Tag: writingupdate

NaNoWriMo 2021 Week 3

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Happy Monday!

How did week 2 of NaNoWriMo go for you? Did you hit all your goals? Did you miss all your goals?

The important thing is that you’re still trekking along, whether you’re ahead, on track or behind.

Before diving into this update, make sure to check out my week 2 update to hear about how week 2 went and what my goals for this week were.

NaNoWriMo Week 3 Update

Week 3 has probably been my best week this entire NaNoWriMo. I hit two out of three goals, which is good enough for me!

  • I wrote everyday Monday-Friday
  • I wrote at least 800 words per day

However, I didn’t hit 15k. But that’s okay! This week was absolutely crazy. Not just for me, but for everyone who lives in my city. This isn’t writing-related, but this week has been out of a sci-fi movie or book, so I feel like it’s applicable to share.

On Sunday night (November 14), B.C. got hit by a horrible, horrible rainstorm. It was so bad that it wiped out major highways and basically, flooded everything. I live in Victoria on Vancouver Island, and I wasn’t able to go to school on Monday because the road I take was completely underwater…literally.

Some massive semi-trucks were driving through it but they were struggling, and several other vehicles were on the side of the road flooded and broken down after trying to get through the road. My tiny little Volkswagen Beetle would have no chance.

Anyways, thankfully, things dried up by Wednesday, but that’s when the next “disaster” struck. Due to the heavy rainfalls, the Malahat (our main highway connecting us to the rest of Vancouver Island) was shut down for repairs. However, this is how we get certain items, such as gas.

Do you see where this going?

On Wednesday, I had planned to fill up my car around 11 am on my way to school because I was almost empty. My drive to school is a 10 km drive each way, so I definitely needed gas to make it home.

Around 10 am that day, I get a text from my boyfriend: “You might want to fill up your car now. There’s a gas shortage.”

What?

I didn’t really understand or believe him, but I was like okay, I have a lot to do (I had just gotten home from the gym and showered, but now it was time to get started on blog writing for my clients) but I really need gas. So, I went to the gas station, which is about a one-minute drive away from my house and tried to fill up my car. I spent $0.70 before it ran out!

I am fortunate enough to have never experienced this before and it was weird because this is something that I didn’t see coming this soon.

Lots of people had started to arrive at the gas station and I felt a little panicked. I really needed to make it to school that day and realized I was going to need to fight for gas (LOL).

Anyways, I drove a few km up the road to the next gas station…it was completely out of gas. I drove to the one across the street where a small line-up had formed, however, they had gas! I re-filled my car and lived happily ever after.

There are gas trucks filling up gas stations around Victoria, however, people chose to panic and hoard gas so even today when I am writing this (Saturday), there are still people who aren’t able to get gas to drive to work or school on Monday. Thankfully, the gas stations have limited everyone’s gas intake to only 30 litres, but this still causes some complications for people who need extra for work, like my dad does for his landscaping business.

Isn’t that crazy? This is a reminder to never hoard items, whether it’s food, gas, or toilet paper. Only take what you need!

Okay, now let’s get back into the writing stuff.

Here’s how much I wrote each day and my total word count for the week.

Monday, November 15: 1,047 words

Tuesday, November 16: 1,138 words

Wednesday, November 17: 886 words

Thursday, November 18: 1,058 words

Friday, November 19: 907 words

Total Week 3 Word Count: 5,036 words

Total Overall Word Count: 13,628 words

I’m pretty impressed with this and think that this pace of 5k words a week is manageable for me.

Week 4 Writing Goals

  • Write 1,000 words per day
  • Write Monday-Friday
  • Hit 20k

I am going to count week 4 as November 22 to the end of NaNoWriMo, so my next update will be going up on Wednesday, December 1. Therefore, I think these goals are very realistic for me. Especially since the end of November is the busiest month for students like me.

Let me know how your NaNoWriMo is going in the comments below, and I will talk to you in my next update 🙂

Check out my Instagram for live NaNoWriMo updates!

My Post-NaNoWriMo Plans

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I cannot believe December is almost halfway over and I am only now just thinking about my post-NaNoWriMo plans.

Well, at least we’re here now!

For the last NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: an international, online writing event that takes place every year during November and encourages writers to write 50k words in 30 days), I wrote around 25,000 words for my Aztec fantasy novel. However, clearly, I did not finish in the 30 days which means I need to keep working on it.

I hope that many of you, like me, took a little bit of a break from writing after NaNoWriMo ended. Even if you did not hit that 50k word goal, you deserve a break! While I only wrote 25k, I did write a little bit (almost) every day and that is a lot of energy. I didn’t anticipate taking a break from writing, but I have only sat down to work on my project a few times since November 30 and then decided that nope, I need to take a few days off. And that’s okay! My body and mind needed a break, but now, I feel the creativity seeping back in.

It’s time to talk about my post-NaNoWriMo plans.

Since the holidays are approaching and surprise, surprise, I’m not really doing much for my 11 days off both work and school, I do want to write a decent amount by the end of December. It would be really nice to hit 40k before 2021 and because I am at 30k, I think that is manageable.

When I think about the new year, CHAOS flashes across my mind. For the first few weeks of January, I will be in five classes until I figure out which one I want to drop. One of the classes is a one-month continuing education editing class (structural editing) that has a “work at your own pace” structure, so that won’t be too stressful at least. I am also working part-time at my current job (I’m a Communications Development Lead for Focal) and focusing a lot of time on building up my freelance business. My freelance business is actually doing pretty good right now, so I anticipate having projects at the beginning of the new year as well. If you didn’t know, I am a freelance editor, digital marketing blogger, and social media manager. Click HERE to check out my freelance website!

Anyways, back to the beginning of 2021: it’s going to be busy! But, I am determined to finish my first draft of this novel idea because I have been working on it for four years! That is crazy to me because in those four years, I haven’t even finished a first draft; I am constantly changing the story around and while I do think it was all for the best, I just want to right the damn thing. You know? So, I have been thinking about a word count goal for January and I think I want to do another 40k. This is a fantasy book which means it won’t be some short book –I’m anticipating around 100k. for a final word count.

That means, I want to finish the first draft completely by the end of February. Preferably, before the end of February, but I don’t think I will officially bring down the hammer until then. I do believe in being lenient with yourself, but sometimes, it’s time to just get it done. And this is that time. I am super passionate and excited about this project, even after four years, and it deserves to be finished!

I am a big believer in letting your story sit for a bit too, so I don’t plan on jumping into the second draft until April. Just in time for Camp NaNoWriMo! Fingers crossed I can stick to these deadlines without getting overwhelmed, but I am hopeful.

Sorry for the rambly post, but I really wanted to share my post-NaNoWriMo plans in the hope of inspiring any of you who are unsure what to do next. Especially if you didn’t hit 50k, like me!

Make sure you check out recent blog post and follow me on social media; the links are all down below. Also, don’t forget to let me know what your post-NaNoWriMo plans are! Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: My FINAL TBR of 2020

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Writing Update!

An insight into my busy, writing-filled month!

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Happy Friday!

May has been a busy month in all aspects and because of that, I thought a writing update was in order. I will be sharing how I’m keeping busy and explaining how I kind of overwhelmed myself with work…as any creative workaholic does.

AZTEC INSPIRED NOVEL

I began this month with the goal to write 1,000 words a day for my Aztec novel but surprise, surprise, that didn’t happen. Overall, I did write 7,000 words or so which means this month hasn’t been a total loss creative writing-wise. There were a few factors that contributed to me abandoning this project:

  1. May has been an anxiety-filled month and I’ve found it difficult to write.
  2. I took on a paid re-typing project that has taken a lot of time.

At first, I definitely did beat myself up about not working on my Aztec project. Since we are quarantined, I figured I would finally have time to work on fiction projects that I neglected for most of the school year, however, here I am, taking on more random projects and having NO time. Although, I have finally accepted the fact that once I am done re-typing my client’s novel, I know I’ll have time to return to my own creative writing. There are still three months before I return to school (ONLINE school too) so I have time. We always have time even if we don’t realize it.

FLANELLE MAGAZINE

Due to having more time to enjoy movies and TV shows, I’ve found interest in learning about the entertainment industry during these trying times. If you didn’t know, I write articles for a fashion, art, and lifestyle magazine called Flanelle Magazine, and have been since March. This month, I did some research and wrote an article on the entertainment industry during COVID-19, which you can read if you click HERE. It would mean a lot if you checked it out because I spent a lot of time working on it!

I really enjoy writing for Flanelle Magazine because it offers me another platform to share my writing and reach a completely different audience than the one I have on here. It also allows me to build my portfolio and work with an editor-in-chief to improve my writing which I don’t have for my blog or creative writing. While I only contribute to it once or twice a month, it is nice to always have another project to turn to if I run out of them (which is usually not the case but still!).

RE-TYPING

I had never heard of people hiring others to re-type their novel before, but I discovered this paid position on my university’s job board and snatched it up. I won’t lie, it is a lot harder and much more time consuming than I anticipated but it has been a great learning experience. I would consider myself a fast typer, but as I mentioned above, this project is taking a lot longer than I would like. However, while I can’t talk about the subject matter of this novel, it has been super interesting to read through and learn about so that really does help.

BLOGGING!

If you haven’t noticed, I post three times a week now (except I didn’t post this past Wednesday but besides that) which has been super fun. I love posting a lot of content onto my blog because it is something I am so passionate about. Like Flanelle, it is a nice break from fiction writing and I find blogging a lot easier to do. I love sharing tips, recommendations, and advice, as well as whatever I am reading and loving at that moment. I love the community here and all the other amazing bloggers on this platform, and it motivates me to keep on blogging.

My schedule for posting on here always changes regarding school and whatnot, but since my fall semester is online, I am hoping I can at least keep up with posting twice a week. My ideal goal would be posting three times a week but since I plan on taking a full course load, that might not happen. I’ll try my best though because like I just said, I love to blog.

MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA INTERNSHIP

Being a marketing and social media intern is a new addition to my never-ending list of tasks, and I am so thrilled to have gotten this opportunity to enhance my skills on social media. I am interning at Gypsy Journals and am starting that new internship on June 1st.

My passion for writing led me to my interest in marketing and social media only this past year, and ever since, I have been doing everything I can to explore the business side of social media and of writing too. When I received this internship, it felt like a step forward towards the career I want which will involve writing and marketing on social media like a social media manager, coordinator, etc. I cannot wait to start it in the next week or so, and I will keep you all updated along the way.

Those are all my writing-related updates for the month of May, and I hope you enjoyed it! Yes, it looks like a lot and I won’t lie, it IS a lot, but it has taught me so much about balancing my time and still staying healthy mentally and physically along the way. I am nowhere near mastering these two things, but it is all a learning process.

Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are all linked down below. I highly recommend checking out my last Instagram post because I started a new Insta segment called “So you wanna be a writer” where I talk about my writing journey, the opportunities I have found, and how to achieve your idea of success in your life. Give it a read and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: 4 Podcasts to Spark Your Creativity

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The Camp NaNoWriMo Diaries – Week 1

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Happy Sunday!

It has been a while since I’ve posted on a Sunday, but I made it a goal for Camp NaNo to post a little update on how I’ve been doing every week. I also think I might include at the end of this what I’ve been up to reading wise…anyways, here is what I managed to write this week!

For this Camp NaNoWriMo, I am working on various WIPs which include essays, short stories, poems, and also the start of a novella. My goal word count wise, however, is only 25,000 words because 1) April is going to be a busy school month 2) Lots of these WIPs are less than 2,000 words a piece sooo.

Currently, I am sitting at 4,822 words out of my 25,000-word goal so I am not on track, but I will be, don’t worry. The days I did write, I wrote a bit over a thousand words even almost 2,000 words one day which was awesome. I have started working on about half of my projects for this April, and it feels so good to finally be getting them done rather than only planning because sometimes, I think we all get a little caught up in the prep rather than the actual writing. Here are some details on what I am currently working on:

  • Ayn Rand’s Anthem Essay – This is a 600-1,200 word essay I am writing for a scholarship contest, and currently I am on draft 3! Right now it is is in edits/re-writes, and I am doing my best to polish it up. It’s not exactly where I want it to be, so there is a 99.9% chance a completely new draft will be written this coming week. Deadline – April 18, 2019
  • Other Scholarship Essay – For this one, I have to write only a 500-word essay on somewhere I would like to live outside North America, and I am on the second draft of this one. I like it how it sounds, but I also might end up re-writing this one as well. You know how us writers are; hopeless perfectionists. Deadline – April 30, 2019
  • Shakespeare-Inspired Poem – I did not intend on writing this during Camp NaNo, but things change. I found a really great contest opportunity so I am now writing a poem (between 200-400 words) as well! Lately, I have really enjoyed writing poetry so maybe this is the start of me being a poet too…who knows. Deadline – April 30, 2019
  • Random Story – This is ANOTHER random, surprising story that I never intended to write but here I am, a servant to the muse of art. Anyways, I have no idea where this one is going but let me tell you, it’s going somewhere at least. Deadline – None

I think those are all the projects I started working on this week…I hope it is because I am way out of control otherwise. I hope you enjoyed this mini update on my Camp NaNoWriMo projects, and make sure you comment below to tell me how you’re Camp NaNo journey is going! Before I go though, here is a little reading update as well:

Recently, I have finished re-reading the An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir, meaning I FINALLY read A Reaper at the Gates and OH MY GOD, I love this series. I am obsessed and cannot wait for the fourth book next year! I also somehow ended up listening to and finishing the audiobook for Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell because I love that book just too much. As for what I am reading right now, I am in the middle of four books: The Harvest by KB Benson (I have a review coming up for this towards the end of April!), Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and I am also listening to the audiobook for American Panda by Gloria Chao (yes, I am giving this book another go and I am so excited!). I have just been on my reading game lately, so why not pile on the books?

Okay, I’ll go now! I hope you enjoyed this blog post and don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

 

Life Update – Books, Writing, Blogging + More!

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Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I hope the week is treating you well so far, and hopefully, the rest of the week is even better. Today, I am going to be doing something a liiitle bit different because I think it is about time for a life update. I don’t think I’ve done one of these ever, but you got to start somewhere, right? Also, I haven’t done a reading and writing update in like two weeks so I thought I would add that in here as well. Anyways, let’s get into it.

Due to a wonderful feature on WordPress that lets you pre-write blog posts and schedule them ahead of time, you might not have noticed that in the last month or so, I’ve been slacking with the blogs. I was pretty good through the Biannual Bibliothon but every now and then, I miss an upload day. Which, is not a big deal because I am all for trying to stick to my schedule but I’m never mad if I miss a day because life happens. Sometimes I cannot find inspiration to write a blog post ANYWHERE, or school has completely taken over my life and trying to write a blog post would basically be a wasted hour where I could have put towards my never-ending pile of homework…those are kind of the cases, but also not really.

Overall, I am a pretty social person. I love going out and doing things, getting out of my comfort zone and just being with friends. However, since last year (my grade 11 year) was my first year at a new school (my…sixth school?) and while I’ve done this rodeo before, I decided to focus more on school than making friends. I still went out every now and then, but I spent a lot of time on school, blogging, writing, and reading which was GREAT because I got a lot of good stuff accomplished in 2017/2018. However, this year I’ve expanded my friend group a little bit and have suddenly found myself juggling all of my passions and school and now a “bubbling” social life. This sounds so lame but it is really hard to do all of this without wanting to pass out in bed at 8pm!

This week, I’ve been dedicating it to find balance amongst all this craziness but it’s been a struggle. I have done little things here and there to squeeze in time for the things I love. Suddenly, working out has become a favourite hobby? Pasttime? Of mine, and it is great because it works on my mental health and physical health at the same time. So that’s great. I haven’t found it hard to find time for working out because it is a wonderful way to procrastinate. Next comes reading because when was the last time I read more than 10 pages in one day? Hmm, couldn’t tell you honestly. I really want to change that, so to get back in the habit of reading, I’m trying to take a bath or two a week because that is really the only way I won’t get distracted while reading. So far, it has been successful because I read 30ish pages of Pride and Prejudice and am now only 100 pages away from finishing it!

One other thing I’ve been struggling with amongst time management is reigniting my passion for writing. Don’t get me wrong, I still loooove writing with all my heart and I know it is what I’m meant to do, but I’ve been so focused on writing for this contest or this literary magazine or this writing assignment that it’s felt more like a chore than a choice. This really sucks, and I’m trying to just write what I want at the moment to fix this. Well, I will be after I hand in my screenplay assignment on Monday. I know it won’t be quick and easy, but I’m willing to set aside all the writing contests and literary magazines to do so.

Honestly, if I cut back on all the YouTube and Netflix I could get everything done but this is a VERY important part of my self-care routine and self-care is important! (Ha haI am trying to limit the amount I watch though…it’s becoming a problem.)

To make it a little bit easier to learn how to balance all the things, I am going to only upload blogs three times a week instead of four. I’ve decided to sacrifice Friday blog posts (you’ll still be getting Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday blog posts from me!) because uploading four times a week is a lot…most people I follow only upload twice a week (which is completely fine. Upload as many times a week as you want!) so I’ve realized it’s okay if I dial it back a day. This will also help replenish my energy towards my blog, and hopefully, in a month or so, I’ll know how to balance my life and start uploading how I usually do on here!

Anyways, that is it for my rambly life update. Basically, I cannot balance everything right now so I’m cutting back on blogging, limiting my binge-watching time, and focusing on fitting in other productive things I love like reading, writing, and yeah, school.

I hope if anything, some of you can relate to this and like me, are trying to learn how to handle everything without completely shutting down! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which will be linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

P.S. They are announcing the winners of the Biannual Bibliothon blogging challenges, and I won the day 1 + 3 challenges so I will link those down below for you to check out!

Last Blog Post: February TBR!

Biannual Bibliothon Day 1: Biannual Bibliothon Day 1 – Winter Snow Storm Fun

Biannual Bibliothon Day 3:  Biannual Bibliothon Day 3 – Bookish Mad Libs

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Reading + Writing Update – Biannual Bibliothon 2019 Day 1 & 2

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Happy Sunday!

I was going to do daily updates for the current readathon I’m participated in, the Biannual Bibliothon, but I decided to do a reading update every 2 days instead. It works out that this is the second day of the readathon (well, the very, very end of the second day) and also the day I post my weekly reading and writing update so yay. I’m tackling two birds with one stone. Anyways, let’s get into it!

This week was a decent reading week. Not my best, but I did finish reading 2 books and started on a third! On Tuesday, I finished the fourth and final book in the FABULOUS Raven Cycle quartet by Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King. It was a good book but honestly, I wasn’t that satisfied with the ending. It seemed…too easy for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the characters and want them to live happily ever after, but the way things got resolved was strange, to say the least. I still really enjoyed it though and flew through it! The next book I started on was Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Every month or so I need a little break from fantasy and magic, and desperately need to slip into some cute contemporary stories. Soooo, I chose Anna and the French Kiss and it was exactly what I needed! I actually only finished it a few hours ago…but hey, it got done and I had fun so that’s all that matters. Last but not least, I started my second read of the Biannual Bibliothon (whoops, forgot to mention that Anna and the French Kiss was my first read of the readathon!), Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I mentioned in my goals for 2019 that I wanted to read more classics so here I am, reading classics! I’m really excited to read this and join the bandwagon, and I’m hoping I truly like the story but I have no idea at this point in it. I might be around 30ish pages into it so I still got a ways to go. If you want to see what I plan on reading for the rest of next for the readathon, check out my TBR HERE!

I think I’m done my writing break. While I took most of my winter break off from writing back in late December/early January, I think that was enough time for me to replenish my creativity. It felt so strange not to write, and honestly, I really didn’t like how it made me feel. I haven’t written a crazy amount this week or anything, but I did write well over 2,000 words and I think that’s a healthy amount when getting back into the swing of things. I’m working on a non-magical piece…actually the short story version of a later script I will be writing/adapting for my writing class. We are doing screenwriting but in order for me to fully create a fleshed out story, I need to write the in-depth short story for it first. My first draft of it was about 1,500 words and I’m looking forward to tackling the second draft tomorrow!

Anyways, that is all for this update and I hope you enjoyed! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: Biannual Bibliothon Day 2 – Christmas Party

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Reading + Writing Update

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Happy Sunday!

I hope you all had a great week whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and I hope you managed to get a lot of reading, writing, or whatever else you enjoy doing, done! Personally, I had a GREAT reading week and while I am technically on a writing break, I do have something I want to discuss in that section of this blog post though so stay tuned for that! Anyways, let’s get into this update.

I finished 4 books this week which I am really happy about because now, I am only 3 books away from finishing my 2018 reading goal! Yes, that means I have to read 3 books in one day since tomorrow is the last day of 2018, but I know I can do it since the last 3 books I want to read are short. One is the City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare audiobook which I am only one hour away from finishing…so yeah, I will finish it tomorrow for sure. The other books I plan on reading tomorrow are two novellas because THAT’S NOT CHEATING!

Anyways, for what I read this week, I read Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones, Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and last but not least, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I actually have a review coming out for Wintersong in the next week or two, but I will give a quick snapshot on my feelings for it, as well as the other books. I was so excited to read Wintersong, but it was not a book for me. I thought it would be because it has goblins and magic and takes place in Germany in the past, and to me, that sounds epic. Sadly, it was anything but! Anyways, more to come in my review. However, I did love Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire, the sequel to Every Heart a Doorway which I read during the BookTubeAThon in the summer and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t blown away with the first book in this series. The sequel was so amazing though; everything from the writing to the world to the characters was just brilliant, and how the author packs so much stuff into a book under 200 pages will never cease to amaze me. But yeah, loved it! I also, OF COURSE, loved re-reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell because this is an all-time favourite of mine for sure. This may have been my fourth or fifth re-read of this contemporary to be honest, but I did’t love it any less than I did the first time or the second time and so on. I was in desperate need of a cozy, heart-warming contemporary and immediately leapt towards Fangirl because if you’ve read it, you’d know how wonderful it is and if you haven’t read it…what are you doing!? Lastly, I read the short entirety of Alice in Wonderland, the classic by Lewis Carroll which I actually have not read before. Honestly, wasn’t super impressed. It was alright but Alice…well, she is a difficult character to say the least. I wasn’t expecting much from this book, but I do wish I enjoyed it more than I did since it is a “classic”. Anyways, half of my reading this week was AMAZING and the other half was bleh, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I am so excited to strive to read 3 whole books (OKAY FINE, novellas…but those are books too! They count!) tomorrow and reach my yearly reading goal because I am so close it would suck to not reach it, you know?

Okay, okay, I know I’m on a writing break but suddenly the urge to write overtook me. Not in the way I expected or the way you might assume. Since I spent the last two days reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, I had the urge to write some fanfiction (something I haven’t done since I was 13-years-old and locked away in the world of Percy Jackson). In Fangirl, our main character, Cath, writes fanfiction for this massively popular fantasy series similar (not unlike Harry Potter), and that just made me want to write some. Not because I want to regularly write fanfiction, but because I was desperate to write something. Something that didn’t contain my own original characters or world, just my own story idea. So, I wrote 1,000 words of some AWFUL fanfiction following my favourite characters from The Dark Artifices trilogy by Cassandra Clare and it was a lot of fun. It was a great creative release and it truly helped me fill my creative well just a little bit more in a way both reading and watching Netflix can’t do. I have no idea if I will write any more terrible fanfiction or if I will write something of my own, but I do plan to head to a coffee shop tomorrow and hopefully, something productive will occur from that.

That was all for my reading and writing update and I hope you enjoyed! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are all linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

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Reading + Writing Update!

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Happy…Monday?

Yeah, I didn’t even realize it was Sunday yesterday until I woke up this morning, checked my phone, squealed with excitement that it is Christmas Eve, and then realized I wrote NO blog posts over the weekend. I had a fun blog post all planned out for today, but instead since I never wrote it…I will just be posting this update. Anyways, let’s get into it!

This week I finished 2 books which felt great because one of them was Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare! I have been reading this book for almost 3 weeks now and it feels strange to wake up and not sit down with it in the mornings, a cup of coffee at my side and fingers eager to flip those bible thin pages, but I was dying to see how it ended and now…well, now I have. I am trying to write up my review of it but my thoughts are all over the place and muddled in confusion, so who knows how long this will take to put together. This week, I also finished The Outsider by Albert Camus for my English class, and surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. In no way is it something I would pick up “for fun”, but as a book meant for analyzing and studying, oh my-there was a LOT. Meursault as a main character is so interesting and different that it distracted me from the boring, plain plot line. Apart from those 2 books, I am still listening to City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare but I only have just over 5 hours left. My goal is to finish it this week so I can focus on reading/listening to The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, another book I am eager to pick up before the year ends. Yet another book I am still making my way through is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I have around 100 pages left and I usually manage to read 50 pages a day, so fingers crossed I FINALLY finish it in the next 2 days. Lastly, I picked up Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones on Saturday, a German fantasy story that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. While I am only 100 pages in so far, the story is quite slow (as I’ve read from reviews) but I am really hoping it picks up soon because I think I’ll enjoy it! I am trying to read 6 other books by the end of 2018 to hit my reading goal, so I am trying to pick up the pace when it comes to reading and blast through as much of them as I can…wish me luck!

While I am taking a break from writing, I have been struck with a really fun and exciting idea for a story (short story or novel, I’m not quite sure yet). If this idea continues to pester me, I will give in and write it, but I am holding out because I can still feel how depleted my creativity is. I am worried that writing would scrape the last flecks of creativity left inside of me, but if the idea calls, I kind of have to answer. Right?

Anyways, that is all for this late reading and writing update! I hope you enjoyed, and make sure you let me know what you managed to read and write this week because I would love to know. Also, don’t forget to check out my last blog post, as well as my social media accounts linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: My Reading & Writing Goals for 2019

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