When I thought about writing this final blog post of 2017, I felt a little disheartened. I don’t think it’s been an easy year for anyone. And here I was… The same place I was last year. No agent. No book deal. Not even close.

But then I actually started thinking back, and even though I am still bummed to not be further along, I accomplished some pretty great things.

I wrote and revised a second book. AN ENTIRE BOOK! (As writers, we tend to scoff at this, thinking it’s not that special because we are surrounded by people doing the same thing. But it’s honestly a huge deal. We should be more proud.)

I reached over 26,000 blog views AND received The Blogger Recognition Award.

I was chosen for an extremely competitive publishing internship with Entangled.

I started a new hashtag on Twitter with some great writer friends – all designed for writers to celebrate their successes with each other. We’ll be hosting our first #WritersCheer day in January!

I was supposed to go to my first writer’s retreat, but it was cancelled. Instead, it turned into something even better. I went to New Orleans BY MYSELF and began planning my next novel.

Yes, I’m still not where I want to be, and I suffered through a lot of rejections this year. But I survived them to write another year.

Let’s take a closer look at what I did in 2017 and what I’ll do next.

What I Read

GRAND TOTAL: 59

Which means I more than accomplished my goal of three books per month! I would say the vast majority of what I read was pretty fantastic. I was honored enough to beta read two books before being published, discovered a new favorite author, and branched out of my comfort zone with more nonfiction and different genres. Yay for me!

You can find December’s reviews below:

If We We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen 

I also finished my seventh reread of the Harry Potter series. Now like I’ve said before, I am not going to review all of them here. BUT I am going to rank them, just for fun…

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

What I Wrote

Let’s start with this blog. This is my 54th post for the year. That averages out to be about 4.5 blogs per month, and all of those posts got me 26,725 views this year. In addition, I made some fantastic blogger and writer friends via social media. We equally shared each others resources, I was nominated for an award and even asked to contribute to others’ posts. Author branding is an extremely tough thing to start and maintain. But I feel as if I have had a killer first full year.

Check out a few of my highlights:

• First blog series: How to Revise and Resubmit: Getting Started 
• Most views: How to Lengthen Your Novel Using J.K. Rowling’s Outline Method 
• Most personal: The Rejection: How to Deconstruct and Bounce Back
• Most helpful: How to Write Your Novel Synopsis Using The Hero’s Journey
  
• Most fun: 7 Books I Wish I’d Written

Now what about my fiction? At the beginning of the year, I said I would write at least one new chapter of 700 Main per week until I finish the first draft with an estimated completion date: September 1, 2017.

Well, I finished the first draft in two months – March and April – for a total of 57K words.

Then in June, I added an additional 29K words for a total of 86K words, perfect for my genre. This draft resulted in eight agent requests and two R&Rs. Not to toot my horn, but that’s pretty awesome compared to the industry average.

In December, I entered two Twitter competitions and received four more requests. I also completed a pretty major revision, rewriting ten chapters, adding eight thousand new words, amping up a lot of details and emotions, and introducing an entirely new POV. Guys, writing from a ghost’s perspective is HARD. But I will say that I am pretty happy with the end result. Now let’s just hope the agents will be too!

Coming up in 2018

Goals a pretty fluid term for me when it comes to writing fiction. Because you never know when a new idea will hit you or when you might feel inspired to return to an old story. But that being said, here is my tentative plan for 2018.

• Write one new blog per week
• Grow and maintain my social media presence
• Read four books per month
• Outline my new series and begin writing book 1 OR rewrite State of Grace (Still undecided on that one. Both are BIG projects!)

I also have a few non-writing related goals as well as less tangible ones.

• Get strong and healthy without worrying about weight loss. That part will come naturally.
• Buy my first house!
• Stop being a hermit: Make plans with friends once per week.
• Meet with an energy healer each quarter.
• Quit wasting time on things that don’t fulfill me. Whether it be watching too much television or a relationship that has run its course.
• Be brave. Stop holding myself back out of fear. Unleash myself on the world!

Yup, that’s a lot. But if I only accomplish a few of them, that’s okay. I am determined to dream big because if I set my goals too low, my accomplishments will reflect that.

All of that being said, here is my mantra for 2018:

What’s yours? Cheers and Happy New Year!