The Shortest Month

February being the shortest month - and for a couple years in a row it was also the month we had doggy drama going on - I have historically not gotten much done in February. But not so this month! Yay!

First, to address my progress on goals:

-I've stuck well to my writing schedule, with the exception of the week that Elianna's school was out for mid-winter break. (Though that week we did have our physical therapy appointment, so that gave me a free chunk of time one afternoon, which I did make use of.)

-I have submitted two stories for publication, putting me 2/3 of the way to my goal of tree submissions by the end of March.

-This will be my third weekly blog post this month. I did miss a week, and another week I did what was mainly a rehash of an old post. So not stellar.

-While I have not put much thought into what long project to work on next, I did write a new short story this month.

Not part of my goals, but also progress worth noting - I'm starting to get my motivation back. I've been struggling with my motivation to write for probably two solid years now. Two years ago, we found out that Baldur had terminal cancer, so that, of course, killed my motivation to do anything but spend time with him. And of course having a newborn, and then post-partum depression is not conducive to getting things done. I'm also starting to notice that, while winter's lack of light didn't used to affect me, it seems to now. Don't know if this is an age thing, but I've felt very unmotivated this winter, even when Elianna's been in school and after the holiday rush was over. But now that the weather is improving, the days are getting longer... it seems like my motivation is ticking up, so that's good.

In addition to the afore-mentioned short story, I've been thinking about other pieces more, too. Just in the past two days I've gone into great detail with two friends about four stories I'm wanting to write (some longer than others). Just talking about it, getting their feelings and feedback has made me feel good, and made me want to do more. I'm also constantly jotting down notes for a fifth - new - story. (Technically it's not new - I took elements I liked from a problem story and combined them with a new idea that I didn't have a whole plot for, and now I think I have a good, solid plot with much better character dynamics.)

So, that's what I'm up to. What have you crammed into your shortest month?