You know, despite lots of upheavals and surprises and new time constraints and toddler and politics and houseguests and a bit of traveling, 2017 as a writing year wasn’t terrible for me. (How’s that for optimism? I’m working on it…) I managed to complete the one major goal I would have cried if I’d not accomplished (the rough draft of a novel), and while I came nowhere close to reading 60 books this year, I at least managed an average of one book a month (*sad*), which is I suppose better than nothing. I’m just glad I read over ten, because for a while there I thought I wouldn’t even hit that. And I really enjoyed most of the books I did read (this year included an introduction to Nnedi Okorafor via Who Fears Death (amaaaaazing), and Lois McMaster Bujold via the beginnings of the Vorkosagan saga and comic artist/writer Moebius via The World of Edena, and a pair of truly life-enlightening books in Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up as well as Judith Pierce Rosenberg’s A Question of Balance: Artists and Writers on Motherhood). The goal to write a new draft via NANOWRIMO this November fell completely flat, and I did not in any way create or keep up a reading log (look for this goal again this year…)
But overall, when I look back on the year, I’m not disappointed. Sure, I could have done more. Sure, I let other hobbies and activities run away with me for a time, some of which I’ll scale back this year, and some of which are here to stay and simply need to be acknowledged and included in my day-to-day routines. Still, I hammered out 90k of rough draft material, and I think I may be able to save more of it than I initially realized, which is helping a little on the rewrite-panic that set in at the end of September. It was a good, solid year. There are improvements to be made, and lessons to be learned, but all in all, I’m happy with it.
In 2018, I’m going a bit ambitious again, though I hope only a *little* ambitious (meaning: doable).
- Write one new summary draft (with the world-building done) for a new book.
- Write & edit three new short stories.
- Continue the edit/rewrite of Frosthaven (to 2nd draft).
- Read 50+ books and keep a reading log (for real this time).
Here’s to a fruitful and enjoyable 2018! Happy New Year, everybody!
Maggie Slater 