#amwriting: how I spent the first half of 2017

Hey everyone,

I’m back from my accidental hiatus to share some writing updates. In my “new year’s resolution” blog post in January, I talked about wanting to write ALL THE THINGS.. and I attempted to do this. I’ve written about 12,000 words worth of short stories (mostly first drafts) so far this year. I’ve also written about 40 poems (this is an estimate). I also wanted to submit my writing to more places – which I definitely did! According to my submission tracker, I’ve submitted to 30 places (including literary magazines and writing contests) in 2017. I deemed at least half of those places to be out of my league. And now, for some more specific news…

CONTESTS AND PUBLICATIONS

If you follow me on social media, you’ll have heard about most of this but in case you missed it, here it is! I received 2 silver keys from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards contest. I also received an honorable mention in Hollins’ Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest. I submitted to five or six writing contests last year so it was a pleasant surprise to discover it wasn’t all a complete waste of time.

As for publications… I had a poem in Blue Marble Review in January and another poem in Sugar Rascals in February! Both of these literary magazines publish teens. (It’s also worth noting that Blue Marble Review pays contributors so if you’re a young writer, you should definitely consider submitting there!) Also in February, five poems of mine were published in Lockjaw Magazine. March arrived and two more poems were published, “khushi’s body is holy” and “bedtime story,” in Noble / Gas Qtrly. This month, I have a strange experimental poem, titled “Float,” in The Blueshift Journal. I also have a poem in diode poetry journal, a literary journal that I greatly admire. 

Despite being stressed about exams and generally feeling burned out, I tried to take time every month to frantically submit my poetry to 5+ literary magazines and I guess it worked haha.  I honestly didn’t expect to see my work in publications (which have published writers I admire!) so this has meant the world to me.  I’m also happy to share that I have a poem forthcoming in DIALOGIST! 

SUMMER PLANS  & CURRENT PROJECTS

My goal this summer is to write a full length novel. I’ve talked about my writing projects on this blog, now and then, over the years but what I haven’t really brought up is my tendency to abandon projects. I’ve never written further than 20-30K for most of the WiPS I’ve mentioned on the blog because I lost interest. I did, however, write a 38,000 word first draft of a YA Contemporary last year. I want to rewrite it completely – while keeping a few of the good scenes. I also want to write the first draft of my Hindu myth book. I’ve been consulting a lot of writing websites and in my quest to write two 5000 word outlines, I’ve definitely learned some things about how to plot. I won’t start drafting until I perfect the outline because I want to be sure that not knowing what happens next isn’t a reason why I quit. I’ll be talking about these projects (and some short stories I wrote) in a later blog post because I’m still figuring out all the details. 

SO WHAT ABOUT YOU? HAVE YOU MADE ANY PROGRESS WITH YOUR WRITING PROJECTS (OR DID LIFE GET IN THE WAY)? HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?