I’ve been doing my annual end-of-year inventory, looking back at what I hoped to accomplish and what I actually did accomplish this past year. Some things—like selling my house—didn’t come to fruition; others—like getting a salaried job with benefits—did.

When it came to my writing, it felt like I hadn’t done much. But when I looked through my writing folder, I realized I’d done a lot more than I realized. 

Since January, I have: 

• completed a major plot revision draft of my novel  
• progressed to the finals of the NYC Midnight 2017 Short Story Challenge 
• queried two articles to a children’s history magazine (neither was accepted) 
• entered two short stories in a Writer magazine contest (Neither placed but both did make it past the second round of judging.) 
• submitted a short story for consideration for a 2018 anthology  
• attended a writers’ conference  
• heard Stephen King speak about the craft of writing  

My hope now is to continue this momentum in 2018!