Here’s a challenge for you.

I want you to write positively about your last year of writing. Do not bring yourself down, every little bit you did counts. Added a hundred words to that old fanfic? Well done! Made a list of plot points for that WIP? You did well!

Use the tag #writelrlookback

Prompted by the960writers and their challenge for the New Year in this post - the writerly things I did this year:

Edited and submitted my first original fiction manuscript to a publisher

Attended a writers conference

Entered into several writing competitions

Had my first ever piece of short fiction published in a literary magazine

Worked hard on a second and third manuscript 

Did several short writing courses and am doing longer one on editing and publishing

Wrote some fanfic to buoy and entertain me

Read lots!

Learned to take rejection

Watched my writing improve with valuble constructive criticism

Writely lessons from 2018 that I'll take into 2019 - Not all ‘positive’ as such but postive in the sense I can move forward and know that I’ll continue to improve!

Nothing is a given

Your writing needs time and care

Never compare yourself with other writers or their stories

Never stop learning (this kind of feels a given really!) 

Persistence is the key 

Never compare yourself with other writers - I put this one twice because it has been my great misfortune to do this - part of the fragile ego of a new creative writer, and the fact I have met so many wonderful writers this year and all of them on their own journey (and many appearing to have a better grip on this writing business other than me!) 

i know i’ve been slacking with writing toward the end of 2018, but i’ve been dealing with a lot of mental health issues and heaps of schoolwork so those took priority for a long while. my goal for 2019 is to write at least every week (since i know everyday is unreasonable for me) and hopefully this will result in steady progress on my wip Edith Nox!!

i’m usually hyper focused on things i could improve so instead, these are a few accomplishments i made in 2018:

got better at not describing details in too much depth

started developing an idea for Edith Nox in late june

learned how to write a book (writing one book actually requires you to write many versions of that same book,,who knew?!)

drafted key points in Edith Nox in september

worried less about whether something was good while i was writing it and learned to edit after i wrote

I got 15 chapters done in my WIP Coco fanfic, Neither Can You. It’s not done yet but it’s very close.

I started a Bad Things Happen Bingo challenge and have written... nine fics for it, so far? Haven’t hit a bingo yet, but that’s a lot of oneshots! And I finished three other oneshots aside from those, so that’s... 11??

I won a contest (in all categories), somehow, with one of my fics ???????? I still don’t know how that one happened and I’m not sure I deserved to win. I do think other fics deserved to win that one, but. Also entered a second contest! I’m not expecting to do well on it, but we’ll see how it goes.

I got a bunch of worldbuilding stuff done for my original project! Just about enough that I can start on the rewrite of my script! Excited about that.

And... yeah. I guess that’s pretty good? I got... a lot of stuff accomplished last year. o__O Way more than I have in a while. I’ll chalk it up to 4theWords being a huge help.

Let's see, in the last year I started this blog to post WIPs and some completed stuff. I've participated in at least one fandom week (maybe 2? I don't remember now). I also have set aside a minimum of 2 hours a week just for writing so I've been able to progress a little on a lot of different things I've been writing

The most positive thing about my writing this year is that it happened. I got back into fandom by getting into Dragon Age with @sulevinblade, and for the first time in a while, I wanted to write my own stories about something. It was the most wonderful feeling.

Twin introduced me to @dadrunkwriting, which was helpful in getting over my initial anxieties about posting what I’d written, and the reception there has been warm. 

Joining Discord servers is something new for me, but it’s been a great way to meet other writers, get inspired, share ideas and ask for tips and help. I have met so many kind and talented people, and it’s been a pleasure getting to know them all and seeing the incredible things they create.

I updated my AO3 for the first time in 4 years. I posted 13 works including one multi-chapter work I wrote in A WEEK, and I have a WIP that’s 58k and climbing. I’ve left more comments and kudos in the past couple months than I did in years before, read more incredible work than I have in a long time.

My plans for this year are to carry on as is, more of everything, and to finally start posting Recreate His Worldly Glory, my SebHawke longfic.