Sorry everyone, but the math is pretty clear on this one:
Snowstorm/frigid temps (-30 here this morning) + sickness (chronic & acute, lucky me) = no post this week.
Instead, enjoy this photo of my dog demonstrating how much snow we got *last* week (I was too sick to shovel/ take pics this week):
Writing is hard.
Or at least, writing a good, coherent story with zero plot holes, engaging characters, and gripping stakes is hard.
Some days the words don’t want to come
For me, when I hit one of these blocks, it usually means something in the story isn’t working – I just haven’t noticed it yet. But my subconscious has, and it’s the one throwing up road blocks trying to get me to slow down before I write myself off a cliff.
Or something like that.
The point is, that sometimes I need to walk away. Not permanently. Not even for very long. But (for me at least, YMMV) sitting and staring at the dreaded pulsing cursor of doom is not helpful.
What works for me is getting my butt up out of the chair and doing something relatively brainless, so my mind can wander and try to deal with whatever plot bunnies are plaguing me. Good tasks for this include showering, cleaning the house, and going for a walk.
In fact I can credit a shower with last week’s solution to a plot issue in my MG Fantasy. I’ve been working on this book on and off for years with the help of an agent and editors, but none of us even noticed this plot problem, let alone the relatively simple way to fix it (okay, while the fix is simple, actually incorporating it into the book will take a little more effort).
The point is: that’s how magic showers are. And bonus: they also get you all clean and stuff.
As you can tell from the date of this post, I’m really on top of this whole New Year’s Resolution-thing.
Oh well, better late than never, right?
Anyway, I thought I’d post my Writing Resolutions for the year, so you can all help keep me accountable. As usual, I’m restricting my resolutions to things I can actually accomplish on my own (ie. I’m not putting ‘get an agent’ or ‘land a publishing deal’ because the only things I have control over is writing and submitting – not whether anyone likes it enough to sign me.)
I don’t have a lot of resolutions this year, but the ones I have aren’t exactly small, so it’ll be interesting to see how the next twelve months shape up.
2019 writing Resolutions
I’ve already made a start on the first – my goal is to finish revising SHADOWCATCHERS and send it to my crit partner by the end of the month. (Of course, it would help if my kids would stay healthy enough to actually attend school and give me time to write.)
I’ve also made a list of 2018 MG Fantasies I want to read, and started requesting them at the library. Unfortunately not many are available as audiobooks, so I might be a bit slow plowing through those.
Well, that’s it for my list. Post yours in the comments so we can cheer you on, too.
I can hardly believe it but, including re-reads, I read over 200 books last year! 190 were new reads, 16 re-reads – of those 206 books, 24 were paper books, 182 were audiobooks (thank you, Libby app!) and I also DNF’d (Did Not Finish 4 other books).
I thought it would be fun and informative to see how my reading stats broke down, so here we go:
For the record, I’m not counting the re-reads in this breakdown, or the two short story anthologies, so I’m working from a total of 188 books.
Of those books:
56 had main or POV characters with some kind of marginalization (including race, gender, sexual preference, chronic illness/disability, and/or mental health issues).
Those books had 145 different authors (some books were co-authored), of those authors (from what I could see on their bios):
Of those Authors:
If you’re interested in finding out the best books I read in 2018, check out these posts (Parts One, Two, and Three of my Favourite Reads).
I don’t know if I’ll read quite as many books this year (I kind of hope I don’t, because it’ll mean I’m spending more time writing), but I will aim to read more by non-white, non-cis, non-straight, non-healthy authors.
What are your reading goals for 2019? Let me know in the comments.
As you already know if you follow this blog, I’ve been tracking all the books I’ve read this year so I can compile some statistics about my reading habits (tune in to next week’s post to see the results).
Part of my tracking has involved recording which books are new to me, and which are re-reads.
But this month I hit a little snag: what if you know you’ve read a book, but have absolutely no memory of what happens in it? Does it still count as a re-read?
My memory has been pretty fuzzy since the concussion, so even some of my regular re-reads have gaps, but these books are complete blanks. I know for a fact I read most of the Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries in high school and my early twenties (I think I stopped around M is for Malice) but when I listened to the audiobook of A is for Alibi this month, it didn’t feel even slightly familiar.
So…do I count it as a re-read or not?
I think I’m going to, because I know I’ve read it (and the others I’ve been reading), but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments.
Now, for the last of my Reading Stats of 2018:
December Reading Stats:
December Total: 22 (+3 Re-reads)
2018 Total: 190 (+16 Re-reads)
