Even though 2019 was a rough year, one thing I did really well was making sure I had time to write and I wrote. I did not write every day, but I definitely wrote several times every week. I had been trying that "treat it as a job" approach for over a year, but it wasn't working for me. It sucked all the passion out of writing and I felt guilty if I didn't write during the times I had set aside due to a migraine or whatever. So I decided to try the "I Will Write Every Week" approach. Basically, writing became my place to relax and unwind. I was still writing down times to write in my planner, but it wasn't a, "YOU MUST DO THIS OR YOU FAIL AS A WRITER" type mentality. It was more, "hey, look at all this time you have to write! I know there's a lot going on, but once you get done with the stuff you HAVE to do, look at this fun thing you GET to do." Just a shift in perception and it made all the difference. It also helped that I had/have my writing groups and open mics as deadlines keeping me accountable. This is what I succeeded at this past year:
- Wrote every week
- Wrote every day for November & surpassed the 50,000 word mark for NaNoWriMo
- Sent out one Short Story (It got rejected, but with some pointers on how to fix the story so I'm seeing that as a win)
- Set up and started a Grief Journaling Workshop at the Library
- Continued with the Writers' Word Feast
- Visited an open mic I wasn't running
- Ran The No Shush Salon open mic
- Finished my memoir & gathered readers
Here are my writing goals for 2020:
- Send my memoir to my readers (Edit: DONE)
- Continue writing every week
- Send out writing for publication at least once a month
- Visit other (not run by me) writing groups
- Visit other (not run by me) open mics
- After getting back feedback from readers about my memoir (March 1), Edit it
- Figure out what direction I want to go with my memoir & go there
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