Writing Year in Review

Writers' Corner
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One of my favorite things to do at the end of each year is reflect on everything that happened. This year, I thought it would be fun to do that for my writing and to include all of my fellow writer berries! You don’t have to answer all the questions and you can provide as many or as few details as you’d like. Have fun! :slight_smile:

  1. How many stories did you work on this year?
  2. How many stories did you finish?
  3. Did you create any new stories?
  4. Did you get rid of any stories?
  5. Did you publish any stories (in print or online)?
  6. What was your favorite story to work on?
  7. What your favorite piece of dialogue that you wrote?
  8. What was your favorite character to work on?
  9. What was your biggest struggle?
  10. What is something new you tried with your writing?
  11. Did you do NaNoWriMo?
  12. If you did NaNoWriMo, did you finish? (If so, what was the word that completed your goal?)
  13. What was the best advice you saw/heard/learned about writing?
  14. What are your writing goals for the coming year?
  15. What is one story you can’t wait to write?
  16. What is one story you can’t wait for people to read?

I’m excited to see your responses! [name_f]Hope[/name_f] this was fun :upside_down_face:

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  1. How many stories did you work on this year? I’m not sure, but a good few.

  2. How many stories did you finish? Not as many as I’d maybe have liked to, but definitely more than any other year of my adult life.

  3. Did you create any new stories? Yes!

  4. Did you get rid of any stories? Not “got rid of,” per se, but I definitely set some aside to maybe work on later if/when the inspiration strikes again.

  5. Did you publish any stories (in print or online)? Yes, I did.

  6. What was your favorite story to work on? [name_f]My[/name_f] short play that’s partly autobiographical.

  7. What your favorite piece of dialogue that you wrote? “Sometimes your prince doesn’t rescue you. Sometimes you have to rescue yourself.”

  8. What was your favorite character to work on? Probably my pair of characters, [name_u]Seven[/name_u] and [name_f]Jane[/name_f], in the two-hander play I’ve been workshopping.

  9. What was your biggest struggle? Getting my writing read and noticed.

  10. What is something new you tried with your writing? Trying to get it produced!

  11. Did you do NaNoWriMo? I’m a playwright, so no. I tried a play-a-day challenge though.

  12. If you did NaNoWriMo, did you finish? (If so, what was the word that completed your goal?). N/A. I didn’t finish the play-a-day challenge either but I got a few good shorts out of it anyway!

  13. What was the best advice you saw/heard/learned about writing? Don’t overthink it, just go for it and you can edit later.

  14. What are your writing goals for the coming year? Finish the current full length play I’m working on and meet my script submission goals.

  15. What is one story you can’t wait to write? I have an idea for a play based on a story from queer history that I’m very excited to write.

  16. What is one story you can’t wait for people to read? [name_f]My[/name_f] current full length play that I’ve recently started writing.

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  • How many stories did you work on this year?
    Three? I think?

  • How many stories did you finish?
    If three is correct, I finished two.

  • Did you create any new stories?
    Too many.

  • Did you get rid of any stories?
    I don’t think so.

  • Did you publish any stories (in print or online)?
    One of my short stories was published on our college writing blog.

  • What was your favorite story to work on?
    I quite liked working on the published one, but I enjoyed NaNoWriMo too.

  • What was your favorite piece of dialogue that you wrote?
    “Mom, he’s 38! That’s old enough to know your son doesn’t believe in Santa!”

  • What was your favorite character to work on?
    My NaNo protagonist, Nera.

  • What was your biggest struggle?
    Keeping my increased NaNo daily goals on the days I had to work.

  • What is something new you tried with your writing?
    The Reverse NaNo

  • Did you do NaNoWriMo?
    Yes :laughing:

  • If you did NaNoWriMo, did you finish? (If so, what was the word that completed your goal?)
    I did! My winning sentence was “There was no one at all she was missing, not at home in the Four Villages and not Frodan either.”

  • What was the best advice you saw/heard/learned about writing?
    not using backspace while sprinting (writing nonstop for a set amount of time trying to get as many words as possible)

  • What are your writing goals for the coming year?
    Finishing this year’s NaNo story, participating and winning again next November.

  • What is one story you can’t wait to write?
    Many. I’ll say the movie script that was my backup plan for NaNo.

  • What is one story you can’t wait for people to read?
    The sequel to the 2018 November novel. But I’d have to write it first :rofl:

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  1. Too many to count!
  2. One, technically.
  3. Yes
  4. Yes
  5. Yep!
  6. The Siren’s Song, I’d say. Which is ironically one of the stories I abandoned.
  7. Hm… “For goodness sake,” Aldith groans. “I can’t say I didn’t try the easy way.”
  8. A toss between [name_f]Liadain[/name_f] and [name_m]Zero[/name_m], both from the same story, the one where that line above came from.
  9. Probably sticking to one story at a time, I’d say.
  10. Using third person! I find it easier to do first-person narrative, but recently I’ve been doing a lot more third-person than first. Trying to decide whether I should do new project in first or third right now, actually…
  11. Yes!
  12. Yeah, and I have no clue what the word was because the thing is a mess.
  13. [name_m]Christ[/name_m] knows, honestly. I never seem to remember any of it.
  14. I’m trying to write a pirate story, so, that. And also a short story each week, which will be kept up for about three weeks tops.
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1. How many stories did you work on this year?
Including the stories I wrote for school, I worked on 14 stories this year!

2. How many stories did you finish?
I finished three short screenplays, four short stories, and two novel-length works!

3. Did you create any new stories?
Yes! The last short story that I wrote for school was so intriguing that I just had to write the rest of it into a novel… that I’m now writing the rest of as a trilogy haha

4. Did you get rid of any stories?
I officially decided to put an old story on the back burner—I wrote with the characters for three years, including two NaNoWriMos, but I don’t think they work well. The premise is still interesting but if I resume work on it, I’ll be telling it from the “villains” point of view!

5. Did you publish any stories (in print or online)?
No, but I entered one into a contest.

6. What was your favorite story to work on?
The novel-length project that I finished over the summer. I’m a bit stuck about halfway through the second book, and I want to finish writing the series before I revise so I can make sure it stays consistent, but I already have a lot of fun ideas for revisions in the first book.

7. What is your favorite piece of dialogue that you wrote?
“I was voted ‘Most Likely to Steal [name_f]Candy[/name_f] from a Baby’ at my secondary school graduation.”
“Wait, really?” [name_u]Sage[/name_u] asked.
She shot a sly smile over her shoulder. “Of course not. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you just believe everything I tell you about myself? Am I that mysterious to you?”

8. What was your favorite character to work on?
[name_m]Cas[/name_m], from my NaNoWriMo story. She’s my first attempt at a morally grey protagonist and I’m having so much fun with her now that she’s switched sides in the sequel.

9. What was your biggest struggle?
The story that I’ve been working on for almost three years now, that I’ve literally rewritten four times, is still not where I want it to be. I’m still very inspired by the characters and story though so I have faith that it’ll get there eventually.

10. What is something new you tried with your writing?
I took a screenwriting class this year!

11. Did you do NaNoWriMo?
Yup!

12. If you did NaNoWriMo, did you finish? (If so, what was the word that completed your goal?)
I did indeed! I can’t tell for sure but my best guess is that the final word I wrote was “that”. :woman_shrugging:t3:

13. What was the best advice you saw/heard/learned about writing?
A book will be like your baby. When you start, you’ll be so close and personal with it, but as you edit and draft, the book will grow into a school-age child, and then a teenager, and it’ll become easier to separate yourself from it when it receives criticism. Finally, when the book is ready, some will love it and some will hate it, but most will think it was pretty good and then forget about it within a year, but it’s still amazing how you nurtured it into what it became.

14. What are your writing goals for the coming year?
I want to finish writing the first draft of my trilogy and I want to start working towards an MFA in creative writing.

15. What is one story you can’t wait to write?
I’m excited to see what the trilogy will look like when finished but I have an inkling of a new idea that I hope to have the space to explore.

16. What is one story you can’t wait for people to read?
When I finally fix the storyline of my older project, I can’t wait for people to meet that main character. She’s so much fun to write with, and her voice is exactly like mine.

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1. How many stories did you work on this year?
uhh if we’re counting the ones that i didn’t finish? that i didn’t even start but had way-too in-depth character personalities and backstories? about a dozen i think.

2. How many stories did you finish?
two full novels? god, that first one was ages ago :sob: i half-finished that one but aspects of it influenced a lot of the rest of my writing throughout the year.

3. Did you create any new stories?
uh yes ofc!

4. Did you get rid of any stories?
i don’t think so?? oh wait the first story of the year i’m literally never going to touch again because it’s a jumbled pile of 50K words basically :sob:

5. Did you publish any stories (in print or online)?
oh wait i published the first two chapters of a fic to wattpad but like gave up how do people do that i’m literally exhausted by thinking about consistent wattpad writers.

6. What was your favorite story to work on?
hmm my nano project was really fun but also the one i started the year with because i wrote that with reckless abandon and it’s utter trash but i had so much fun with the characters <3 i also loved wayward hearts because i got to play with a bunch of dynamics and the family relationships were so much fun to write, especially the sister dynamics. that’s bled into almost all my projects now cough cough.

7. What is your favorite piece of dialogue that you wrote?
there’s too many options! here’s a random one that i like.

“Bingley,” Natasha said plainly, “you look horrendous.”

“Well this was your horrendous idea!” I said, my voice jagged. “You knew, didn’t you?" My vision blurred, and I felt something snap inside of me. “You knew, you didn’t tell me, and—”

“You wouldn’t have liked it if I told you anyway,” she shot back.

there’s also a lot in wayward hearts but i can’t find just one!

8. What was your favorite character to work on?
i get way too attached to characters ahaha they’re my favorite part of writing, but probably theodosius from my nano project or natasha from my beginning of the year project. theo is a strong but soft amazing person and natasha is a very complex and dynamic character with screwed up morals but i love her to pieces. i also forgot about one of my projects, and i loved all the (six) main characters from that, freyja, brynjar, margaux, frost, giulia, and niklas.

9. What was your biggest struggle?
writing. more specifically, plots. ugh i hate plots.

10. What is something new you tried with your writing?
i plotted a book for the first time this year and i am so glad i did! it makes writing so much neater and easier! i also wrote in multiple povs, i wrote in third person, and i included a lot of diverse characters, which is something i lacked at before and i really wanted to fix.

11. Did you do NaNoWriMo?
yes!

12. If you did NaNoWriMo, did you finish? (If so, what was the word that completed your goal?)
i did! uh hold up…here’s the last paragraph

“We can get sick together!” Augustin cried, tackling Dianthe. The water was shallow enough they didn’t go under, but she shoved him off, spitting some water at him. She was smiling and laughing, because the day really couldn’t get any worse. It was already so good.

13. What was the best advice you saw/heard/learned about writing?
i’m not quite sure, i think just that great books aren’t born in first drafts, they’re born in second, third, fourth, fifth drafts. but to get there, you have to get a first draft down.

14. What are your writing goals for the coming year?
finish up the rose order and write a couple of projects i’m eager to get up in the air. i’d love to write a star wars re-telling with some elements of she-ra and the princess of power, some sort of action-packed space novel.

15. What is one story you can’t wait to write?
the one after this editing! i also kinda have a basis for a book that could come before my nano project? that would be fun to look into.

16. What is one story you can’t wait for people to read?
definitely my nano project! it’s by far the best thing i’ve written and idk if it will ever get published, but the aspects i got to tinker around with during november are definitely going to get incorporated into future works.

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1. Too many to count. I’ve never really been able to only focus on one project at a time, instead I bounce around when I get bored or stuck on one.
2. I finished at least 12 that I can think of, most of those beings short stories. I did finish my biggest project over the summer though.
3. Oh, you have no idea. I created at least five new larger projects, and probably a few more smaller ones I can’t remember at the moment.
4. I set some aside, but I may come back to them in the future.
5. A few online, but nothing huge
6. [name_f]My[/name_f] favorite story to work on this year is a tie between my heist story (The one I finished over the summer) and one of my newest WIPs, which stars a group of siblings with superpowers
7. “I’m not mad.” This was an emotional scene to write, because the character who said this is trying to deny that she’s slowly descending into madness and just wants everything to go back to normal.
8. [name_u]Kenna[/name_u] Ellingham, 100%.
9. [name_f]My[/name_f] biggest struggle is outlining. Whenever I get a new idea, I just want to jump right into it, often forgetting that the idea doesn’t have a plot yet. :joy:
10. Something new I tried this year is writing from multiple points of view. I actually had a lot of fun with this and will definitely be doing this more in the future.
11. Unfortunately, no. I was going to, but completely forgot about it until it was too late. Maybe next year.
12. N/A
13. I can’t remember the source, but I read something somewhere that said something like, “Comparing your first draft to another writers finished novel, is like looking at your flour and eggs and saying ‘My cake tastes like crap.’” And I just think I really needed to hear that.
14. [name_f]My[/name_f] goal next year is to finish the sequel to my heist story, edit some of the projects I finished this year, and finish my newest project.
15. I can’t wait to finish my newest project.

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I didn’t notice 15 and 16 somehow? Uh, here they are:

  1. Same thing as 14, the Isles stories.
  2. I’ve still not finished writing this, but The Siren’s Curse – a short story that follows on from another short story (St Mhairi’s Siren) I wrote a few weeks back maybe? It’s basically a project of all ocean-themed writing prompts on Wattpad, which you can look at here if you like:
    From The Depths || Writer’s Lagoon Prompts - AviatrixSwan - Wattpad
    (There is swearing in it, just so you know.)
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1- I worked on maybe 9 or 10 to actually work on them, and started but didn’t actually think that much about maybe 10 more
2- As predicted, none were finished
3- I created I think 6 but only I think 2 were serious
4- I probably got rid of around 4 because I just didn’t like them anymore
5- I entered a competition called Write4Fun and got my short story (The Mistress) put in the book, The Write Note. I also could have had a different one in another book but forgot to return the letter lol
6- [name_f]My[/name_f] favourite was probably a story I am writing with a friend (we are tentatively calling it [name_m]Just[/name_m] Another [name_f]Mystery[/name_f], but that will probably change), or an untitled one about a lost princess that hates royalty
7- Probably this:
“I wouldn’t be so hastily rude to me, darling,” I say. I slide the blade of the knife across her throat, indicating that I could kill her in one movement. “Because I have the power.” I press the knife hard enough to draw blood, before realising that I had nearly become [name_u]Will[/name_u] again. I need to stay Sea-Wolf. Sea-Wolf. As I turn to leave, [name_f]Cecily[/name_f] grabs my hand.

“I wouldn’t be so hasty being rude to me, either,” she says. She reveals the gleam of a blade in her pocket and her eyes harden. “Because I can take the power.”
It’s not my best piece of writing but I like the characters, so.
8- [name_f]My[/name_f] favourite characters were probably the three main characters in [name_m]Just[/name_m] Another [name_f]Mystery[/name_f], Detective [name_f]Demi[/name_f] [name_m]Lewis[/name_m], Magnas Malum, and [name_f]Valerie[/name_f] [name_u]Hayes[/name_u] ‘Val’
9- Staying focused enough to keep writing was probably my biggest struggle
10- I tried changing perspectives and overlapping timelines
11- No, although I wanted to
12- N/A
13- Keep writing because you’ll get better over time, even if you don’t think you will.
14- To finish at least one story
15- the one i just thought of about an actor who gets taken into a parallel dimension
16- The story I’m writing with my friend

This was really fun!

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