Hello, welcome to the blog! 2022 is coming to a close. It has been a year of growth and change. Some goals set in my personal and writing life may not be completed this year though I am proud of what was achieved.
I officially started this blog in December 2021 but didn’t post regularly until March. The intent was to post at least twice a month. Most of the time it happened. Other months not so much. I do make it a point to post at least once a month. Which is the monthly wrap-up of writing endeavors.
This year was a lot of creative firsts for me. I have always wanted to take part in NaNoWriMo. By the time November rolled around, I’d either forget or have no time. Through Twitter, I found that they have smaller challenges called Camp NaNoWriMo. I decided to treat it like any other NaNoWriMo and set the goal of 50k.
It felt amazing to complete 50k of chapter rewrites and edits. Though, I was not prepared for the burnout afterward. The challenge taught me two things: I can write 50k in a month and pace myself better mentally to help avoid burnout.
Medium and Publications
This year I joined Medium and two of its publications. One of the two, unfortunately, had internal issues and closed. The other is still going. Joining online publications was new to me and a younger me would have never tried it. Lack of confidence mostly. This coming year I hope to gain more of a following so I can join the Medium service where you get paid for views. I don’t expect it to yield enough to make it a full-time job. Earning extra money would be nice.
Simily
Joining Simily was a good stepping stone for me. It helped me find good writers that were also on Medium. From reading their posts, I slowly learned formatting and other online writing tips that you don’t learn from books.
Even though it was a great starting point, I’m no longer posting on the website. I have been reading too many negative things about it over the past couple of months. From other writers, I heard they have a hard time getting paid. I don’t plan on taking down my content yet. I’m going to continue to monitor the situation to see where it goes from here. It would be a shame to see a site that had good promise become a wasteland.
Contest Submission
Last month I submitted a short piece to Indie Bites Magazine. The theme of the contest was ‘Curses and Castles’. They sent a confirmation email that they received the submission. I won’t know the results until next year.
Regardless if I win or not, I’m glad I submitted it. The last time I participated in a writing contest was in a literary arts magazine on campus back in college.
Sci-Fi WIP
The second draft was started in March of 2022. It’s in a better place than it first was. My goal is to have it completed by March 2023. It’s 85-90 percent done. So I can proudly say it will be done by then.
This month five more chapters were written. One less than the normal monthly goal. Overall this draft is further along than I expected.
Other Side Projects
The last time Enemies but Lovers was updated was in August. It wasn’t the intention. It accidentally slipped through the cracks. I hope to get back to drafting the rest of the chapters. I’m letting the story tell me when it is done. It feels like it has two more chapters unless the story dictates otherwise. Currently it is four chapters.
While figuring out where I wanted the Sci-Fi WIP to go next, another story was born. So another 3,000-word plus document is sitting in the folders of my USB drive. Someday it will be unearthed and finished. It feels like a never-ending list of stories, lol.
Writing Goals for This Year
Here is a small list of my goals this year:
- Giving my Sci-FI WIP a title (at least a working one)
- Finishing the second draft and moving forward to the third. Starting the second book in the series’ first draft
- Continuing this blog
- Bonus: Polishing a short story and turning it into an E-Book.
Most of these goals I feel I can accomplish. The E-book goal is going to have a learning curve for me. I have never attempted one before. This sounds silly but the hardest one might be coming up with a title for my WIP.
Have a Happy New Year and see you next year!
Recent Posts
These are the latest posts on the blog. Be sure to check them out!
Marissa Moyer- Author 