I just finished reading my very first monthly recap, which was exactly one year ago. It’s a bit surreal to see how much has changed, but it makes me feel incredibly proud of what 2017 has in store.

How things have changed…

In my Jan 2016 recap I was proofreading a book for a client, chatting to Helen Scheuerer about her literary fiction novel, and publishing other people through Writer’s Edit.

Fast forward to today. My writing life revolves around drafting my first novel The Crossing, I’m beta reading Helen Scheuerer‘s fantasy book Heart of Mist, and I’ve stepped away from work with Writer’s Edit.

I feel like my writing career has a much clearer path than it did a year ago (or any year before, for that matter). Everything I work on now has one goal in mind: become a published author.

An update on The Crossing

I’ve been pushing myself to write more in January and I’m really proud of the word counts I’m hitting. I wanted to write 20,000 words in Jan and Feb but… that’s not going to happen!

However, It’s been nice to jump back into the worlds of Lihanna and Kharos after the madness of December. To find out more about these worlds I’ve created, check out my Manuscript Monday video below…

I found myself in a slump at chapter 16, which was an incredibly long and arduous chapter that ended up being over 7000 words.

By the time I got to the end of it, I found myself analysing the bigger picture of The Crossing and asking myself, ‘Is my outline way too long?’ Turns out that yes, yes it was!

My outline from NaNoWriMo originally had 42 chapters. I’ve since split the outline and am aiming to get to chapter 20 by the end of February to re-assess the situation.

A huge month for reading!

I’m usually a very slow reader. I’ve come to terms with that. But I was a little disappointed to find that I’d only read 36 books on Goodreads in 2016. I didn’t set myself a challenge and I just flopped.

So in 2017 I’ve set myself the task to read 50 books, and I’m already 6 books in! I’ve been switching up longer books with shorter ones to keep a nice balance.

One of the biggest reading revelations of January has been the discovery of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Aside from Spock and Kirk, I think Jamie and Claire Fraser are totally my OTP 😉

Here’s what I read this month:

• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
• Traditional vs Self-Publishing: Which Is Right For You? by Writer’s Edit Press
• Outlander #1 by Diana Gabaldon
• The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
• The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

Coming up in February…

I’m aiming to get to chapter 20 of The Crossing in February and take stock of the story overall and see where my draft is really at.

I’ve also got a lot of videos coming up in the next month, including a recap of my Summer Goals and whether I achieved any or failed miserably!

Stay tuned…

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