This blog started off has a way to document my daily adventures abroad in university, but it was also very much a place where I wrote about writing. It was such a part of this blog in fact that I didn’t even have a category for all the posts about my book and instead I eventually created a whole other blog for all that stuff: precariousreader.wordpress.com. But I still post about it here, and now is as important as ever because I’ve reached a special…horrible…milestone.
As I worked on the pitch for my web series, I realized that even though I’d put my novel writing on hold, I didn’t want to give up the story entirely. It wasn’t going to be as easy to pick my novel back up as it was to put down. A story has peaks and valleys; I’d stopped in a valley and it was difficult to find the momentum to reach the next peak from there. So I turned to research, where I always turn when I want to get my head into the story without actually writing. However, on this occasion, Google wasn’t enough.
I needed the mountains.
I was going to quit acting in November.
Well, I was supposed to quit this time last year.
I didn’t really consider it my resolution, but around January 1st, I got fed up with how long SC, my big bad book, was taking to finish. My—well, my resolution, to this issue was to write 500 words before bed every day so I’d finish it faster. And for the first week, with the help of late nights and coffee shops, I did it.
After I plotted two books beginning to end, I thought I’d write them a lot faster. Instead, I seem to be writing at the same pace as I’ve always written, and due to my limited time, my word count has grown at an even slower pace than it did when I wrote the first draft with no plan at all.
I’ve spent the last few days posting on my Bookstagram and plotting out my novel, SC. If I’m going to start over again, I’ll make sure it’s the last time I do so, at least to this extent.
January is dangerous. It can make you think about what you’ve done and what you’re going to do, and whether it is enough.
I’ve been writing this blog for three years now and you guys have been following, either from the beginning or just recently, and I love you all for it. Without each and everyone one of you, I’d feel like I was screaming into the abyss. So as a token of my appreciation, I decided I’d hold my first ever giveaway.
At some point in the last few days, this blog turned 3 without me noticing. And as I do every year, I’m now looking back at how things have changed and what I’ve done in the past year.
