2020 Recap, 2021 Goals

2020 Recap: 

January-February: I zero-drafted a 15,000 middle grade story and edited my 2019 Nano book during the Winter Writing Festival. I finished the editing pass in time to enter Author Mentor Match. I didn’t get in, but I started participating in online CP-groups. 

March-April: I blew through 2 more drafts of my 2019 Nano novel—now referred to as Monster Girls. I thought it was in good shape, so I sent out a handful of queries. 

May-June: I participated in 20Kin5days again. In the first week of May I wrote the first 20,000 words of the zero-draft of my Brigadoon-book. Over the next 7 weeks I finished the 67,000 word zero-draft. 

July: I joined an online writing retreat that spiraled into the most amazing group of writing friends. I’ve learned so much from this group in the last 6 months, and I can’t imagine writing without them now. I also joined a monthly CP group that has taught me a new way to look at my work, and I started learning how to give a better critique, too. 

August: I gave up on the second draft of Brigadoon. I spent too long struggling to get this story down. Between the critique group and writing group, I learned so much about what I was capable of—and to an extent it paralyzed me. Writing Brigadoon became so painful, because I could see how bad the draft was in a way I didn’t notice before. So I quit—and I think it ended up being one of the best decisions I made.

September: I did what I thought would be the final pass on Monster Girls (68K), and then in two weeks drafted the zero-draft of the Wedding Crown (35K). Then I spent 2 days intensely workshopping my first chapter of Monster Girls for Pitch Wars with my writing group. And…it worked! I ended up getting a request for more pages. Only, I learned so much from our 3-hour workshop that when I went to send my pages, I could already see where the problems were. My characters had no agency, and while Plot was happening, none of it was connected to my character’s actions. I didn’t have time to fix things at that point, so I sent it what I had. I think the PitchWars mentors saw the issues too, because I didn’t hear back after sending in those pages. Still, getting a request was validating—it made me feel like I can do this.

October-November: I spent October working on outlining the second draft of the Wedding Crown, which I drafted during Nano. My goal for Nano was to write slowly, and to make sure that I ended every day feeling good about what I’d written. Instead, I wrote 78,000 words during the month.

December: I bought a craft book and spend the month doing writing exercises from the book on random scenes from the Wedding Crown, and outlining draft 3. I didn’t write most days, instead giving myself the time to take a break. The scenes I wrote this month are some of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I also bought a house and moved 3 hours across the state. 

2021 Writing Goals:

1. Beta-ready draft of the Wedding Crown by mid-March. I’m planning on writing during the Winter Writing Festival again this year, and focusing on getting a full solid draft done over the 50 days of the festival. 
2. Three zero-drafts (January, May, September). I’ve done Tasha Harrison’s 20Kin5days four times now, and I think that it really helps to keep burnout at bay. It also feels good to have a backlog of projects, even if I never write more than a zero-draft.
3. Learn how to edit and lean into craft without getting caught up in word count and deadlines. This is really this year’s largest goal. I feel like I know how to draft—but I am still learning how to revise. Writing without metrics hurts my data-heart, but it leads to work that is so much better. So I need to find a way to keep momentum going while editing without getting caught up in quantity at the expense of quality. 
4. Arrange for a dedicated writing desk. This is a perk of the new house: There’s a room at the top of the stairs that I’m going to be able to turn into a dedicated writing nook. I can’t wait to get everything set up and get to work!