Novels and Narrations No 19

Welcome back to another monthly post in my Novels and Narrations blog series! In this series, you get updates on my writing in all facets: from celebrations and excitement to dealing with imposter syndrome, hopelessness and rejection. Thanks, as always, for caring about my work as a writer and supporting me in this way. ❤

Writing Intentions for the Year

As a quick refresher, here are my writing intentions for the year:

• Create a healthy, low-pressure but regularly-kept writing routine
• Continue to work on my MFA and work to improve potential writing weaknesses
• Write draft zero of my fantasy romance WIP, tentatively titled THE BECKONED AND THE BOUND (TBATB)
• Form more friendships with writers and better support those friends who are already on this writing journey with me

So, now that we’re refreshed, how did I do over the summer?

July Accomplishments

My specific goals for July (which were actually June) were as follows:

• Put writing first
• Regularly work on and make progress in summer writing project
• Continue to draft TBATB

Hahaha, your girl did not do well, friends! I thought this might be the case, due to having three weddings to attend and then entering my busiest season at work. What I didn’t expect was to catch a semi-severe case of COVID from the first wedding in early June that I didn’t fully recover from until just this week, in late July. As such, all plans to write, read or even start that aforementioned summer writing project were dashed. Utterly.

I’ve already felt plenty of guilt related to that. I don’t need more, so we’re going to move on from that and instead, look at what I can do now.

August Focuses

August, as always, is going to be challenging. As someone who is still in grad school and who works in academia, August is both a fresh start, but also a hellishly busy time. Plus, I need to meet with my mentor to confirm my track for graduate school and make a revised game plan, since our original game plan changed.

With all that in mind, I’d like to:

• Continue researching as much as I can
• Confirm my thesis project

Those might be small goals, but research is taking up a big chunk of my time, especially as I am trying to catch up on everything I’d hope to do in three months in like, five weeks. However, once I confirm if BLOOD PRICE is eligible to be my thesis or not, then I can determine where I want to go from there and how to make it happen.

In Sum

So, while writing feels like it’s in a bit of a limbo moment, I do have a pretty clear direction of research to continue pushing forward. Let’s see how it goes and, hopefully, I’ll have a clearer path ahead in my August Novels and Narrations wrap-up!

Thanks for supporting me in my own journey and reading another installment of Novels and Narrations! ❤