November was...interesting. It was very busy, very stressful, and very Thanksgiving. I haven't blogged in almost three weeks, and it feels very weird to be doing it again, honestly. I spent a lot of time before writing this post looking at other blogs though, and now I feel somewhat inspired to get back to it again.
So here's what happened in November:
- I did NaNoWriMo. I didn't win, but I did get in about 27,000 words of my Queer Bookish Novel that I've been meaning to write for the past few months. At first, I wanted it to be a depressing, hard-hitting, gritty contemporary, but it turned out that none of the depressing parts were actually that relevant to the plot, and now the story is telling me it wants to be a...fluffy queer romance?? I do not read fluff. I do not write it, either. Basically, I now have a lot of reading research to do to tell me how to write fluff because I haven't read something fluffy and light in ages, or at least not since When Dimple Met Rishi, which was quite a few months ago. It's still going to have mental illness rep, but I guess this book doesn't want to be Sad Queer Bookish Novel anymore.
- Boyfriend came over for Thanksgiving. This was probably the best Thanksgiving I've had in years. My anxiety was relatively low even though I was super stressed about it beforehand, and my family actually interacted with each other and didn't just have the adults talking with me and my boy sitting there nodding and smiling and being left out. Pro tip: play Bananagrams with your families; it's a great bonding tool, especially if (almost) everyone is bookish.
- I kept applying to jobs. I do have my retail job still, but to be honest it's not my thing and I know it's not going to be my career, and I really, REALLY want to work in a library, since that's what I've been spending the past year and a half getting my degree in--speaking of which, my final portfolio was approved so I am officially graduating with my master's in library science this month! I've been applying to lots of library jobs where my boyfriend lives, so hopefully at least one of them will call to interview me, because I am READY.
Bookwise, I only read a single book this month, Lydia Kang's The November Girl, which I'd already read part of before when I was an intern for Entangled Teen (and believe me, I said a very strong YES to it because it was stellar even in the early stages). It was perfectly creepy and atmospheric and mysterious, and even though I only read one book last month, I'm glad the one I did manage to read was so damn good. If you haven't read The November Girl yet, you'd better go check it out RIGHT NOW!!
Most to all of my blog posts this month were NaNoWriMo related--sorry about that. However, writing about writing made me realize I actually really like writing about writing, and I feel like I'm coming closer and closer to defining what I really want this blog to be about. Here's what I posted in November:
- My NaNoWriMo goals
- How I worry too much about naming characters (seriously, it's a problem. And my MC still doesn't have a name yet)
- Things I learned while doing NaNoWriMo as told through Gravity Falls GIFs
I also did a couple of bookish posts, though not too many since I didn't read a lot this month:
- November priority reads list
- Stages of disappointment in a book by a favorite author, as told through a review of Replica by Lauren Oliver, which I really didn't enjoy
I had a nice long, accidental hiatus from blogging while doing NaNo, but the time has now come to get back into regular postings, because I do love blogging and writing since it's a great outlet for me and my feelings, bookish and otherwise. My plans for this month are to read lots of fluffy books, as well as start the Raven Cycle finally, since I now own all of the books in hardcover, which was my goal before I started reading them since I have a feeling I'm going to want to binge the whole series and I don't like to have to wait for my books to arrive when I finish them.
I also want to go back to adding in some non-bookish posts, because I really like the lifestyle side of blogging as well. I've been using this blog to find my own lifestyle blogging niche, and so far it's looking like 20s life and mental health are two of my main topics, so I really want to continue exploring those on the blog and making a name for myself in that arena of blogging.
Here's to hoping I'll read more in December and that the blog will be significantly more active!
Also, super thank you to various publishers who are sending me ARCs to read!! I can't wait to read and review them as the release dates get closer! *cue babbling excited voice*
No comments:
Post a Comment