Tag: thoughts

Posted in blogging, recaps

March ’21 Recap

Posted on by AJ

Despite that I started March off with a Book in a Week Challenge, the month largely sped by without much to note about it. I’m actually a little surprised to realize we’re in the tail end of the month.

Nevertheless, there are some good things to note, both in writing and in real life. Covid Vaccines have been released to the general public in my state.

As a PSA and reminder: Even if you already have your vaccination, please continue wearing a mask. It’s not known how or if you can still transmit Covid once vaccinated and others around you may not be protected.  Please be the reason someone else is able to get a vaccine, instead of getting Covid.

It’s nice to know that the world is potentially starting to recover from the disaster that was 2020, but it’s also only March. Stay cautious and safe. You have so many more stories to live through and tell.

 On the writing side of things, I did attempt a Book in a Week Challenge. While I didn’t succeed at it this time, I’m excited to try it again when I get the chance. Looking back on it, I realize I rushed into it, so I’ll be planning a little more carefully for the next attempt.

I am however, closing the month out with sixty-thousand written words as of writing this post. There’s still a few days left in the month, but so far my yearly total of words is one hundred and forty-thousand words.

Even better: Next month is Camp NaNoWriMo. Because I’ve been trying to focus on getting at least a few projects cleared off the mountain of unfinished things, I’m giving myself a break for April and working on a few new ideas.

How as your March? What are you looking forward to in April?  

Posted in blogging, recaps

February ’21 Recap

Posted on by AJ

This month has been rough. I didn’t get much accomplished this month, even in the small things. Although I started out with a plan for the month and a chosen project, my focus has largely been derailed due to personal events.

I didn’t end up reading a whole lot this month. I’d wanted to finish my book from January before starting on a new one. That’s still sitting fairly unread on my nightstand. Nor did I get a lot of writing done. Over the three different projects I tried to work through I ended up falling short of twenty-five thousand by a but two hundred words.

I’m hoping March turns out a little better, but for right now I’m not putting anything super solid down in the plans.

How was your February?

Posted in recaps

January ’21 Recap

Posted on by AJ

2021 is officially underway. For me, it’s been a busy month—largely due to taking on more than I could handle this month.

On top of all the little projects I wanted to get done, I also had my reading challenge this month, which I ended up not doing a whole lot for. So far I’m only about twenty pages into Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway. I’m making more of an effort to block out time specifically for reading in February.

I mentioned earlier in the month I had two side projects for the blog here. One of those is updating my short stories page. So far I haven’t had a lot of success on that, in part due to the fact I’d like to move away from plain links. I’m hoping to eventually get thumbnail images set up in a sort of ‘gallery’. I’m setting that as my main blog focus throughout February as I know several of the shorts don’t currently have cover images.

Writing wise I didn’t manage to finish anything. I spent a little bit of time bouncing around on projects. I did however, manage to keep track of my wordcount. As of writing this post (on 1/27) I’ve written a total of 44,260 words.

With the month closing out I’m looking towards February. I’ve got a couple of projects in mind that I want to get finished up next month. Hopefully this cuts down on the massive list of forever-unfinished pieces I have so far.

How was your month? What plans do you have for February?

Posted in recaps

November 2020 Recap

Posted on by AJ

There are thirty-two days remaining in the year. With November now finished and out of the way, it’s time to start looking at the very end of the year. It’s been an intense and unpredictable year, but there’s still a little time left.

For those who participated in NaNoWriMo, congratulations! Even if you didn’t reach fifty-thousand, you still took a chance and gave your story and work a chance. Hopefully you at least have a chunk of a story for a start.

This year I chose to focus on my incomplete projects. I hit fifty-thousand only a few days ago. In total I finished the rough drafts of a novel and two novellas. I’d been hoping to get more done, but overall I’m happy with where things are standing now—and I’ve finally moved those projects out of the continuously unfinished pile and into the much smaller pile of things that needs editing.

December starts tomorrow, and with it, the last stretch of the year. I’m planning on getting back into edits, starting with another fairy-tale novella. It’ll also be time to revisit my yearly goals and set new ones for next year.

I’d love to hear about your November. Let me know how it went in the comments!

Posted in blogging, recaps

September 2020 Recap

Posted on by AJ

When September started, it felt like the days were dragging by. Now at the end of the month, I admit I’m not sure what happened this month. I’m not even sure where the month went.

Initially I wanted to get through the draft of at least one project this month. Although I’ve been able to take a look at my projects and determined which ones need the most attention, I haven’t quite managed to work on anything productively. Part of that is because I’ve had a lot more work and home projects to handle. It all added up to a lot of busy-ness without getting a lot of personal work done.

With October rapidly approaching, I’m looking at ways to get a better balance in. While I’m not declaring one project or the other, I do want to finally get all of my projects organized and in one place. The goal is to at least sort through all of the notes I have for various settings, and as a stretch goal, get all of said notes typed up.

How was your September?