January 2017 Wrap Up

Reading

I read a total of 7 books this month. This has been my best month in a while as I stuck pretty well to reading for an hour each night. Plus, I read a few books that I just wasn’t able to put down.

I haven’t posted reviews for all these books since I only do reviews once a week, but you can check out my Reading List as that will be updated as I go along. Here are the books I read this month, links go to reviews posted on this blog:

1. Guy In Real Life by Steve Brezenoff
2. When We Go Missing by Kristen Twardowski
3. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
4. The Piper’s Price by Audrey Greathouse
5. The Elite by Kiera Cass
6. The One by Kiera Cass
7. Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

Writing

I got a lot of writing done. I edited Kris’s novel for her and I’ve been editing my mystery novel. Kris was kind to edit The Lost Girl, so I’ll be getting back to that novel as well.

I also entered three writing contests and thought of two novel (novella?) ideas to finally post on Wattpad. One is a little more in-depth than the other, so I’m sure I’ll be working on the “easier” one first. However, I hope to have both of them up and running this year.

(In case any of you are wondering, the more in-depth story is a continuation of my Short Story Sunday, Three Days. I’ve had a lot of requests to keep going with it, so look forward to that!)

I also started writing content for a video game website, Now Loading. So, if you’re interested in that, feel free to check out some of my articles.

One of my goals for 2017 is to finally get my writing career off the ground and I think I’m headed in the right direction!

Blogging

I’m patting myself on the back because I can’t get over how well I did with blogging this month. I commented and shared on blogs that I follow as well as at least five new blogs every single day. I’ve read a lot of great articles and found a lot of cool new blogs to follow and made some new friends.

Reading and commenting on other blogs was always a struggle for me because I would just forget or I would want to get my own blog written first, but now I think I’m in a good routine and I’m finally giving other bloggers the attention they deserve.

The main theme for this month was all about Characters. We covered a wide range of topics, such as protagonists and antagonists, just to name a few.

I’ve gotten myself into a pretty good routine with planning out my blog posts, too. Every Sunday, my sister and I have been working on our blogs all day, our writing blogs, and Double Jump. It’s been great and fun. As of right now, I have most of February done and almost all of my graphics done for the whole year! Yeah, this is productivity at its finest.

I also started a bookstagram, RachelP_Reads. And while I don’t post very often, I’m trying to rack up a queue of ideas and pictures and find a schedule and routine to keep up with it. Then again, this is mainly just for fun.

Overall

January was such a productive month. If I could do it over again, I would just so I could continue the trend. However, February is a new month and I bet it’ll be just as productive. I think I had a great start to the new year!

Posts to Remember

1. January/February 2017 Writing Contests
2. Creating Characters: What’s Your Favorite Part?
3. How To Write Diverse Characters and Why You Should Include Them

How did January treat you? Did you have a good start to the new year? Let me know in the comments below!