BELATED BUT NO LESS HEART FELT
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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!
And now let's get down to business. Right off the bat our first Round Robin blog for 2021 asks:What is on your writing to-do list for this year? Do you have any long-range goals, or just wrap-ups?
In December 2020, this is what 2021 looked like for me:
Why didn’t I schedule myself more efficiently in 2020 you
might ask? As with most people, 2020 hit hard. Losing a friend in
February, then family members in May and June, none of them covid related, had
their effect but when another friend passed in August my brain gave up. I simply
could not find the words to put on the page to finish my novel, so took time to
deal with accumulated grief.
National Novel Writing Month came around in November, and I
signed on with a target of 50,000 words of a new contemporary western romance,
a marked departure from my Regency romance which languished on my computer. Isn’t
it said that a change is as good as a rest? November rolled around and I hit my
target, so now I had two unfinished novels. That’s good, right?
My first target for 2021 was to wrap-up those two novels.
I revived the Regency first and found the break from it had been a boon. I saw plot
holes where before I saw none, was able to better flesh out a couple of characters and
develop some twists even I didn’t see coming. For that I must thank my cast of
characters. One more week and this book will be off to my critique partners.
While they work their magic, I will revisit the contemporary western, also the
better for being put to one side. Both books are like day-old pizza – the flavour
seems better.
Being a writer also means being a reader, so I have committed to reading and reviewing one book a month. I regularly read more than that, but it’s the book I plan to review I’m focusing on. I will also be taking one of my craft books off the shelf and reading it cover to cover rather than having bought it because of a recommendation from someone else, or having read a blurb and thinking ‘I should check that out.’ One step further from reading those craft books is that, if any do not serve my purpose, they will be purged.
The book that I had slated for this year, also a Regency
romance, will be my Camp NANO project for April 2021 for which I will also target
50,000 words. Having done it once I’m sure I can do it again. For anyone who
thinks the whole program seems extensive, just let me say I am a retired (as in
retired from a 9 - 5 day job) senior who prefers to read and write above all
else. All I hope and pray is that no more friends and family fall to the extraordinary
times we live in. In between all of that, I write two blogs a month, am
involved with the Calgary chapter of Romance Writers of America, and since
taking to Zoom have probably seen more of our group members then when we had
physical in-person meetings.
The plan as it is, is solid. However, if travel and meeting
restrictions lift, it might get tweaked a little. After all, there has to be
some leeway. To see what other authors have planned, check out my Round Robin
cohorts at their links below.
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2bY
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com
