January reflection

So I thought I’d give this a go. In January I began seriously planning to get my goals achieved and I thought I’d share them with you on here.

You see, when I started writing, when I wrote draft 0, I wrote because I’d promised myself I’d write a book. So I did that, without any idea of what I was doing. For my rewrite I actually took a WIP course at Faber Academy where I got critiques on my work. For these critiques I had deadlines every month so I was “forced” to keep writing.

But then I moved to Sweden, started a new job, started studying and the writing course ended. I had managed to finish my rewrite, but nothing happened for months. I was just too distracted and busy. And it killed me that I wasn’t getting anywhere.

By the end of 2021 I got super excited about getting back into writing and I started looking into setting really concrete goals. 2022 was going to be my year. The year when Visions of Ravens finally got finished. If you’re interested in how to set some killer goals I highly recommend MuchelleB’s video on her 8 step goal setting system.

January Recap

And I’m going to get real here. January didn’t go all that well. I didn’t get everything done that I would’ve liked to. But I’m actually happy about that. You see, my goal for January was to revise Act 1. I planned to go through each chapter and revise them scene by scene. I hardly got any of that done. I

didn’t sit down properly until Saturday the 29th, and started what I thought was a revision.

Today (31st January 2022) I realised I was doing something wrong though. I’m rather happy I didn’t get more done during January to be honest, because it would’ve been a waste of time. I contacted one of my Critique Partners, who’s opinion and advice I highly respect, and asked her to guide me through the process a bit. And now I’ve reflected over January and know what I need to do for February.

What went well

Some things still went well though

1. I did send away Chapter 1 to A.R. Garrett for an edit, which I’ve been putting off for ages. She reminded me to send it to her for a freebie edit and I took her up on the offer. Check out her Instagram.

2. I found out about the Stockholm Writers’ Network and jumped on the daily Zoom writing sprints. They meet up for 1-2 hours everyday and hold each other accountable. That’s exactly what I’ve been missing for the last few months and I already feel my writing energy coming back!

3. I contacted my Critique Partner, A.Y. Chao when I was struggling. Reaching out to your peers, friends and writing friends is so important in order to grow as a writer and learn from each other. Follow her on Instagram.

bout the Stockholm Writers’ Network and jumped on the daily Zoom writing sprints. They meet up for 1-2 hours everyday and hold each other accountable. That’s exactly what I’ve been missing for the last few months and I already feel my writing energy coming back!

1. I contacted my Critique Partner, A.Y. Chao when I was struggling. Reaching out to your peers, friends and writing friends is so important in order to grow as a writer and learn from each other. Follow her on Instagram.

What did not go as planned

1. I didn’t get Act 1 revised as I’d hoped, but that’s okay.

2. I didn’t get into a daily habit of working on my WIP. I’m a morning writer, but I just could

n’t get started in the mornings for some reason. Thankfully, the Zoom write ins are in the mornings.

1. I did not catch up as much on craft as I would’ve liked to. I would’ve liked to finish Save the Cat! but I didn’t get around to picking it up until yesterday so I’m hoping to finish it this month.

How are we feeling about next month?

I’m feeling super excited. I feel excited about having a community close to me geographically that can hold me accountable. I feel excited about my revisions now that I know what I’m supposed to

do. And I feel very excited about sharing my journey and the process more on here and on Instagram.

What am I going to do differently next month?

I am going to start the day at 8am by logging onto Zoom and get 1-2 hours written/read/revised every day. If not every day then at least a few days (5) per week would be ideal.

I’m going to approach my revisions completely differently. I’m going to start by reading my WIP. It’s been months since I worked on it. I don’t know why i thought I’d be able to just return to it without giving it a read through. I’m going to start by printing it off.

Sum up

So there you have it. A reflection of the first month of 2022. I have a feeling February will be far more productive now that I have accountability buddies scheduled into my mornings. A bit of a rookie start to the new year, but always improving!