HAPPY NEW YEAR.

 

Let’s all just pretend that Zane isn’t running way behind on her recap post and basically EVERYTHING kay thanks

 

I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long. Now that I’ve submitted my novella to the Rooglewood Press contest*, I’m hoping to get back to a more… regular schedule? The final week before the contest was insane. XP

 

*whaaaaat yes I DID IT, hopefully there’s a blog post coming on this!

 

So here’s my yearly recap post. Hopefully it isn’t too long for you because IT IS A MONSTER OF A POST. A lot of things happened this year.

 

Wow. Writing definitely took me on a road I wasn’t planning to go down. I started taking writing more seriously, where previously it had been more of a just-for-fun thing. Now I’ve starting thinking about publishing and different routes I can pursue, whereas last year I hadn’t even really considered it. Things have changed a lot.

 

 

I did get some writing done, but not an insane amount. I’ve seen some people saying they wrote one novel, two novels, etc. Me? Haha. Nope. However, I did some things I’m proud of.

I wrote an entire novella for the Rooglewood Press Snow White contest. It went through several drafts, the first being on paper with red ink, and about four or five others in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. I decided last-minute to try to send it out to beta-readers (literally a WEEK before the deadline) and several of my good friends and family gave me feedback on it. Terrifying, but they were all SO amazing. Almost all of them finished before the deadline, and I managed to make a lot of changes. They were fantastic. (: I sent it in last-minute, the day before the deadline. Now I just have to wait until April… XP It turned out at about 17,000 words, with a running title of Snowstrike.

 

I began my novel Project Supernova and wrote 17,000+ words in it. Unfortunately, it’s been mostly abandoned since the middle of last year. I’m planning to read over it soon, and decide what I want to do next.

 

 

I also wrote 15,000+ words of short stories and flash fiction. There were about 17 of them, but most of them will be buried in my computer files forever. Sorry.* I did publish one of them here, however – if you’re interested in checking it out here’s a link!

 

*No… not really… xP

 

In total I wrote nearly 50,000 words. 49,796 to be exact – nearly a novel.

 

I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done. I shared more of my writing than I ever have. I submitted a story to a contest. I formed my writing style a little more, although I’m still finding it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Goodreads, I read 200 books this year! Which is a lot, but not really compared to last year when I read, like, 400+ books… But hey. I’ll take it. And many of them were kids books, so. I’m surprised that the total number of pages read was 40,523! If you’d like, you can see my Year in Books over on Goodreads.

 

 

Above are my five-star reads, all of which were FANTASTIC. I may do some mini-reviews of them at some point. (:

 

This year I starting using Goodreads, and it’s so fun to use for all things bookish. Not to mention the people there are amazing. <33 Also, I got more into the YA genre, which is kind of weird. When I was younger, at the library, I don’t even think we HAD a YA section… or maybe I just never went there. I consider the Lunar Chronicles my first introduction into YA, and some introduction. Those books are absolutely amazing.

 

Yes… 2017 was the year I started this blog. It’s still tiny, but goodness. There are people out there who WANT to read what I – little, small-town, southern girl – have to say. It’s such a weird feeling.

 

It feels like so much longer than a year. It feels like I’ve been doing this forever, and yet I’m still figuring stuff out. Frequency of posting, blog design, social media, etc. (By the way, I changed my blog design again. I absolutely LOVE it and hope it’s here to stay – I’ve also been working on my graphics and branding.)

 

 

Now for some statistics (because I LOVE statistics). I currently have 28 followers via email, and over 5,500 pageviews. There have been visitors from over 25 different countries, the top two being (unsurprisingly) the United States and Canada, with Brazil (???) coming in third and Australia in fourth. Not sure how many of those are ACTUAL pageviews – unfortunately, I get a LOT of spammers. Someday I’m going have to do an answering-spam-comments post. ; )

 

 

I published 51 posts this year since the end of January last year (!!!), and took one, rather long hiatus for… over three months. : | I was a bit overwhelmed with everything, and I don’t regret it, but I really missed blogging. Hopefully I’ll be more consistent now, although I may have to post only twice a month for a while. We’ll see.

 

Wow. 2017 was… fast. It seems like it was just a few days ago that I was writing in my journal on New Year’s day and trying to write 2017 instead of 2016. Now it’s 2018. Two years away from 2020. Two years away from me being a legal adult. Not sure how I feel about that, folks.

 

 

I’ve been putting off writing this part of the post, because honestly I have NO idea how to sum up everything that happened in 2017 so that you aren’t insanely bored. Goodness. I changed so much this year, and so much happened. So these are just the highlights. At least the ones I can… remember, after scrolling through LOTS of pictures and reading my old journal entries. Because my brain, people. This is why I do excessive journaling now. xP

 

If you really don’t care to read this… just scroll down where I’ll wrap up the post. 🙂

 

 

January:

dancing the shim-sham. a tiny bit of snow and ice. President Trump’s inauguration and lots of excitement. 

February:

ice skating. softball practices for my brother. valentine’s day fun.

 

March:

bookshelf rearranging. field trips. my brother’s birthday.

April:

my fifteenth birthday! a formal dance. baby chicks. finishing school. lots of softball games. Easter. started Project Supernova.

 

May:

long walks. summer break. Colonial Williamsburg! saying goodbye to dear friends. realizing how fast time goes.

June:

my first bullet journal. dancing. running in the rain.

 

July:

the library program. one of my dear friends coming down to visit. fireworks. ice cream. my sister’s birthday. SUMMER. trying to meet my word count every day for camp Nanowrimo, and finally winning!

August:

school started. saw my first shooting star. we went and saw the solar eclipse which was AMAZING! took a break from my manuscript that I had been obsessing over for a month.

 

September:

playing Uno. church picnic. dancing. corn mazes and apple picking and autumn-y things. getting more creative in my bullet journal. starting to edit my novella with pen and paper and… making very little progress.

October:

getting glasses. putting together a Halloween/reformation celebration costume.

 

November:

trying to snatch time to edit. a visit to a historic site! a friend’s wedding. performing historic dance for the first time!! <3

 

December:

everything Christmas. much busyness and excitement.  finally getting snow! frantically trying to meet a deadline. clicking send on the email that held my precious manuscript.

 

 

Footnote: I think all of the above pictures are taken by my mom. Although most of them are from the correct month, not all of them are. (:

 

 

So… this has been a really ginormous post. It took me waaay longer than I originally thought to write it, so it will be sent to my email list on Sunday instead of Saturday. : | Also, I was originally planning on putting my goals at the end but that will probably have to be for another post.

 

All-in-all, 2017 was an adventure, filled with wonder. Lots of things have changed this year, including me. There are so many opportunities for me and so many things I can do with my life.

 

Thank you for coming on this journey with me. God has been good. I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for us all.

 

love,

Zane

 

How did 2017 go for you?