Farewell to January – 2019

The first month of the year is already gone. Am I the only one who felt like that just flew by?

January’s Writing

I did almost no drafting last month. I did go over chapter 1 of Slander & Steel, armed with critique from one of the Story Embers people, but I haven’t even finished that yet, and I still have eight chapters to go at the end of the book, so… I really need to buckle down on that in February, or decide to step away. The main problem with this draft is that I’ve read it all so many times I can’t identify what the problems are anymore, I just know there are problems, so it might be time to step back until I can pass it off to someone else for critique.

I did a tiny bit of work on short stories this month, but not nearly the amount I wanted to get done. The aim was to finish four of my short stories, but I mostly just went over what I’d already written and cleaned up some spots.

I did have some fun with Brothers (which I really need to stop having fun with so I can focus on The Shades and the Elect), setting up a story playlist, a Pinterest board, outlining a handful of scenes, writing a scene… But the story still has no good overarching plot, so it’s not anywhere close to being ready to be written yet, lol.

Most of January’s writing has been worldbuilding in World Anvil. I’ve had a lot of fun moving information from my head (and notes) into a more polished format, and it’s birthed a lot of new information that’s going to be a lot of fun to work with when I start writing the stories I’ve set in Aleruus (which is the main world I’ve been working on). Stories like Studded, The Half-Elves, and The Masked Captain. (You can check out my worlds here.)

January’s Reading

Reading has actually gone very well this year. I’ve already finished five books, which I’m super happy about considering how slowly I was reading last year.

  • The Smart Girl’s Guide to God, Guys, and the Galaxy by Susie Shellenberger and Kristin Weber (To be fair, I skimmed the second half of this. It was clearly targeted at public-schooled girls who are often surrounded by secular pressure, which means I was not the target audience and to me it was more shallow than I needed.)
  • The Raventree Society: Season One* by J.E. Purrazzi (See my full review here)
  • Tales of the Slayer Vol. 1 by various authors (I started this one way back in August, but I finally finished it this month. I enjoyed most of the stories.)
  • Shadowkeeper* by Hope Ann (See my full review here)
  • Sapphique* by Catherine Fisher (Not a top favorite, but definitely enjoyable and unique)
*This is an affiliate link, which means if you buy through this link I get a percentage of the profit at no extra cost to you

January Life

Last month my dad set up a schedule for my driving practice so I can likely get my license in March (yay!), I finished my last Invisalign tray, and I’m back to helping out with the group project I think I’ve mentioned in the past. (If all goes well, you’ll be hearing more about that project very soon.) Overall, January’s been a pretty good month, aside from the fact that I’m already sick of snow. :)


How was your January? What was your favorite read of the month? Top accomplishment? Let me know in the comments!

2 thoughts on “Farewell to January – 2019

  1. Oh, aren’t we all sick of snow, XD
    I can totally understand what you mean about books like the first one you listed. I tend to avoid them as I’m homeschooled too.
    So far it’s been a good month! I started yet another new novella and began editing my official, for-publishing novel. I haven’t read much yet, but I’ll be reading much more later on. :)

    1. And there are still at least two months to go before it’s gone for good! D:
      I got it for Christmas, so I read it, and I’m glad I read it early and got it out of the way, lol.
      That’s awesome! I hope your editing goes well!

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