the end of the day, the goals are all about the words.  I am happy with my progress.  I now have approximately 36,400 words left to finish my first draft of book 5, the final book in the Living the Tenet series.  I am getting excited because Kirzantra, the main character in my next series, is giving me all sorts of things to write about.  She is ready to meet the world outside of family game night.  She is a fantastic character that I am so stoked about getting to know even better.

I am going to try to take the next couple of days off from fiction.  I will put in a little time with my morning pages and blogs to finish up my week.  These next few weeks of continued winter, I will work hard at the 36K words.  I will also try seeing the beauty in our last days of winter.  Of course, I will dream of spring and flowers.  That is never ending.  So, Goodbye February, Hello March.