Final Progress Report of 2016

Yesterday was a sad day. My thoughts and prayers go out to Carrie Fisher's family and friends. 

With that, I'd like to take a moment just to remember all the people we have lost in 2016. It is a very high number. So here's to everyone who has lost a family member, friend, acquaintance, or pet (which for many would also be put under the family category). 

And I also want to spend a moment to think about all those who have passed this year who don't have anyone to mourn them. 

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This is my last post of 2016. Don't worry, I'll be back next year. 

It has been a rough year. Not as rough as 2015 and rough in completely different ways, but rough nonetheless. 

I started this year with a post about numbers the doctor would record about me, so I figured why not end the year with a similar list?

Age: 24

Height: 5’7”

Weight: 140.1 lbs (yes, that makes my BMI 22)

Siblings: 3

Pets (that are specifically mine): 1

Cities lived in: 3

States visited: 12

Blankets: 13

Jobs: 4

Books read last year: 126 (will probably be 127 by the time the year ends)

Lucky numbers: 3, 5 (and any multiple of those)

Favorite number: 15

Instruments playable: 1.5

Years in a band: 11

Year in marching band: 8

Best Friends: 2

Medical Issues: 4 (Allergies, Eczema, PCOS, and Strabismus-- this one isn't really a big deal anymore after two surgeries to help it)

Average amount of weekly words written: 2500

Not much has changed, but a few things have. I'm another year older and about 20 lbs lighter. I've read quite a bit (although a handful of those are actually children's picture books so I'm not totally sure if they count, but I totally let them).

My New Year's Resolution was to better myself. Overall, I am happier, healthier, and closer to moving on out on my own (not much closer, but closer). Next year, although I'll have the same goal of bettering myself, it's going to be slightly different. I'll get more into that in my next post (aka the first post of 2017).

Hopefully next year will continue my path for bettering myself.

Until Next Year,
Shelby

Progress Report #7

I cannot believe it is December.

Like whatsoever.

What happened to the entire year? It just vanished. Poof. Without a trace (or as the deepening wrinkles on my forehead attest to, with a noticeable trace.

It is that time again, time for a progress report on my journey to becoming a better Shelby, you know, what this entire blog is about.

Dancing With the Stars is over for this season, meaning it is very possible they will have an author on the show next season and all my dreams will be crushed, so I have to get back into writing a lot quickly. So that is what I'll be doing after this is posted.

Current Weight: 139.4 lbs (I've been fluctuating between 139 and 142 for awhile now, but I'm confident that's about to start moving down again)

Words of 2nd Draft: 61302 (The other day I got frustrated with it and rewrote two chapters after deleting three -- I know I said I wouldn't do that, but it was a moment of weakness and it was either do that or just chunk the whole thing in despair. I think I decided on the proper course of action).

Words in New Piece: 6626 (The amount I got to before I gave up on NaNoWriMo)

Amount of Literary Agents I've Looked at for my Picture Book Manuscript: 37 (This was prior to rereading that you should have three manuscripts ready to submit that show the breadth of your abilities.)

Current Temperature Outside: 54℉ (Aka too cold for me.)

So, as I said, it isn't a long post today. Just a quick progress report.

Until Next Time,
Shelby Hild

What to do When You Lose NaNoWriMo

Today, to celebrate the fact that it is December 1st and NaNoWriMo is officially over, I made my cat hate me.

Sort of. I took her to the vet and she got poked and prodded and all the usual things that we do to our pets to make sure they are healthy but they don't understand.

Don't worry, minus being a tad bit chunky and needing her teeth cleaned, Hathor is in perfect health. (Although, apparently her name is super difficult to get right because no one at the vet's office said her name correctly.)

After that, I went to go see a movie and was given a high five for being there alone. Like seriously, the person selling tickets was like "are you meeting someone or something?" and when I said no, he was like "right on" and gave me a high five (the time I went apparently was so slow that the customer service person inside is also the ticket seller so there was no weird aerobics for him to give me said high five). I guess it is a sign of me being comfortable enough in my single-ness and the fact that I have bizarre days off that no one else really does to be able to go see a movie alone. Anyway, it ended up being awesome because I was the only person in the theater watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Which was a fantastic movie.

Anywho, my post today is a simple one because I did not win at NaNoWriMo this year.

To the casual NaNoWriMo-er, it seems very straight forward with what winning means: You've successfully written 50K words in one month in at least somewhat of a story structure. When you've won then you have the putty, the sketch of a story to work with and mold down into a more polished piece. 

But when you don't hit that, does that mean you've lost? 

I don't like looking at it that way. As long as you've written something, you've won. At least in my eyes. 

Maybe you got halfway through and ran out of steam. Maybe something unforeseen happened and you couldn't write. Maybe you just weren't able to hit that goal every single day and as you watched the words needed per day number rise steadily it just became overwhelming. Maybe you didn't really care too much, so you wrote for one day and then completely forgot about it.

Whatever your reasoning, you didn't fail. You didn't lose. Do you have one more word than you did at the beginning of the month? 

That one word, that single word no matter how small and insignificant it might seem is very important. 

You did something. 

You began.

That is the first step in writing anything. 

And that is a success in my book.

Just because you didn't get it done this last month, doesn't mean you can't do it. 

Don't give up.

For all of you out there who didn't make the 50K words, this is my challenge to you (and me): Continue writing, continue aiming for that finish line of the end of your story. 

Don't give up.

So, this month my aim is to finish what I started this last month. 

Is there anyone out there willing to join me? 

Until Next Time, 

Shelby Hild