December Writing Challenge 2021: Chasing Your Goals

Welcome to the December Writing Challenge 2021. Each year, I encourage writers to challenge themselves during the month of December. Most of the time, the aim is to maintain the momentum you achieved during the year through this final, often busiest, month. That way, come January, you will be ready to attack your goals with energy.

Last year, the December Writing Challenge took on more of a self-care aura. 2020 destroyed many writers’ ability to focus, to meet deadlines, to feel creative. It seemed necessary to encourage everyone to be kind to themselves, even as they tried to put down new words.

We learned in 2021 that there is no such thing as a quick solution to a global pandemic. This year felt dedicated to picking ourselves up and attempting to discover our new normal. How to juggle lock-downs and health directives with resuming typical business and life activities. And so the challenge shifts again.

This December, I challenge you to redefine your writing habits if you need to, whether that means reminding yourself of your goals and priorities, or giving yourself permission to put less time into that work-in-progress. No, I’m not letting you off the hook entirely. But I do want you to take an hour or two and really consider what you want from your writing, and how any changes in world view might have altered your plans.

Photo by Justin Kauffman on Unsplash

Whatever you believe, whatever holidays or end-of-year tasks steal your focus in December, take out a bit of time for joy. Specifically, the thing about writing that brings you joy. Do you love the adventure of a new project? Does world-building make you excited? Maybe dreaming up new characters and throwing them into danger fills you with glee. Pick something. Anything. And make that your December challenge project.

Yes, I know, some of you have deadlines or are so, so close to finishing something. And that’s fine. Obviously you should finish the thing you need to turn into an editor. But if you’re not there, or if you can steal fifteen minutes at the start of your work window, let yourself play a little. Give yourself the gift of writing, rather than considering it a task.

A writer friend recently started a shiny new project, for which she set aside a nearly done novel that just wasn’t working for her. Now she reports her word count with so much happiness every day. Her excitement is contagious. Finishing projects is important, but sometimes, some projects… they work against you. This coming month, find the thing that reminds you why you wanted to write in the first place.

December Writing Challenge 2021: The Deets

The Basics

The basics for this year’s challenge are the same as ever. Write every day in December. No mandatory word count or even amount of time, though I urge you to try to work in at least a half an hour. Just write. Work on your novel, try your hand at poetry, consider a short story or personal essay. Start a new project every single day and then see what you want to continue with come January. Whatever you want. All the words count.

You get two free days, if you really need them, to take off for general December business or simply because you need a day off. Maybe you’re cleaning house for incoming relatives or you have a ton of holiday shopping or cooking to do. If you’re the one traveling, you may be stuck behind the wheel for too long one day to face sitting at your laptop. That’s fine. You be the judge. But try not to take the days if you don’t have to, and to limit them to two.

This is not me saying that you have to write every day to be a writer. That’s not a rule, you do what works for you. But this is me saying that December can be crazy, and it’s all too easy to have busy day after busy day rob you of your writing time. Then come January, when you are excited about new goals for the new year, you are feeling rusty and out of practice. Maybe can’t even recall what you were working on. That slows you down.

Aim to write every day. By January, you will have a limber writer’s brain, ready to face whatever goals you dream up for 2022.

Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash

The Advice

Tell your family and friends that you’re participating in the challenge, and that you will be guarding a bit of time each day to prioritize your writing. Let them know this is important to you, and you expect their support and encouragement.

Make a date with yourself. Look at your calendar and add your writing window in each day as a physical appointment, complete with reminder notifications. Keep your date like you would a dental appointment.

Get a writing friend or two to join you in a kind of buddy system. Cheer each other on. Maybe do a coffee or hot chocolate date to get some writing done together. If you’re avoiding coffee shops and other enclosed spaces, do a Zoom write-in together and hold each other accountable.

Keep a notebook and pen in your bag or car so you can do some long-hand scribbling if you’re picking up your kids or stuck in a waiting room somewhere. Or write bits on your phone’s Notes app.

The Stretch

If you’re feeling really inspired, go ahead and add layers to your challenge. Maybe you do want to write a poem every day, or try a completely new genre. You might check a few writing books out of the library and work your way through the exercises or prompts they include to improve your craft. Pick an aspect of your writing you really want to improve on and focus on just that, like writing a whole story just in dialogue, or writing description that somehow also moves the story forward. Feel free to make the challenge as complicated as you’d like, if that’s something that gets you excited.

The December Writing Challenge 2021 kicks off tomorrow, but if you find this post later in the month, please do join in whenever. The goal is to keep your writing muscles limber, and the prize is a writer’s brain ready to tackle new year goals. I will be posting encouragement here and on Twitter all through the month, so check in if you need a boost. Otherwise, I wish you all a wonderful final month of 2021, and very happy writing.

Friday Links: Plotting and Planning for the Rest of the Year

Welcome to mid-October! The calendar insists on speeding us toward year-end, so now is the time to make some decisions. Are you doing NaNoWriMo next month? Did you promise yourself that this was the year you’d submit your writing somewhere? Have you set a reading goal for 2021?

I believe pandemic-time means being a little gentle with yourself when it comes to hitting those marks. But at the same time, you won’t get these years back, so take a few minutes to assess where things are. Maybe make a mini goal for the next couple of months. You’ll feel better come January.

This week’s links offer up the usual assortment of bookish and writerly sites to visit, but I hope a few will inspire you to do some writing or read something terrific. Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Enjoy!

This week’s links:

7 Magical Realism Short Stories Haunted by Emotional Ghosts. – A little bit of Halloween-adjacent reading.

22 Highly Anticipated Books Hitting Shelves in 2022. – Plan that TBR well in advance (and maybe clear off some more recent titles to make room for incoming.)

Literary Magazines: General Submissions. – A helpful list of places currently open to new work in Sept/Oct; note that The Lumiere Review provides an updated list every month or two, as some lit mags open to submissions seasonally.

Slightly Foxed Podcast, episode 36: Graphic Novels: A Comic Turn with Posy Simmonds & Paul Gravett. – One of my favorite podcasts looks at the history of graphic novels as well as some more recent offerings. Interesting for both newbies and fans of the format.

NaNo Tips: Preparing for National Novel Writing Month. – Some ideas to help you prep if you’re interested in participating in this year’s write-a-thon.

7 Books about Older Women Behaving Badly. – Because women don’t just disappear as they get older, and some remain visible with distinctive style.

‘Domestic Terrorists’ Challenge Books in Texas, Indiana, Maine and More. – Back-to-school season always means more uproar over what the children are reading. A roundup of recent kerfuffles.

Friday Links: October Goodies Suitable for Fall

Apologies to the Southern Hemisphere, but it’s autumn now here in the northern half, no matter the temperature. It’s in the 90s here today, but I’m ignoring that. Pumpkins and maple flavoring exploded all over Trader Joe’s in the last few weeks, people have pulled out sweaters; it’s fall. This means I can add fall reads to my TBR, and I plan to enable you to do the same.

What sort of books do you gravitate toward at this time of year? Halloween-y choices are obvious. Witches, vampires, ghosts. But I love a big fat novel that might carry my into winter, and I miss having the time to indulge. Academic settings also push my buttons; it’s the back-to-school vibe. I want books set at universities to go with a pile of new notebooks and pens.

I can’t swear all the book recs in this week’s links have autumn leanings, but there are a ton of them to sort through. I hope you find something to inspire and entertain you. Per usual, there are some random other links included. Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend!

This week’s links:

Fall Books 2021.The New York Times has a list of lists to make your fall TBR overflow, including fiction, nonfiction, memoir, books for younger readers, and so on. Be sure to check it out.

The Coolest Literary Tattoos on the Internet. – A fun peek at the art bookish folks have been putting on their bodies.

Buckle Up, Me Hearties: Best YA Pirate Stories. – I love a good pirate tale, and this list offers up a bunch of them.

It’s Time to Put Down the Beach Read and Pick Up a Crunchy Autumnal Novel. – A look at what makes a great autumn read, with a particular eye toward SFF.

7 Indian Women Writers You Should Be Reading. – For anyone looking to read more diversely or do a bit of armchair traveling, some wonderful authors to check out.

Yiyun Li on Starting a Virtual Book Club During the Pandemic. – Some of you might recall the read-along of War and Peace early on in the pandemic. This interview with the author who kicked it off gives an inside look at why she started the project and what it meant to her during such a period of isolation.

This Year’s MacArthur ‘Genius Grants’ Were Just Announced–Here’s the Full Winners List. – I’m always interested to see who makes this list each year, not just for the writers but for the overall creativity it displays.

Twenty Years Later: Remembering 9/11

Last year at this time, I wondered how it would feel to recall 9/11 from the other side of a global pandemic. How many major tragedies do we witness in a lifetime? I know there’s no number. It depends on the life–how long, when one lives. You cannot hold up one event and compare it to another. Each one resonates differently for each of us. And today, after twenty years, 9/11 still feels shocking and visceral in a way nothing else does.

The 9/11 memorial: Two beams of light shining up into an evening sky in lower Manhattan.

People hold complicated opinions about New York City. They love it, hate it. Admire it. Find it too dirty/busy/noisy. They consider it dangerous or magical or full of itself. And frankly, all of those opinions are fair. But New York also represents things that many people strive for; success, wealth, culture, creativity, importance, excellence. There’s the old line from the song: “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere.” NYC serves as a proving ground. A challenge. It’s part of what made it a target.

On the Day

In September, 2001, I worked at 100 Park Avenue, for a mutual fund firm, in corporate communications. Finance. The sales team had desks one section over on the same floor, with TVs suspended from the ceiling so they could have CNN and CNBC running all day. That’s how we all learned what was going on.

Some people were still on their way to work when the first plane hit, but I was at my desk. We thought it was an accident until the second one. The morning turned upside down. Like everyone watching, we were horrified. But also, every person in that office knew at least one person in the towers. Nature of the industry, plus many of us had grown up in the tri-state area. There were friends, family, work associates.

Everyone got on their phones. People spoke to loved ones inside those burning buildings. Early on, things seemed under control. They weren’t evacuating. But that changed fast. Coverage was live, so every terrible moment played out on the news. And the worse it looked, the harder it became to connect. Calling my mother in Connecticut, I learned she’d been trying to call me with no success; phone lines were swamped.

First one tower fell, then the second. Those toppling towers destabilized the nearest buildings, and the remainder of the morning became a tense wait to see which held on and which succumbed. You didn’t want to watch. You could not stop watching. I know I was breathing that entire day, but I only remember holding my breath.

Beyond the towers, there were bomb threats. Everything shut down. Bridges and tunnels closed to traffic; trains and buses halted. Anyone who lived outside Manhattan was trapped. We stayed at work, not because we were working, but because it wasn’t safe to leave.

Getting Out

Finally, word came trains were running out of Grand Central Terminal, starting early afternoon. I packed up and headed over. There was one train for each of the three lines: Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven. No schedule, no departure time. They packed us on, as many as fit, and started a slow chug out of the city.

It was silent on the train. No one spoke. People stared off in front of themselves, unseeing. One older man in my train car wore a dark suit covered in a grey film of ash and dirt, and had a bleeding cut on his forehead. Shock and exhaustion clung to him. I had no doubt he’d run to escape a collapsing building.

Paramedics waited at each train station, and as we slowly pulled into each stop, they scooped up the injured from the platforms.

When I finally got off the train, my cellphone blew up with messages. Everyone who hadn’t been able to get hold of me while I was in the city. I went to my mother’s house. My family sat and watched the news. I felt like I was coming down with the flu; exhausted, shaky, unreal. It had started as this beautiful, early fall day. The kind with a cloudless sky and the perfect temperature and endless sunshine. And then everything changed. What came next?

Aftermath

For the next week, I split my time between my mother’s house and my own apartment. I watched too much news, dreading each time they replayed significant moments from that day, but wanting the updates. The internet served as a lifeline, allowing people to check in and announce they were safe. So many people walked out of the city in the days following the attacks, some hiking over bridges to get to their apartments in outer boroughs. Others crashed with friends. After a few days, people who had not appeared began to be considered missing.

My office was closed, because we were one block from Grand Central, which continued to have bomb scares. I called a hotline each morning to get the status. The idea of returning to the city was nerve wracking, but I needed something to do. Staying home felt worse.

When my office finally reopened, new security measures were implimented. The lobby, once open, gained a security/ID check. But we were incredibly busy. Financial markets don’t appreciate chaos.

Flyers papered the city. Photos of those who had not come home.

Eventually I learned that four people I knew had died in the collapse of the towers. Countless had managed to get out. Somehow.

That winter I came down with first bronchitis then walking pneumonia. I lived on antibiotics. My lungs refused to clear. “It’s the air,” a doctor told me. “You work in the city, so it’s worse. You’re inhaling debris from the towers.”

I moved to California late the following September. Not because of 9/11. If anything, I delayed the move because of it. Leaving felt like deserting. But I needed a change, for many reasons, and so finally, I went.

Missing NYC

I was born in New York and I grew up with one foot in the city, even after we moved to the ‘burbs in search of lower taxes and good public schools. I spent many years working there, and even after moving away, I’ve returned for visits and work trips. It’s my city. I love it. It’s in my heart.

But we live in a different world. I watched how the pandemic hit New York, and I understood why people moved away, even as I also understood the ones who stayed. Because for me, New York is a microcosm of the nation, and I’d been feeling the same way. When the place you live feels unsafe, when you’re frustrated by your inability to fix anything, it’s natural to look elsewhere. To wonder if you could make things work if you just made a change.

This tragedy is not that tragedy. And I think more than anything, I miss living in a time and place where the answer to adversity is unity. Where we pull together instead of tearing each other apart.

Do I miss New York? Yes. Always. But more than that, I miss the spark of hope I felt returning to New York the week after the 9/11 attacks, to find nearly everyone pulling together and doing what was necessary to get things back to normal.

 

Friday Links: How Did We Get to September? Edition

September snuck up on me. We’re days away from fall, which means the year might as well be over. Things move so quickly once we hit this time of year. Everything ramps up. Work gets busier, life goes into overdrive. Anyone else feeling this? But September also activates that back-to-school mentality for me. It’s ingrained after so many years of education. I crave new pens and notebooks, classic novels, and sweaters. Can’t do much about the sweater thing–it’s in the 90s here at the moment–and I do NOT need more stationery. But books? You can never have too many books.

So in catching up on a bunch of open tabs, slated for sharing here, I have book lists for you. I know, you’re shocked. But also writing tips and other publishing-related goodness to help get you in a seasonal mood, or just ramp up your creativity. I hope you find them inspirational. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

This week’s links:

Every Tor Book Coming Fall 2021. – Pretty much as described. A fun list of highly anticipated reads for your TBR pile.

12 Great Picture Books with Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Characters. – For anyone looking to help younger children understand gender diversity in an age-appropriate way.

The One Writing Tool Alexander McCall Smith Can’t Do Without. – Some tips from the author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, including a link to a longer interview.

Darkest New England: What Is the Northern Gothic Literary Tradition? – A look at darker, spooky lit to get you geared up for autumn reads.

NPR Books Summer Poll 2021: A Decade of Great Sci-Fi and Fantasy. – These winners might be the result of a summer poll, but they’re good to read all year long.

The Top Romances Burning Up Goodreads This Summer. – Again, no reason not to keep reading these titles as the weather shifts. (Plus for Southern Hemisphere readers, things are just warming up.)

The Buffoonery of White Supremacy Trying to Disguise Itself as Literature. – An interesting and timely read offering some good food for thought.

Writing Myself Back into My Body and Into the World. – On writing as a form of speculation, using the broadest consideration of the term.

15 Books to Read This Fall. – A more literary list from The Washington Post of buzz books for the autumn.

Happy Book Release Day to LAST GUARD by Nalini Singh

Wishing a very happy release day to LAST GUARD by Nalini Singh, the latest in her Psy/Changeling Trinity series.

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh returns to a world devastated by change in her award-winning Psy-Changeling Trinity series, where two people defined by their aloneness hold the fate of the Psy in their hands. . . .

Termed merciless by some, and a robotic sociopath by others, Payal Rao is the perfect Psy: cardinal telekinetic, CEO of a major conglomerate, beautiful—and emotionless.

For Canto Mercant, family and loyalty are everything. A cardinal telepath deemed “imperfect” by his race due to a spinal injury, Canto cares for the opinions of very few—and ruthlessly protects those he claims as his own. Head of intel for the influential Mercant family, he prefers to remain a shadow in the Net, unknown and unseen. But Canto is also an anchor, part of a secretive designation whose task it is to stabilize the PsyNet. Now that critical psychic network is dying, threatening to collapse and kill the entire Psy race with it.

To save those he loves, Canto needs the help of a woman bound to him by a dark past neither has been able to forget. A woman who is the most powerful anchor of them all: Payal Rao. Neither is ready for the violent inferno about to ignite in the PsyNet . . . or the passionate madness that threatens to destroy them both.

Pick up LAST GUARD at your favorite indie bookstore or online vendor today!

Friday Links: Reading for Long Summer Days Edition

Welcome to the long, not-so-lazy days of summer. We’re a few weeks in, and while this summer ranks far better than last, things are still a little… different. (If you hail from the southern hemisphere, this goes for chilly winter days, too. Pandemic life affects all seasons.)

A woman wearing cut-off shorts and a brown tank top, lying on her back on wooden steps, holding a paperback above her face to read. A wood-toned picket fence lines the property, with a city street beyond.

Life and work continue to pick up pretty steadily, which means reminding my pandemic-brain how to function at normal speeds. In my heart, I yearn for a long vacation with a stack of books by the pool. The vacation part still looks unlikely, but the reading is a go. So this week I thought I’d try and revive Friday Links with a few good to-read lists with summer indulgence in mind. Of course, I’m throwing in a few writerly links, as well.

What are you all reading these days? Has the pandemic altered your book preferences at all? I’d love to hear what you’re up to. Meanwhile, wishing you a lovely weekend and some good reading and writing time. Enjoy!

This Week’s Links:

July’s Must-Read Books. – Pretty much as described. Some great sounding titles here.

Here are all the romance books you need to read this summer. – Not quite all of this summer’s romance releases, but a good number of them, particularly if you’re looking for a good rom-com.

Best Books of 2021 So Far. – BookRiot rounds up a huge list of excellent titles published between January and June of this year. Great for playing catch-up.

How to Submit to Literary Journals. – Some excellent tips for those of you looking to write some shorter works this summer.

Words Matter: Copyediting as a Process for (or Against) Social Change. – Interesting look on the role of copyediting in our cultural shifts.

A Brief History of Russian Science Fiction. – A look at the development of the genre as the national identity moved from Russian to Soviet and back again.

How Do You Keep a Novel Alive When It Keeps Trying to Die? -On writing and persistence when working on a long-form project.

How Do You Keep a Long-Running Series Fresh? The Secret Is Character. – A discussion about series and how to keep your readers’ interest across future books. Couched in terms of crime fiction, but great tips for all types of novels.

Out Now! HEARTBREAK INCORPORATED by Alex de Campi

HEARTBREAK INCORPORATED by Alex de Campi hits stores this week, and I could not be more excited. Alex is well known in the comics world, and this, her second prose novel, further shows off her storytelling skills. Plus, how can you not love this cover!

Hearbreak-Incorporated-cover-art

Evie Cross had big dreams of becoming an investigative journalist, but at 25 and struggling to make it in New York City, she’s finally starting to admit that her dream is her side hustle and her day job is actually… her job. That is, until she signs on as a temp for a small consultancy whose principal, Misha Meserov, specializes in breaking up relationships. Misha is tall, infuriatingly handsome, and effortlessly charismatic–he can make almost anyone, man or woman, fall into bed with him. And he often does. But the more Evie is exposed to Misha’s scandalous world, the more she becomes convinced that he’s hiding something… When a wealthy San Francisco tech CEO with a dissolving marriage starts delving into the occult and turns up dead, Evie has to decide between her journalistic desire for the truth and her growing desire for Misha. 

HEARTBREAK INCORPORATED combines the action adventure of a thriller with the mysteries of the occult. And don’t forget a dash of romance. Find this great read at your favorite bookstore or online vendor. If you’re still sheltering at home, try out Bookshop.org or Bookshop.uk.  Support an indie bookstore!

Friday Links: Farewell to February Edition

Happy Friday! Somehow we’ve reached the end of the month. When did time start moving normally again? I take it as a sign of hope for good things to come. But as we kiss February goodbye, I have some random housekeeping announcements to share before the links.

Photo by Neel on Unsplash

First, I’m happy to let you all know that I am in the process of prepping an online version of my course on synopsis writing. I’ve offered this before through various venues, but pandemic times call for more availability. The new, updated course will go into greater detail than I could previously due to time constraints, and include handouts. More details to come next week.

Next, to address the state of my inbox (otherwise know as submissions). It’s no secret I am woefully behind. I did virtually no reading of new material over the holidays and came back to a bunch of client projects, which means I’ve not caught up. No, I am not closing to submissions in order to do so. However, I am about ready to switch up what I’m looking for, so I will be closing over the weekend to make that adjustment. I’ll post a revised wish list early next week. As always, please follow submission guidelines! If you’re waiting to hear from me on something, I’m reading as fast as I can. I’ve requested more pages on quite a few queries, which is great, but also means… more to read. So please hang in.

And on that note, I’ll share some fun links and let you all get on with your Friday. Wishing you a wonderful weekend, filled with bookish goodness and inspired writing. Enjoy!

This week’s links:

These 15 Feminist Books Will Inspire, Enrage, and Educate You. – A terrific, diverse roundup including both fiction and nonfiction.

Why Do Some Writers Burn Their Work? – An interesting look at this most final, destructive means of anihilating your writing.

35 Must-Read 2021 Book Releases By Black Authors. – So many great sounding titles coming up. Make note now.

Bird Brain: Lauren Oyler, Patricia Lockwood, and the Literature of Twitter. – Social media has been worming its way into our collective culture for a while now, but this piece dives more specifically into the link between Twitter and some recent books.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 101. – Excellent obituary that includes a worthwhile video history. Ferlinghetti lived a wonderful, long life, and left a real mark. I’ll look forward to getting back up to City Lights books as soon as travel is safe again.

Pandemic Pen Pals. – A lovely little write up of Penpalooza, the pandemic-era pen pal exchange started by New Yorker writer Rachel Syme over social media. Matches are still happening, so head over to penpalooza.com if you’re interested in some old fashioned snail mail. You can check out the #penpalooza tag on Twitter to get a feel for things. There are somewhere in the range of 11,000 people signed up at the moment, from all around the world.

Happy Book Release Day to QUIET IN HER BONES by Nalini Singh

New York Times-bestselling-author Nalini Singh sends her latest thriller, QUIET IN HER BONES, into the world today. Set in Singh’s native New Zealand, the novel offers readers a tense, rollercoaster ride and an intense murder mystery. And I confess that this cover alone gives me chills. It perfectly depicts the dark mood of this story.

In this gripping thriller set in New Zealand, New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes you into the twisted world of an exclusive cul-de-sac located on the edge of a sprawling forest.

My mother vanished ten years ago.
So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash.
Thief. Bitch. Criminal.
Now, she’s back.
Her bones clothed in scarlet silk.

When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that’s housed the same influential families for decades.

The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night ten years ago. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream that night, and he’s determined to uncover the ugly truth that lives beneath the moneyed elegance… but no one is ready for the murderous secrets about to crawl out of the dark.

Even the dead aren’t allowed to break the rules in this cul-de-sac.

Singh offers readers a series of twists and turns, dark secrets, and a multilayered mystery. With its lush New Zealand setting, QUIET IN HER BONES whisks you off for the weekend, no quarantine required.

In stores now!

Grab a copy and a hot drink, and settle in for the ride. Purchase QUIET IN HER BONES from your favorite retailer, either brick-and-mortar or online. And don’t forget to support your local indies. Enjoy!