My 2012

Do you know what, it has been a good year. Yes there have been lows because let's face it, life can be tough but all in all it has been a good year. In both my writing and my life there have been changes but I am entering 2013 full of hope and excitement.

Here are my highlights of the year:
1) My nephew was born. It is fair to say his safe arrival was the happiest moment of my year especially after my amazing sister had been in labour for five days. She is my hero and he is an absolute angel. Who knew you could adore another living thing so much.

2) Winning Campnano and NaNoWriMo. I didn't think I would achieve either of these right up until I managed to complete them. I am so glad I took part in both even though I had moments of despair! As always, the community was amazing and the sense of achievement was great. Fingers crossed I will be able to take part in one if not both of them this year.

3) Reading 78 books. I aimed for 100 but moving in the last two months really hampered my progress on this one. I am determined though to try again next year and now I have a new Kindle I have no excuse to not have a book (or many books!) with me at any time.

4) Moving house. I only moved to a flat upstairs but my old flat was small and damp and I wasn't able to sleep in the bedroom. At many times I wished I hadn't decided to move especially when I was sleeping on an airbed in an empty flat for a week but I am looking forward to starting 2013 in a dry flat which has views of the river. Lovely.

5) Finishing my WIP. I finished it before my first blog birthday in June and I now have two half finished WIP's - one from Camp and one from NaNo.

6) I wrote an article and was paid for it! I was asked by one of the few friend's who know about my writing to write a review of skyfall for an online magazine. It is one of those magazines you recieve if you are signed up to a particular company so I can't share it with you but to be paid for my writing was pretty amazing. And terrifying! My family have read it and my sister said 'I can't believe you wrote this' (in a good way!) so it was a great feeling.

7) Losing weight. I have managed to lose 24lbs in three months and am still going strong. This is a work in progress but I am feeling good.

So lots has happened and many things I have forgotten no doubt made my day at some point or other. My writing hope for 2013 is that I get something ready to send off to an agent. If I never edit and never try I will never get anywhere will I? So that is the hope. Pick one of my WIP's or one of my finished ones and polish it up until it shines as much as I can make it shine. Naturally ROW80 will be a huge part of this for me and I will join in on the 7th January for Round 1. I am going to spend the next week reading (yay!) and working out what to work on. With two unfinished WIP's I have writing potential but I know my finished WIP was a story I loved. Although that is the one with the first 50k written in the wrong tense *face palm*. So see you on the 7th when hopefully I will have some kind of direction!

I hope you have all had a wonderful year and that the rough times have made the good times all the more sweeter. Here is to 2013 and all the wonderful things I hope it brings us all.

ROW80 Check-in 2nd December 2012

I did it!!! I won NaNoWriMo!!!!

I can safely say that I doubted I would do it many times this week and again it was the support of my ROW80 friends who were also doing NaNo and some that weren't but cheered us along that got me there.

My goals were:
1) Read two books a week for 100+ reading challenge (or as much as I can!).
2) Write 1,667 words a day atleast for NaNoWriMo.
So goal 1 - I have read one book in the last two weeks. This is so unlike me it is untrue and I am about to start book number 75. I read 70 books last year so I have done better but with 25 books to read by December 31st I doubt it is possible as I will be moving this month. I just want to see how many I get read and truly I just want to find some time to read as it has slipped out of my life the last month.

Goal 2 - Hooray!!
Here is the breakdown of my week remembering I had got back on track last Sunday;
Monday - 1,639
Tuesday - No writing
Wednesday - 1,745
Thursday - 5,011 words written so I won with 50,152 words!!!
Friday - No writing, just sleeping!

It was a mad week. All my best laid plans of writing double on Monday went to pot because issues came up with my move (again) and had to be dealt with. Tuesday I had to go in to work early and was out in the evening. Wednesday, again I hoped for more but more moving problems *eye twitches* so really it came down to Thursday. I left work and was in by 6pm. Plan was to write from 7 until I finished but again moving issues meant I only sat down at 9 feeling tired and drained. Suddenly lots of my ROW80 friends were a couple of hundred away from winning NaNo and I was nearly 5k behind. I sat and wrote for 2 hours 40 minutes and won!!! It was so motivating, I didn't want to be the only one not to win and I wanted to be in the 'finishing on the 29th' club. I was meant to be away on Friday so I thought I wouldn't be able to write but although these plans changed and it meant I could have had an easier Thursday I am glad it happened the way it happened.

I will so be in for NaNo next year, I just hope it is calmer than this year!!!

I think I need to tweak my goals. I know it is not a great idea to stop writing after NaNo but I think this month I am going to concentrate on reading, my work commitments and moving. I will pick up my WIP in January, hopefully in my new flat and hopefully rested after Christmas.

So my goals are:
1) Read two books a week for 100+ reading challenge (or as much as I can!).
2) Sort/Pack/Move!!
I hope everyone is having a great round!!!