Hi friends,
The first half of January is over and done with! The year has just begun and it’s already speeding by!
I hope it’s been a great start to the year for you. It’s been busy here for me, what with things happening beyond my control, but I’ve been staying as productive as possible and trying not to get so stressed. I think it’s working. I certainly have accepted that you have to (forgive the trite saying) roll with the punches.
In terms of my goals for January, I’m rather pleased with a lot of the progress I’ve made…
- Finish my current edit of Heritage – I’m over halfway there, and that’s with more rewriting than I’ve done on a project since Pirate Eyes in August 2016!
- Type up the handwritten first draft of Destinies Entwined – I’ve typed up 20k so far but I have at least another 50k to go, so this might not get done, but as long as good chunk is through, I’ll be happy
- Launch service with my sister – ACCOMPLISHED. In case you missed last week’s post, we launched our editing service for manuscripts and scripts last week. You can find us at Inky Squid Editing
- Post at least three blog posts here to help other writers – The first of these should be posted Friday, so eyes open 🙂
- Read 4-5 books – I’ve read four books so far (Wuthering Heights, Howl’s Moving Castle, Keep Her Safe & A Desperate Fortune) – for more on this, check out my new review blog BooksSpringEternal
- Watch 5-6 movies – I have accomplished this as of yesterday! My sister and I did a double feature downtown and watched Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water! Both were extraordinary. I also rewatched North & South (the BBC miniseries), Howl’s Moving Castle & Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and we caught The Last Jedi last Friday! Needless to say, it’s been an amazing month in movies thus far!!
- Write one short story – Well on the way to this one. I have a story outlined and I’ll be writing it this week and next.
- Finish character sketches for secret project with my sister – Finished in the first week!
So yes! I’m feeling rather accomplished today 🙂
How about you, friends? How is your month going so far? Anything exciting happen? Share in the comments and let’s cheer each other on through the good times and the more difficult!
May inspiration flow like ink upon your quill,
Faith 
aliasfaithrivens 
Wow! Congrats on the progress! Mine looks slim compared to yours, but I feel proud that I’ve been able to focus more on getting a concrete draft done for my story, definitely a work in progress. I’ve heard the show North and South was good…do you think it’s worth a watching?
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Thank you so much! And well done with your progress! It’s definitely something to be proud of! And yes: WATCH NORTH & SOUTH ❤️
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Don’t you start, I’m writing my monthly wrap-up post this week! Can’t believe January is already almost over.
Your progress is inspiring, as always ❤ I'm amazed you've written a whole book by hand. Doesn't your wrist hurt?? I'm writing my little blog short by hand and struggle!
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Yours is incredible too Sarina! You’re smashing those word goals 🙂
I do wrist exercises to make sure they don’t. I just love writing by hand. It’s my goal for every first draft 🙂
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Wait, WHAT?? January is almost over?!?! 😮 I spent a good part of the month being buried with work at my day job, so I had to let a lot of blogging-related things go for a couple weeks. Thank goodness this week has been slower; I feel like I can breathe more easily… But it also didn’t help to learn today that UKLG has passed away. 😥
Anyways, you’re having quite a month with all the writing and goal-oriented progress you’ve made. And handwritten first drafts… That’s a blast from the past for me. I wrote the first draft of the novel I wrote before TKC entirely by hand. So I know what that experience is like!
Funny you read Wuthering Heights recently. I’m thinking about covering that in a future DIY MFA themes post. Just have to figure out which theme to cover, and which book to pair it with…
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It’s a tragedy. I was with my sister and I saw a tweet from Stephen King and my heart broke. And I’ve only read one book of hers! I can only imagine for people who’ve grown up lost in her pages 😦
I felt like returning to my roots. My first draft of Pirate Eyes (written now 11 years ago) was all by hand. I feel like it’s a more freeing way of writing a first draft. More inspiring for me 🙂
Ooh! I’ll look forward to that post. There’s so much possibility! Just putting my two cents in: Rochester vs. Heathrow – the destructive nature of love. My head’s in a very Brontë place at the moment 😉
Hope the next few weeks give you an opportunity to breathe in good and deep. Take care of yourself, Sara!
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Well, now it’s funny that you mention Mr. Rochester. “Jane Eyre” is one of the example novels I’m using in my next DIY MFA post, which comes out the week of Valentine’s Day. So guess which theme I’m exploring as a result? 😉
Yes, it’s sad about UKLG… though not completely unexpected. I remember visiting her website a few months ago, and her latest blog entry began with her apologizing for not blogging in a while, mainly due to health reasons. And she was 88 years old… Knowing what’s written, what she advocated for, and all the accolades and respect she received over the years, she really did live her best life. She’ll be missed, for sure – but then again, she’s written so many books that she will continue to enrich and entertain readers for a long, long time.
We’ll see about the next few weeks. I got some news this afternoon that might be a big blow to my blogging activities…
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