2010 - the year that was...

Ok, so it's not quite over yet but to give me the chance to start fresh in 2011 (and to ensure I don't forget) I thought I'd get this one over with now...

When I look back on the past twelve months I could quite easily be disappointed with myself. I feel like I've made very little progress this year as a writer. I haven't sent out many pieces for publication. I'm still yet to complete a first draft of a novel (I say 'a' as opposed to 'my' because I now have three on the go - which could be part of the problem really), and I've failed (though not for want of trying) to have my short story collection Reflections reviewed...anywhere... There you go - failure with a big fat F!

However, when I looked to see what I've actually had published in 2010 (including blogs other than this one) I was surprised. For a year full of writerly-slacking-off I acheived more than I thought - 10 pieces published including 3 poems, 2 pieces in Victorian Writer, a guest review and a handful of interviews. Oh!! And oops, I forgot - a poem in the next Moving Galleries Exhibition...that's a big one, don't know how I forgot that! Not bad, considering the dismal effort I put in to getting anything published this year.

And of course there was NaNoWriMo - churning out just over 50,000 words in 24 days (6 days before deadline) was also a pretty mighty effort. Sure, many of those words wont deserve to ever see the light of day, but there's some good dialogue in there at least and enough 'story/plot/character' to build at the very least a longish short story...

And as usual I read & read & read - around 60 books in total but I won't be boring and list them. Thirteen of them were by Kate Forsyth. If you love fantasy and you haven't read anything by Kate - shame on you - she is an Aussie treasure. A few of my favourites for the year include Bereft by Chris Womersley, The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett, Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Fall Girl by Toni Jordan.

As for 2011, as I said in the previous post I have a series of interviews lined up, so I hope you'll stay tuned for those. I hope to keep them coming all year. As for other 'writerly' goals for 2011, I'll save them for another post as this is already becoming a bit of a book...

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays etc...