This Past Year: Looking Back on 2016

It's been one year.

And it's been a long year, at that.

2016 is over by midnight tonight. For a moment, I want to reflect back on the past year in three categories:

Writing

Blogging

Life

(Pictures from Pinterest)

Writing 

This has been a huge year writing for me. I've grown so much in skill and in figuring out where I want to go with it. Here are some notable times/things that happened:

January 2016: I finished typing the first draft of Survivor, the third book in my trilogy. That was the first time I'd gotten an entire series from notebook to Word-Doc.

February-July: I wrote three novellas (which actually ended up being novels), each from a different character's point of view, based off my trilogy. These were huge for me, as I learned more about these characters.

August: I finished the fourth and final novella, which was quite a struggle. I had a breakthrough moment though. 

 That month as well, I decided I wanted to publish a book, one way or another. After working on a dozen mock query letters, I finally decided to go the independent route one day.

September: I learned how to plot, and I re-wrote Found in third-person.

October: I nearly quit my novel. Then I took a deep breath and started all over again, and I couldn't be more happy that I did.

November: I think we all know what happened in November... (pst, is had to do with NaNoWriMo). But I finished my official first draft of Found that month as well, and wrote a whole other novel, Verity of Tomorrow.  

December: I finished deep-editing my novel *cheers* 

Summary

* I wrote seven first drafts, deep-edited five, and "finalized" four of them. 

* I came up with a gizzillion story ideas, started writing a few on paper, and finally picked one that I'm going to turn into a novel this year :)

* Then I formatted eight of my old manuscripts and turned them into books on Lulu, and I freaked out when they arrived which was pretty funny because I rarely jump and up and down and scream and skip across the parking lot. (Thank you Katie Grace at A Writer's Faith for introducing me to Lulu through your post)

And I have quite a collection of word documents: 30, so far. Most are for a single novel. 

(Pictures from Pinterest)

Blogging

 I've only been blogging for a little over three months, but it already feels like forever! I've met lots of wonderful fellow bloggers and commenters, and here are some little stats for you all.

16 posts (17, including this one!)

1,5000 page-views (estimate, because it changes every day) (and I admit some are my views from doing make-overs)

96 comments 

8 public followers who make this all so wonderful! (and also you email followers and book-mark followers :-) )

Plus three theme-makeovers, the latest of which was very fun and turned out great! (what do you think, by the way?)

(Pictures from Pinterest)

Life

Random little events of the year:

I was away from home and my family for a month for the first time at a summer camp

I started a blog (duh)

I got in a bike crash? (last time I try to plot and go downhill XD)

I did NaNoWriMo ^-^

I became successfully addicted to Pinterest and Nuttzo

Favorite memories:

sitting by a fountain eating frozen yogurt and talking to my mom until about midnight after a ballet performance

spending an entire day home alone by myself and plotting out three novels and eating dinner in my room 

hiking up to North Dome in Yosemite with my dad and seeing the breathing-taking views

sitting outside at my old house and watching a downpour 

writing via pen and paper in an old journal in my old room

getting my first comment on my blog  

singing  on Christmas Eve 

Things I've learned:

{accept help}

{take breaks} 

{do things that I've never thought of doing}

{breathe}

 I did something really cool too: I wrote a letter to my younger self. Sounds kind of silly, but it's a great way to look back and see how far you've come and what you've learned in the past year.

I can't wait for all the adventures of this coming year, and keep your eyes open for a post next week, in which I talk about my 2017 goals :D

Thank you to everyone who has helped out with this blog, namely my mom, for convincing me to start it, my dad, for being my first email-follower, and all you people who read it and make my day and are so wonderful! Happy New Year!

signing off on 2016....

 

<3

 

- Audrey Caylin

 

What are some of your 2016 accomplishments? Favorite memories? Valuable lessons?