So, yeah, no posts in January. Barely any in December. I'm sorry. Bad blogger.
New Years Day came and went, and I, along with certainly thousands of others, made a new years resolution. Usually, along with certainly thousands of others, mine are doomed to failure. This year, I vowed to write, edit, plot, or otherwise work on my writing every day WITHOUT a NaNo to depend on. And yet here I stand, crossing into February, and aside from a small stumble, I'm still going. I missed one day due to being on the go from literally 8:00AM to 11:00PM. Driving five and a half hours hours, birthday party for my niece, short break spent with family, then back out for a hockey game. I got home and hit the pillow HARD. I barely had time to THINK that day, much less write. Didn't even realize I'd forgotten to do anything until we were on our way home the next day. But you know what? I got back on the saddle and picked up where I left off. As of yesterday, I have a finished, well, I don't think it's technically a short story. Based on the word count, it just squeaks into novelette territory. But it's mine and it's done.
I wish I could say I did this just because, but I have to admit there was a little NaNo-esque motivation behind it. Back in December, I signed up for a Secret Santa exchange, except instead of gifts, we were all to exchange stories. Give a prompt, get a story, and write one for someone else. The story's due in its final form on Feb 14th. It's still got some polishing to go through, but I have something, anything, for my promptee. I have just under two weeks to polish it until it shines, and then it's just a matter of hoping he or she likes it.
Once all the editing is done and the story is ready, that's when the hard part begins. I've written because I promised someone else I would. When this is done, I have to write because I promised myself I would. It's a lot easier to let yourself down.