Writing Achievements W/e 29th December 2019

My last update of 2019 and the last one of the decade as well.

As you might be able to tell by all the posts this week I have been much more productive on the writing front and I’ve enjoyed getting back into doing it as well.

I feel optimistic and in a better place health-wise (although my ears are still, even three weeks later, popping and causing me hearing issues).  And now the build-up to Christmas and the day itself have now both passed I feel optimistic and raring to go with the new year ahead.

But for now, I feel a time of reflection and gratefulness.  I feel very fortunate because it’s been a nice year.  A year of good memories mostly and certainly nothing bad. It’s also been a productive year, at work, in the garden and right here on the blog.

And I want to continue to build on all I’ve learnt this year into 2020.  Push myself a bit more because although my self-confidence is solid I certainly don’t do enough things in life that scare me (in a good self-development way) or that silents my inner critic long enough to take a chance on something new.  I tend to stay in safe places because not only is it an easy option but it’s also the most comfortable.

And that goes for my writing first and foremost.  Once I have my writing in a place I’m happy with – actual writing products so to speak, then I need to be showing them off and getting some feedback.  I need to test my writing to see whether it’s really good enough to be published – and more importantly good enough to be read.  But by testing my writing I can hopefully become a better writer.

But let’s not get ahead of myself.  Let’s just get writing created and my craft of writing developed first.  This week, being Christmas writing would usually be bottom of my list but apart from Christmas day I’ve been raring to write.  I’ve read a bit, although not my usual amount, and have generally had a god week.  And guess what?  Writing in the evenings is prooving to work well (as expected).

What am I reading?

• The Grasmere Journal by Dorothy Wordsworth
• The Establishment by Owen Jones
• McTeague by Frank Norris

I’ve nearly finished the Grasmere Journal and I haven’t picked up the Establishment at all.  Instead, I opted to start another story – McTeague for a bit of lighter reading.  Set in San Francisco at the turn of the 18th Century it does seem a nice read.

I set a challenge to myself this year to read at least 24 books and it looks like I’ve completed that by reading 27, so I’m pleased with that.  Next year I’ve got a few new reading and writing challenges I’d like to try out (NaNoWriMo not being one of them!).  I’ll share about that in my next post.  Safe to say I’d like to beat my book reading score.

Finally, I set myself a challenge to write 500 words per day.  I only achieved this about 130 days over the whole year.  But considering I didn’t start the challenge until 21st July 130 days over 172 days isn’t bad going.  That’s 76% achieved.  And I know next year I can improve on that score!

Thank you for reading.