Writers' Chasm

I've decided, in order to hold myself accountable for my New Year's goals for once, to post monthly check-ins on how things are going. Writing Word count: 7,530 My goal for writing isn't any particular word count, but just to keep track of how much I write each day. I did okay with that this month, there may be some short days that I forgot to record. I didn't do a lot of writing, mostly because of revisions, but I did count revised scenes that were new or almost entirely rewritten. Reading Read: 3 I'm hoping to step this number up quickly as the year goes on. Only two of them were published: House of Hades by Rick Riordan, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My favorite of the month was hands-down House of Hades . Running Miles: 0 My intention was to take advantage of my mornings off three days a week and take some time on the treadmill. Unfortunately for that within the first week I made a commitment to work in a grad studen...

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to help writers stay in touch. What I'm Reading:  Still working on Rose Under Fire. It's not a light book by any means, but then I wouldn't expect anything less. I did finish Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's a novella, a hundred and twenty pages, and a fast read. It's a curious story with a rather sudden ending, but not in an unsatisfying way. There are a few threads left hanging and I can't help but keep wondering at them. What I'm Writing:  Nothing this week, not even revisions. I'm so busy with class and work that I've taken this week off revisions. I'll have more time next week to start up again.  What Inspires Me:  Days off. It's been bitterly cold the past few days, so much so that classes have been cancelled.  Today it's twenty degrees and it feels fantastic. I don't know how I would have gotten all my ...

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to help writers stay in touch. What I'm Reading:  I'm still working my way through Rose Under Fire. My time is kind of limited because I'm trying to avoid reading it in public places. I've also started Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for a class on Caribbean literature. It's a very short read and quick. What I'm Writing:  I'm past the halfway point with Weredragon's revisions and into the more major changes. Progress is slow but steady and that's the important thing. I'm definitely hoping to be done before February. What Inspires Me:  The bustle of people. I have a couple hours between classes and I like to spend them sitting in the student lounge. The background noise and lack of distractions help me to get a lot done. Or at least that's what I intend to happen. People-watching is one of my favorite past times at moments li...

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk to help writers stay in touch. I let it slip away for a while because first I was too busy with classes and then I was on break and not doing anything interesting. But now I'm back! What I'm Reading:  I just finished House of Hades by Rick Riordan and loved it. Fantastic fourth installment to the Heroes of Olympus series. I'm definitely ready for October to arrive with the last book, Blood of Olympus. Last night I started Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein and I'm really excited for it. Code Name Verity is one of my favorite books of all-time so I'm all over a companion novel.  What I'm Writing:  Nothing yet. I'm neck-deep in partially rewriting my WIP that I refer to as Weredragon. I'm making some minor changes to the first half and some pretty major ones to the second half, but I'm excited about the new direction. I'm also playing with some new idea...

A lot of awesome-sounding books coming out this year (including the conclusion of The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire and the conclusion of Heroes of Olympus, Blood of Olympus) . Here are a few of the ones I'm looking forward to the most. Pointe by Brandy Colbert Theo is better now. She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor. Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse. Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater Companion novel to Wolves of Mercy Falls  Everybody thinks they know Cole's story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few peo...

It's that time of year again. Time for me to make resolutions that I forget about until my review post at the end of the year. Though this time they're closer to goals and those tend to be pretty well. Except for the reading ones, which I'm notoriously bad at. Keep track of my daily word count  I used to have an Excel sheet that I used to keep track of how many words I wrote per day and then it would show me the sums by week and month and year. I got out of the habit of keeping records after a while but this year I would like to start back up again. Read 100 books I know I say this every year, but I'm determined to do it this year. Last year was my worst reading year since I started keeping records and I'd like to make up for that. Go for a run every morning three days a week Wouldn't be New Year's resolutions if I didn't throw in some sort of exercise resolution that I, quite honestly, probably won't even start.   Watch 50 movies  The...