Welcome back and happy 2017! A couple news items:
Firstly, I’ve started going by my middle name, Noel. (As in, the Christmasy pronunciation of Noel. NOT the one that rhymes with *roll* which is what my eyes do whenever someone says it like that, hehe.) My full name will still be listed on my blog and Twitter, as that is what I’ll be published as, but amongst friends and such I’d like to be called Noel. 🙂
Secondly, I’m adopting a new system for how I’ll be blogging each week of the month:
I finished writing my second novel.
Three years, you guys.
Three years of blood, sweat, and tears. (And ink stains?) Three years of banging my head against the keyboard. Three years of sobbing into my hands when things felt too daunting to go on.
And three years of LOVING this story, despite it all. Because that’s the only way I could have pushed through: how deeply I cared about this book underneath all the struggle.
Look at that shiny, glorious number! Can’t you just see the heavenly light rays bursting between its digits? And nope, there’s nothing wrong with your Spotify – that IS a chorus of angels singing “Hallelujah” through this picture. (I hired them to do that and they’d like a tip, so…)
Welcome back! Man, feels like the last time I saw you guys was last year! Har har har. Dad jokes.
Today is a special day because it’s exactly one year, to the date, since I posted my debut blog entry. Happy blogiversary to me!
January is a time of gazing adventurously at horizons to come, but it’s also a time for reflecting on the last 12 months. I’m in the mood to get reflecty. Whaddaya say?
Writing progress made in 2015:
Two weeks ago I discussed writing slow, a process often touted against but which I believe has merit. I decided to continue that theme with a post about other rules you can safely ignore.
There are important rules in writing, of course. Lots of rules are well-founded and should definitely be followed. What I don’t support is the attitude some authors have about these Rules with Capital R’s, the ones they shout from their desk with a zealously pointed index finger. “YOU. BAD AUTHOR. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.”
Let’s start with the one I see pushed most aggressively: Write every day.
I’m a slow writer. I’m so slow that I actually forced a 30-minute time limit on this entry because otherwise I’d take too much time away from my other projects, musingly tapping my pencil on my chin for ages. Actually I’m typing this on my laptop, but the pencil thing was a nice visual effect, yeah? If I actually hand-wrote these things it’d be take me double-ages. Triple-ages! But I’m getting off track.
Pointing Telescopes | S. Noel Brady 