2009: The End

Hello all! I hope your holidays went well!

Did you guys know my blog is a year old? Wow. A whole year of blogging. Though the good posts didn't really start until January-- there are only two posts from the year 2008. One is poetry (Ack.) The other is me claiming that winter had frozen my brain, hence I could not write.

How far I've come. :)

The following is a semi-coherent list of things I've done in 2009.

January
* Made a vague resolution to "write more"
* Entered a query contest for 140 characters or less on agent Colleen Lindsay's blog. I entered the log line for Untouched, which at that point was only an outline. I didn't win, but I did get an honorable mention. Awesome!
* Got my first follower! (Then followed my own blog so I had two followers)
* Wrote about 15K on Untouched

February
* Set goals for myself (among them the very helpful 1K/day goal)
* Wrote a couple posts on how I brainstorm ideas
* Turned twenty-one!
* Joined Critique Circle
* Got to 38K on Untouched

March
* Posted about books influencing writing, random story ideas I had, what is "hookable", and accidental themes (among other things)
* Broke 50K on Untouched

April
* Posted about #amazonfail, what is appropriate for YA, how badly I was failing at my 1K/day goal (5K in a month), how to write in an active voice, plus several excerpts from Untouched

May
* Started off the month with something new-- an excerpt from what soon became known as "Burn". I've tweaked it a bit, but to this day it is still one of my favorite pieces of my own writing
* Posted about titles, writing epiphany, ending your novel, how I need my muse to hold my hand, hated Untouched, loved Untouched, hated Untouched again, wrote about outlining
* Got Untouched up to 69K

June
* Finished Untouched!
* Talked about queries, betas, and how I imagined my characters would look

July
* Jumped between projects because I didn't know what to write after finishing Untouched
* Started querying

August
* Queried more
* Still couldn't settle on just one idea
* Wrote about the different types of stories

September
* Started thinking about NaNoWriMo
* Researched questions to ask when you get THE CALL
* Sent out the last batch of queries (to which I'm still receiving responses)
* Posted about log lines and how much of your novel you should share online
* Wrote up a 7K word phase outline for a project known as The Temper

October
* Came up with my NaNo idea
* Decided I wanted to write a perfect first draft (HA!)
* Reached my 100th blog post!
* Wrote about the price wars between amazon and wal-mart, recreated some book covers for a contest, and set some really crazy goals for the month of November
* Started a new project (Blood Ties) and broke 40K by the end of the month

November
* Went insane
* Wrote 20K on Blood Ties
* Wrote 50K on Plural of Love, then deleted about 30K
* Won NaNoWriMo!
* Signed up for some reading challenges for 2010
* Tried Unplug Week, didn't like it. I'm addicted to the internet.

December
* Was burned out from writing. Took a break.
* Wrote up a nice long post on my outline process
* Participated in National Kissing Blogfest Day
* Did a lot of Real Life stuff (work, family, holidays)
* Realized I wasn't going to finish a second novel by the end of the year. Moped. Stopped working on Plural and Blood Ties to pick up an old project (Temper)



Wow. What a year!


Now, to wrap it all up, I leave you with my projects and their word counts!

Untouched @ 74,588 (Complete)
Blood Ties @ 61,295
Plural of Love @ 21,467
First Breath @ 15,798
Awakening @ 13,019
Temper @ 10,691
Wanted @ 10,005
After Life @ 9,844
Burn @ 2,809
Into The Sunrise @ 2,609
Kai of Chaos @ 2,258
Identity Crisis @ 2,121

(Note: Not all of these words were written in 2009. But most of them were. Also, I'm leaving out a ton of story beginnings/scraps that have word counts under 1K.)

Coming up next: Goals for 2010! See you soon!

Kat