2022 was a bit of a mixed bag, but here's to you!
You made it through. Thank you for all your support this last year. It's meant the world to me. Every comment, like, or reaction to my posts has kept me going. I hope you have a fantastic New Year. I hope that 2023 is kind to you, and I hope that you find the good things outweighing this coming year. All my love and best wishes to you for 2023 Ari xx
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Seasons greetings, and happy holidays
Can you believe we've only got 8 days left of 2022? How is it even December already?! How is it Xmas Eve tomorrow?! This might be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the busiest! So, do you wanna find out what I've been up to? Alright then, let's dig in... Hello everyone, it's been a hell of a month! Ready for an update? Let's dig in... Since my last update... Since my last update, I've been taking part in Nanowrimo. I had plans to beat my July record of 74k in 30 days, but honestly, I forgot how chaotic the November Nano always is for me. I've only completed the November version of Nanowrimo once, and only then by the skin of my teeth. Between family members having to go for unanticipated hospital check-ups, a series of migraines I've suffered myself, and an unfortunate case of writers fatigue, I'm not currently on track to even hit the 50k, let alone my stretch goal of 90k and a completed manuscript. But I have made some progress, around 10k words. Small, but still progress. I'm sitting comfortably at chapter seven, and if I can get to just chapter 10 over the next couple of weeks, I'll consider it a success. Plans for the coming month... As I mentioned, I'd like to reach and complete up to chapter ten of the Darkling first draft this month, despite my delays so far. That should get me another 10k or so, and hopefully I can continue writing into December, although at a decreased rate. If November is busy, then December, for me, is chaos. I don't anticipate getting too much work done next month. I am hoping to order the cover for Changeling around the end of November, however, and I'm greatly looking forward to seeing what the design ends up looking like after I've talked it over with the designer. I also want to really crack down on the final self-edits of the remaining Changeling Chapters. So I've got coming up too! Want to see more?My newsletter subscribers get to see sneak peeks first, hear my updates earlier, and gain access to an exclusive flash fiction sent straight to their inbox.
If you'd like to never miss one of my updates, and see these exclusive pieces of bonus content, consider sign up for my newsletter via Sign Up Page! Hello everyone! We're slap bang in the middle of autumn, and on the lead-up to spooky season. It's also the lead-up to Nanowrimo! So I'm all sorts of busy! Do you want to hear about what I've been working on? Alright then! Let's dig in... Since my last update... I have been stuck in an editing spiral. My self edits have five layers I have to go through for each chapter. This means I can spend anywhere from 2-6 hours working on one chapter at a time. If I wasn't literally watching the final product improve, and tighten up, right before my eyes, I'm sure I'd have given up by now. But it is improving. The prose is getting tighter. So I just keep on keeping on. I don't have a whole lot more to say about the editing. It's taking me painfully longer than I estimated. That's something I'm going to have to keep in mind moving forward, and for future projects. While I'm a little over 50% of the way through my edits, I did have to battle lots of health problems at the beginning of the process, and I have sped up considerably since the beginning of October. Plans for the coming month... Simply put, I plan to continue editing until the end of October. But once November 1st hits, finished or not, I'm gonna be switching gears to continue working on Darkling. My Nano record word count is 74,000 words, and I'm hoping to beat it by trying for... well, honestly, I'll be trying for as many words as I can possibly cram it. But I'll treat myself to a nice bottle of White Zinfandel if I can hit 100k in 30 days. Just like I did in July, I'll be updating my word counts every 5-or-so days on my social media platforms, and my website. If you'd like an opportunity to see some early sneak peeks about Darkling's story progression, you should consider signing up for my newsletter too! Want to see more? My newsletter subscribers get to see sneak peeks first, hear my updates earlier, and gain access to an exclusive flash fiction sent straight to their inbox.
If you'd like to never miss one of my updates, and see these exclusive pieces of bonus content, consider sign up for my newsletter via Sign Up Page! It's September! It's officially autumn!
It's also my favourite time of year! It helps that my birthday is at the beginning of the month, but it's not just that. I love the sharp crispness to the air in the early mornings. I like how the sun is still bright, but you often get a cool breeze to even out the heat. I love watching the leaves on the trees change colour, although it's still a little early for that here at the moment. Autumn has always seemed such a magical time of year for me, and I find it very inspiring. That said, I've been busy tapping into the creative energy this time of year always fills me with, and I've been making excellent progress on the Fey Touched trilogy. Do you want to hear what I've been working on? Alright then! Let's dig in... This updates a little later in the month that I usually like, but we're on the final day of August and I wanted to keep you all in the loop on the things that are happening right now. Are we all ready for this update? Oh good! Let's dig in... Since my last update...I gave a brief update on the progress of Changeling at the beginning of August, but the last time I did a proper update was the middle of July.
I was neck deep in Camp Nanowrimo, and the UK was in fighting through a record breaking heatwave. I'm pleased to say I survived the weather (just) and that Changeling's first draft was completed! I got a huge majority of the words down in July, a nice 72k, and finished up the final five or six chapters during the first 11 days of August. Since then I've been alternating between Changeling Edits, and the first few chapters of it's sequel, Darkling... Greetings, and happy July! I thought I'd combine my monthly update, with my Camp Nano update this time, so this post might get a little longer than usual. Are we ready for an update? Oh good! Let's dig in... Since my last update...Honestly, this month being a Camp Nano month has been a relief, since my main PC decided to die on me, and the rebuild has been scattered with nothing but problems.
The RAM arrived damaged and I had to send it back. Then I discovered my Power Supply was too old, and didn't have the required connectors, so I had to wait on a delivery for that part. Then the build kept flagging up various errors, so the motherboard and cpu had to get sent back to the suppliers, and I'm now waiting on testing of those parts. Being able to sit in my living room on a chromebook and just write to avoid my troubles has been a life saver for my mental state this month. It was sunrise at 4am this morning, and what a beautiful sunrise it was. Dawn, a new day. A new MONTH in fact... and this month, is Camp Nanowrimo once more. I always try to take part in the Nano events because I feel that whether I meet my target goal or not, I've still made progress. And all words are good words! Having said that, this Camp Nano is important to me. I am officially on a tight deadline for completing Changeling in time for publication next year. I must have the final draft complete before the end of July. That makes my 70k word count for July all the more important to focus on, complete, and hopefully get a little ahead of. I work well on tight deadlines, and this isn't the first time I'll have made 70k in a month but I've got to admit; I'm still nervous! I hope everyone's successful in their projects this month. Let me know what you're working on in comments, tags and/or reblogs! ... And wish me luck! May the odds be in our favor! <3 ;-) P.S It really was a beautiful sunrise this morning.
For more images, click the Read More and take a look at some of the shots I got! Happy June! How are we all doing so far this month?
Summer has officially arrived here in the UK. We went from mid-teen centigrade temperatures, to over 30 degrees yesterday. It's made writing this week a genuine chore, because I struggle to think straight in the heat, but I've managed to not fall behind on my word count. I'm calling that a success! Are we ready for an update? Oh good! Let's dig in... Trying my best to make these monthly updates a habit, and clearly I'm failing at that! I've been busy this month though, which strangely helps. It makes me feel like I've got more to tell you than; "Did writing. Did more writing."
So, let's dig in! Hello! I'm back on my writing! I know it's probably a bit late, but I hope you all had a lovely start to the new year.
I always take December and January off, because it's just the time of year where I get swamped with other things, but it took longer than usual to get back into my writing this year. I made it though, so I thought I'd share a snippet from Changeling as my cover pic for this post. It's from the last chapter I wrote before Christmas, so it'll be my launching off point moving forward this year. I've spent the last week figuring out my work/writing schedule for 2022, and I'm hoping to have the first book's first draft wrapped up somewhere around the middle of April! Fingers crossed, I guess we'll see where the year takes us ^_^ |
Arista Holmes
I'm a writer in her thirties, who is based in the South East of England. Archives
March 2024
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