Recap on a year of Word Wrangling

Last year I made a single New Year’s Resolution: finish a first draft of the novel I’ve been working on.

Hmm.

I did make substantial progress on it though. In fact I’m fairly certain I wrote the most number of words I’ve ever achieved in a calendar year. So, although I didn’t precisely finish it, I still consider 2012 to be a good and productive year.

It began with a change in mindset for me. I decided to treat my writing as a second career. For years I’d been designating it as a ‘hobby’ — hiding behind this terminology as far as inquisitive friends and family went. Using it as an excuse for never finishing anything, not being published. But in 2012 I acknowledged that in order to progress I needed to take myself more seriously.

Part of this involved rediscovering the joy of writing. Although I took a break from the dayjob for most of 2011, my writing mojo abandoned me and it took quite a lot of 2012 to get it back. I spent the first half of the year determinedly trying to achieve modest word goals, yet not impressed with anything I was writing. And then I realised something important was missing.

Eventually, after much soul searching, I finally felt the thrill in the pit of my stomach and rediscovered the joy of my WIP. Around this time I also began regularly writing in a local cafe with a friend, which has been one of the highlights of my year.

All this propelled me into such a positive mindset that I tackled November’s NaNoWriMo challenge — something I never thought I’d dare attempt. And although I didn’t quite make it to the 50K, I impressed myself. My first draft is now well progressed — would be nearly complete if it wasn’t starting to look so big — and maybe I’ll complete it this year. 😉

On top of all this word wrangling on my WIP, I devoted a lot of time and effort to networking with other writers via social media and blogging. This has been immensely rewarding, and I’ve learnt a great deal about blogging. In addition, I have made so many online friends — many of whom read and comment here regularly. Thank you!

In writing this I’ve been looking over the posts I’ve written in the past year and thought I would recap some of my favourites from earlier in 2012:

• The secret ingredient to productivity
• Every day is new with no mistakes in it
• A chocolate education: 6 things you need to know
• Six reasons to eat that vanilla slice
• When you feel like you’re taking the hard path
• A timely reminder that creativity needs refuelling
• Let’s talk about choices
• Get over it: English is a living language
• The craziness of TWO careers

Every year is a different journey and 2012 was no exception. It was an extremely busy year, during which I frequently wished for one of Hermione Granger’s time-turners, but somehow I’ve made it through with a smile on my face. Bring on 2013!