Each month at Wordwatchers we gather at someone's house. We sit down and chat and then we start with the confessional. This is one of my favourite parts of the monthly meet. It is where we tell everyone in the group how much writing we have done, or what we have achieved during the month against what we said we would. I love the confessional because it is one of the few times in my life that I'm routinely out geeked. There are some serious writing geeks at Wordwatchers and it is wonderful company to share.Typically when it comes around to me I've been so hooked into what everyone else has been saying, my carefully rehearsed list of achievements through the month go out the window. I'll remember about three things I actually did. I'll go off on tangents, vaguely mention a word count and where I am with the work in-progress, and then off I go again, talking about some random concept I'm currently excited about.To try and establish some kind of order I've decided to use the Wordwatchers blog as a platform to briefly detail what I did each month, so when I'm sat in someone's house and all eyes turn to me, I can calmly reel off the key detail from this blog. Well not this one. We already had our April meeting. I'm writing this now just to get my hand in. Some great things happened in March 2012 and I'd like to tell you about them.We start with Handyman - my current novel. I'm a third of the way through the first draft. I dreamed up the concept two years ago and the character has steadily evolved as I edited and published Chasing Innocence. I'm introducing some very exciting elements into Handyman, not just to the story but to how it plays in the reader's mind. The trouble is, it has been four years since I actually started a book and I have been struggling to get going. I wrote about the struggle in two blogs during march; In the Absence of Daydreams and That Eureka Moment. It was in embracing both that I had a real epiphany that galvanised the characterisation of Handyman in my mind. As March came to a close I was for the first time closing the laptop and feeling I could write more. I spent most of the month struggling with two chapters, the first of which will unlikely appear in the book, but needed to be written as it explained the characters to me. The other chapter launches the rest of the book. It has been tough because it's less than 2,000 words but has to justify the beginning of Marcus' transition from ordinary to the extraordinary. Important is the belief in the reader's mind that he is capable and they want him to take the journey. Both chapters are as finished as they can be in the first draft. The exciting bit is what comes next.Additionally I wrote two blogs for the Wordwatchers site. One discussed this lonely business of writing and the need for collaboration. The other explained how to use URL's to promote your website's content in search engines.Then we move onto the small matter of promoting Chasing Innocence. Getting your creatively imagined and thrilling novel onto Amazon is only part of the journey for an indie author. Getting it into the hands of readers is another adventure completely. I wrote posts for my johnpotter.info blog detailing the separate journey for publishing the paperback and Kindle editions, and more importantly the lessons I have learned.In trying to promote Chasing Innocence I have entered it into three competitions. The two key ones for me are the Writer's Digest Self Published awards 2012 and the Kindle Book Review's Best Indie Book of 2012.Finally, I have started and will continue through April, to proof read my good friend Donald Stilwell's new manuscript. This is a huge honour. I loved his first book and am hoping the second will be even better.That's about it. See you next month.JP