It is, of course, a Road Trip Wednesday day, and I've missed the last MONTH'S worth, so today's question feels pretty relevant:
This week's question is: Quarterly check-ins! We're already 1/4 of the way through the year--where are you on your reading and writing goals?
Yikes.
First, the good:
- I've read 27 books this year! I set a much lower goal this year than last year, but wouldn't you know it--I'm currently on pace to hit last year's goal! I've decided to compromise and bump this year's goal from 75 books to 100 books. That's not so many that I won't pick up a long book, but enough that I'll be motivated to keep finding time in my day to read.
- My February Compliment Challenge here on the blog was a lot of fun; in what was otherwise kind of a blah month, finding something nice to say each day made things a little better. All told, I got about 135 comments, contest entries, and links to shared compliments--and as it happened, a teacher I knew a little bit in grad school was about $135 away from being able to buy speakers, amps, and a monitor for his music classroom. So I decided to give $1 for each time someone participated, and completed the project. A huge thanks to all who participated--I'm sure you made many people's days, and this teacher and his students are very excited to get their equipment.
Then, the...rest:
- I had big plans for you, February. Big plans. I was gonna write and write and write! I was gonna crank out a new-and-improved draft of my YA project, and make it into something I loved! Welllllllllll...that didn't quite happen. I'm at a bit of a decision point with my writing. The good news is that I've moved past the place where "Oh, just quit it, you don't have anything to say anyway," is one of my possibilities. I hung out there for about two weeks and that was a bummer. But right now, I've got three options:
- Keep trying with the WiP I wrote most of during NaNo, then completely re-outlined in a way that's much more interesting to me and near and dear to my heart...but which hit a wall early on this month when I tried to re-draft it.
- Turn my attention to the Google Doc currently titled "Shiny New Whooziwhatsit" which has an outline and the first 500 words of a new YA project I'm excited about, one that's closer to home and therefore a little scary to write.
- Investigate the small voice in my head reminding me that MG is my first love, possibly my One True Love, and annoyingly pointing out that reading good MG fiction makes me want to run through the streets proclaiming my love of books. So, maybe start experimenting with MG writing? Or at least, start reading more MG in preparation for some MG writing experiments. (Other than Wonder, and the handful I've blogged about like The Cavendish Home... and The False Prince, what MG should I be reading???)
- Also, I've been a once-a-week blogger for the last month or so. Oops. Trying to get back on the horse.
The state of things around these parts isn't so hot either, if I'm being honest. If you're looking for accountability we can move forward with the plan we came up with before, if you'd like? I could use a good swift kick in the pants.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited that you're going to plunge into Shiny New Whooziwhatsit. You can do it! :)
I have some IDEAS about accountability--I'll email you :)
DeleteSo...a possibility would be to discuss your draft WiP to brainstorm on it. If you want to Google chat at some point (easier than Twitter for those type of things), I would love to help you out.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you would love to try your hand at MG, why not (I understand your need to read more into the genre before writing)...Look at Rebecca, she writes both YA and MG :D Same for Shannon Messenger :D
You can do it!
AND don´t forget you already wrote an ENTIRE book <3
I kind of like the idea of a brainstorming session for project #1, actually--I've got the version I wrote (still without a complete ending) and the version I re-outlined entirely and tried to start, but maybe trying to tell the story to someone else will help see where there are pieces missing.
DeleteAs much as there are times when I just want to fling back my head and HOWL about how hard this is--I also keep remembering how much I love doing things that are hard :)
Wow 27 books, I'm impressed! I haven't read much MG but I did love Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead (I liked it even more than When you reach me) also Liesel and Po by Lauren Oliver.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck deciding which route to go down, I hope the brain storming helps.
Ooh, forgot about Liesl and Po! I've been meaning to get to that one. Thanks for the reminder!
DeleteIt's tough to balance everything. Great work on all those books! I want to dive into a new book right now but I'm pushing forward on some edits, trying to use my free time for writing over reading.
ReplyDeleteGood for you--that's clearly what I struggle to do :) Keep up the good work and willpower!
DeleteImpressive reading totals!
ReplyDeleteI feel your writing pain. I'm all chock full of indecision at the moment. I'm working by the theory that the answers will come at some point...
=)
They will! They definitely will, as long as you're not afraid to write into some dead ends and brick walls!
DeleteFebruary was sort of a blah month for me too, but I did read several great books, so that's a plus. I'm crazy-impressed with your Books Read in 2013 number so far! You're killing it. Hoping to see a recommendation or two coming up. *hint hint* :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know if you saw the picture of my TBR I tweeted the other day, but my TBR pile is huge and driving me crazy with things I want to be reading RIGHT NOW. So I'm trying to be better about only sticking with things I'm really enjoying--I'm on a pretty good streak recently!
DeleteMG is so great! I haven't tried writing for that age group yet, but I'd love to give it a try one day. I'm totally curious about your "scary" project idea. I think the scarier projects, the ones that we feel most strongly about, can often be the most rewarding.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
I'm mostly working on turning all my writing angst into writing excitement, you know? So all these scary things, I guess, are also fun new things!
DeleteMG has some of the best books, and the best writing! You've read Fly-by-Night, of course?
ReplyDeleteI haven't, but I just looked it up and it sounds great! Thanks!
Delete27 books is a great achievement. Don't worry about the writing. There's no way we can focus on more than one thing at once. There's still plenty of months to go in the year for writing!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You're totally right--focus on one thing at a time!
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