My Year in Writing
- A 2020 Wrap-Up -
Ah, 2020. What a year. I’d say, “Happy New Year, and good riddance!” but we all know it’s not like when the clock strikes midnight on the first of January that anything is going to be immediately different but the date on the calendar.
I had so many grand plans for my work this year. For the first time since my kids were born, both of them were in school two days each week and I actually had a regular writing routine! I was making lots of progress on my various projects and the plan for 2020 was to accomplish even more with my newfound writing time.
Everything went swimmingly for the first few months of the year. I submitted an application for Author Mentor Match with my Lucas Miller and the Silver Shadow manuscript. While I wasn’t chosen to be a mentee, I received some very helpful feedback from the mentors I’d submitted to. Then I connected with a friend of a friend of a friend on Instagram, and when she began training to be a book coach I got to be one of her guinea pigs and again received some massively helpful feedback on my project. (Dani is AWESOME. If you feel stuck in revisions - or even as you are outlining a new project! - you should check our her coaching services.)
And then the pandemic hit the US with full force. My kids, just like everyone else’s, went on Spring Break and never went back to school. And all at once my beautiful, glorious, long-awaited writing routine went completely out the window.
But THEN… Onto the scene came my dashing husband, who valiantly shifted his work schedule so that I could still find time to work in the midst of our unexpected new quarantined, distance-learning lifestyle. During the summer, which we spent in Maine with my family, my sister helped out with the kids a couple times a week. So despite the totally upended routine, over the course of the spring and summer I actually still managed to outline two new projects and get a first draft completed for one of them. And in the middle of all of that, I got the opportunity to work with another book-coach-in-training on my full Lucas Miller manuscript. And once again a book coach seriously changed the game for me. (Thank you, Amy! Check out her book coaching services, too!)
But as the start of the new school year approached, it became clear that we wouldn’t be going back to the same set-up I had enjoyed the year before with all that precious time to myself to write in silence. With the pandemic ever-worsening, my daugher’s school’s plans for distance-learning still unclear, and a potential move back to New England in the works, we decided to homeschool. And then we made the move to Maine official and had to haul all our stuff back up north and get resettled. And then, even when we enrolled my daughter at her new school for twice-a-week in-person learning, the rest of the year was still filled with holidays and birthday and anniversaries and as a result I have done barely any writing since August.
But this is not a sob story about how 2020 ruined all my plans.
While this year certainly did not go the way I (or anyone else!) expected, and while I may not have accomplished everything I had hoped, I am proud of the work I did do this year. And I am supremely thankful for the support system I have and for the lessons I have learned.
One of my biggest takeaways from this year, at least when it comes to my work, has been the importance of the interplay between tenacity and patience. I have big goals for myself and my writing. But I also understand the reality of my current life situation. I have an incredibly supportive and encouraging husband who goes out of his way to help me make time whenever it’s possible. And a family who I (now) live close to who also support me. But I also have two young kids who are home all the time and need lots of care and attention. And ultimately they matter more to me than any book.
So I work when I can. And how I can. Most of my “writing” over the last several months has consisted of early morning walks before my husband goes to work, during which I record voice memos as I attempt to talk myself through the changes to my Lucas Miller project I planned during my book coaching session with Amy in August. And then hurriedly transcribing those notes later in the day a week later.
Other writing related activities also slowed down in a major way. My instagram went dark for nearly 6 months. My last blog post was written even further back than that.
At the same time, I have watched lots of writer friends on social media hit some super exciting landmarks in their writing journeys this year. Completing Projects! Landing agents! Getting published! I have been so thrilled for every one of their personal victories. And while there is always the temptation to wonder, “Am I behind? Should I be at that point in my career by now, too? Will that ever even happen for me, or am I totally out of my depth?”, instead I find myself wildly inspired and encouraged by the community among fellow creators.
For now, I am committed to enjoying where I am. And I have all the time in the world. My only deadlines are the ones I set for myself. If I blow right by them the world will not end. I will find no strongly worded emails from an editor in my inbox. I have made the choice to not let the slower-than-desired progress of my work to rob me of the joy of creation. (Or any of the hundreds of snuggles my kids ask for throughout the day because they are home and they can.)
That’s not to say I don’t have goals for 2021. But I’m holding them loosely. If the last year has taught us anything it’s the reminder that we never know what the future holds. Our best laid plans can get flushed right down the toilet in an instant. But with the knowledge that a return to our regular routine is unlikely any time soon, I can make different kinds of plans. Plans for intentionality in time management. Plans for being flexible with my schedule. And plans to keep chasing my dreams one step at a time, even when life throws the most unexpected of curveballs.
