April Recap Wow April was the quite year. Seriously? Is it just me or is anyone else shocked that it's finally over. I thought it was going to last forever. If I'm being honest....April was a rough month for me. I went into detail about it in my latest video as well as the silver lining to the tough time but in today's post, I wanted to recap on everything happy which happened and look forward to May. Ok. Let's start out with my favorites over the past month. Favorite Book: Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus Favorite TV show: Never Have I Ever (technically I watched this May 2nd but it's a must watch for any YA lover) Favorite Memory: Learning new TikTok dances with my family Food I Craved: Vanilla Oreos...I'm only human Biggest Wins: 1. Growing my Youtube channel (Hello new subscribers!!!) 2. Starting a mastermind group with some of my writing friends 3. Doing another round of edits on my YA contemporary Little Wins: 1. Reconnecting with an old friend 2. Getting back into running 3. Starting this little blog :) Biggest Lesson Learned: Don't fall into the trap of comparing your life to where you're supposed to be. "Supposed to be" is a fictional world that only draws us away from the present and steals our happiness. Instead, focus on how you can make today a little brighter and work towards your goals from where you are at today. I also had a productive writing month. I sent my novel out to betas on May 1st and am excited to analyze their feedback and do one more round of edits before querying my novel. Eep! It's so crazy how far I've come in the year I've spent working on this project! hMay Goals So in my last Youtube video, I talked about my writing goals. I also went more in depth about those goals in my May newsletter but I thought this might be a nice place to look at my goals from a more wholistic, lifestyle way. For the month of May, I have 10 main goals. 1. Get 40,000 words on my YA thriller Yes. You heard that right. I have started a new project while my YA contemporary is off with other people to critique (cringes nervously). I haven't drafted anything since NaNoWriMo and it's weird to get back into drafting, but I think once I immerse myself in this story, the words will flow easily. I'm about 3,000 words in as I write this post and I love the voice and premise of this book. My goal is to write about 10,000 words a week...although I may or may not have a 10k day scheduled to help me with my goal! 2. Compile list of literary agents I started creating my list in April and wow. As soon as you start writing down the submission information for different agents, ish gets real! I also wonder with this goal if I should start using my Twitter more to follow these agents online, but we'll see what happens. 3. Analyze beta feedback This probably won't happen until the end of the month, but I have been monitoring the feedback as it comes in, just not analyzing it yet. I'm super excited to see what my betas say about my work...and this will be a true sign of if I'm ready to query or not!!! 4. Film 6 Youtube videos Yup. I post videos every Wednesday, but my goal is to post more than one video a week...at least for the next couple of weeks. Because of how the New Zealand semester falls, I don't think I'll be able to post two videos a week later this month but for this week and next, there will be two videos so make sure you're subscribed for all the writing vlogs. 5. Write ten blog posts Wow. That's a BIG goal. But for the first couple months of this blog, I want to write two posts a week so I can get into the habit of writing before (probably) scaling back to one post a week. I'm still a little hesitant about blogging--do people even read blogs anymore???--but I just got this gut instinct that I should be blogging and went with it. 6. Start drafting my research thesis For those of you who don't know, I am doing a giant research project on how to communicate about sexual assault prevention on college campuses. Other than my writing life, this is another big passion of mine and I'm excited to see how my 2+ years of research culminates into a thesis, articles for publication, and recommendations to improve prevention at universities! 7. All the tests and papers for my academic semester Ugh. Hate that this is here, especially with the stress of online classes and grief of paying for a semester abroad while at home, but it is something on my plate for May. 8. Workout six times a week Lately, I've been running for 30 minutes to an hour five times a week and weightlifting five times a week. I know...I know...2 workouts a day is a lot but it helps with my anxiety and anything which helps with anxiety is needed during this time! 9. Read 4 books I read a book a week in April and I want to keep that up. To me, this goal comes down to saying no to TV at the end of the work day and yes to my love for reading. This decision isn't always easy, but I always feel more relaxed and content when I chose the "harder" option of reading. 10. Remember to connect with friends every once in a while...as opposed to hustling 24/7 Last week, I was hustling like no one's business. I worked from 7am to 9pm and while long days are the reality for me, it's still good to take time off. By Saturday, I felt a little burnt out and took the night off. I went to my friend's Zoom party then Facetimed some other friends. It was almost like a virtual party hop! Saturday night was so fun, but also a reminder that I need to keep in touch with my friends more, both for sake of maintaining my friendships and for my own mental health. What are your goals for May? What were your biggest wins in April?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm Angela Anne, a Young Adult contemporary writer committed to helping you achieve your writing goals + giving you writing inspiration. ArchivesCategories
All
|