I gave myself permission to follow any ideas that came to me the last few weeks of December, as a way to relax and enjoy the freedom of not hitting deadlines after NaNoWriMo and before the intense work of revising manuscripts begins in January. What did I free write you ask? One short story. Have I written anything else? No. And that’s OK.
Instead, I spent time looking through stories I wrote years ago. I thought about the manuscripts I completed this year and then got lost thinking about the evolution of my storytelling, world building, and characters. I didn’t fight any of it. The end of the year is the best time to reflect, and that was clearly what my mind needed.
After all of that, I spent my time doing the mental prep work for diving into the revisions I need to complete next month. I ordered a book I’ve contemplated purchasing off an on for the last year called Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell that I’m excited to read and hopefully gain some ideas and/or tools for the revision process.
I also spent some time working on my Goodreads profile. I’ve finally arrived at a place where I am listening/reading a couple of books every month. It’s important to me because I love reading for fun, bettering my craft, understanding comp titles, and appreciating mentor texts. I’m trying to fill in the backlog of books I’ve read and start the list of books I’d like to read in 2019. I think it’s an awesome resource and I’m excited to finally utilize it. Overall, it’s been a wonderful way to wind down as the year comes to a close.
How are you all doing with your writing projects? Anything your reading that you would recommend?
Happy Writing!
Nikole Breault 