As the next few weeks will be busy, I thought I'd do my annual review now.
I feel it's helpful to remind myself what I've achieved across the year, and if something hasn't gone as I'd hoped, well perhaps there's something I can learn from it, or accept that circumstances sometimes interfere in our plans, but that's life and writers aren't immune to those issues.
My word count total isn't yet complete for the year, but I've already exceeded last year's total...
2016 hasn't been as good as previous years, and not everything has been positive.
So here goes.
January
I was
rewriting and editing a short story for submission to the women's magazine market - sadly it was rejected just under the three months after it was submitted.
Though I never give up on my stories, so I'll look at it again and see if anything obvious punches me in the nose.
As I was intending to enter the writers' club's winter quarterly prose (deadline early-March) I was pondering a few ideas. Epistolary fiction is an interesting medium for a story and can be hard to get right, but also easy to get horribly wrong.
February
The magazine
short story (mentioned above) was sent out, and the epistolary story was under construction.
March
My old Windows 7 desktop finally packed up, so I had to shift my office around to remove the defunct equipment and replace it with a
Windows 10 device.
It took me a while to get my brain to work around Windows 10, and there are still times that it's frustrating, but I've learnt to live with it.
I also did a
guest post about writing groups over on Patsy Collins' Words About Writing and writing about words blog.
As a reader for the Nottingham Writers' Club National Short Story Competition (link to the
2017 competition) I had a portion of the first round to read and comment on.
And the epistolary story came 2nd in the club's prose competition.
April
The posts this month were popular. I had guest posts from author (and writing buddy) Patsy Collins; who not only had a new book out, but was giving helpful advice and information for anyone interested in going from e-book to print using Createspace on Amazon,
here and
here.
This month also began the
second draft of my Nottinghamshire short novel.
There was time for a one-day
workshop on historical fiction with author Judith Allnatt, in the Alan Sillitoe Room on the top floor of the Nottingham branch of Waterstones.
One of the exercises at the workshop had presented me with a new character (I'm still not sure how her story will end up, but I'm sure I'll find out some time in the future).
I've been on the Talkback forum (part of the Writing Magazine writers- online website) for years, and taken part in the One Word Challenge, 200 words to write a story on theme of that month's chosen word.
April's word happened to be Jeopardy, so I rewrote the exercise piece that was based on the senses- and I was one of the runners-up on
April's Challenge.
May
May was a challenge.
There was a lot going on personally, and I'd also lost, and attended the funerals, of two writer friends, one in late March, and the second a few weeks later. Though both were older and infinitely wiser, they were willing to ask advice about blogging and e-books, and I was happy to be able to help.
Both Stan and Ron were gentlemen, and they willingly shared their knowledge. I will not forget their generosity, and their support.
June
As in other year's there was the writers' club stall at the
Lowdham Book Festival.
Plus I was able to get to a couple of exhibitions courtesy of a long weekend in
York; Shaping the Body at the Castle Museum, and the final week of a Shoe Exhibition at the 18th century Fairfax House.
The visit also gave me the opportunity to meet up with writer friend, Maggie Cobbett.
July
With university and college finished for the summer, home life was noisy, and my inability to get
quiet to write was frustrating and depressing me.
I did some research on a new project, and struggled on.
August
Was the memory stick issues. Discovering I'd lost some work on a stick that would not open on my new computer, or my OH's laptop. But the sorting, checking and labelling of the remaining functioning sticks has proved time well spent.
September
Disaster with the discovery that I had also lost the whole of my first draft, and the first three chapters of the second draft on another memory stick. Thankfully I had everything printed out, so all was not completely lost.
I purchased a portable hard drive- no explanation needed...
Revised another story Woman's Weekly rejected.
October
I hadn't been feeling too good for months, so saw my GP. Had to stop taking one of my medications and wait for six weeks to completely clear it out of my system. Surprisingly I started feeling the improvement quite quickly and the ongoing lethargy faded.
I enjoyed meeting up with
#writingchat co-hosts Patsy Collins and Maria Smith for a few hours at the Attenborough Nature Reserve.
With the renewed energy I ventured further afield to Leicester and was welcomed into the RNA (Romantic Novelists Association) Chapter,
the Belmont Belles. In the short time I've been connected, I've learnt a lot.
With the additional energy (because my blood pressure had gone up) I began the second draft again, using the printed copy to retype and make other changes- I've almost done Chapter Two.
November
The blood pressure is now sorted, but I need to lose weight. I also need to see the Osteopath about my back too... :(
I've had a
small success with a letter in the December issue of Writing Magazine.
And I get a mention in the current Writers' Forum magazine, where the writers' club national competition is the Competition of the Month on the page compiled by
Helen Walters.
December
Well I know I have good news to share, but you'll have to wait a bit longer for that.
I didn't set too specific targets last year - on the
23rd November to be exact - my
Serena Lake website and blog has suffered with my lack of energy and tiredness, so I didn't give it the attention I wanted to.
I have been open to writing and researching opportunities, so I've met that target.
And reading and writing, well probably more of the former this year.
So for 2017 my general aims are:
Carry on with the second draft.
Get out into the world more.
Continue being open to writing opportunities.
Read more.
Write more.
And lose weight... :-)
