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2020 Writing Year in Review

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Those of you who have followed me for years will know that I initially tried the Write 1, Submit 1 challenge, where I tried to write and submit one story every week. That later changed to the 100 Rejections challenge, which was to aim for 100 rejections a year. While I never succeeded in either of those challenges, it did lead me to start a habit of tracking all my submissions and new writings, which I have managed to keep up for going on 7 years.

2020 has definitely been a unique year, both in the challenges and opportunities presented. A lot could be said, but I think I’ll just focus on the statistics as a way to sum up the year:

Writing submissions rolled over from 2019: 9
Writing submissions in 2020 (including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry): 32 (though I may sneak in one more today, if possible)
Non-writing creative submissions in 2020: 4 (all photography)

Total submissions tracked in 2020: 45

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2020 Books In Review

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It’s important, as a writer, to also be an avid reader. Not only is it enjoyable, it’s a great way to improve as a writer, to see how other writers are approaching their work, no matter the genre (in fact, I think it’s best to read across many genres).

In my day-to-day life with a full-time job coupled with being a full-time mom and wife, I don’t often have the time and inclination to read “proper” books. It’s hard to really get into a book if I only have 10 minutes here and there, or at the end of the day when my brain is fried. So, I end up reading a lot of short blog posts, fanfiction, magazines, and innumerable re-readings of children’s picture books. The last few years, I’ve attempted to at least read one full-length book a month, but I have failed miserably. However, I managed to not only read at least 12 books in 2020, but I’m very happy that the majority of them were written by female and POC authors.

I was going to do this huge long analysis of the books I read in 2020, but instead, I found this great end-of-the-year book ask on Tumblr, so I’ll answer these questions instead:

1. How many books did you read this year?

13 books (hooray!)

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Jeopardy!, and what new experiences bring to writing

When I became pregnant with my daughter, I realized that not only was I, in essence, giving life to another person, but I would also be giving this person their first however many firsts. There are a lot of things that we do so often, even unthinkingly, that we may forget that there was once a time that we were trying it for the first time. My first breath, my first experience of the sun, my first step, my first wound, my first haircut, and the list goes on and on.

The older I become, there seem to be fewer moments of experiencing things for the first time. So, I made a promise to myself that every year, I would deliberately set out to try at least one fun/good/interesting thing for the first time.

Since then, I have experienced my first rodeo, my first drive-through car wash, my first taste of Lebanese breakfast, among others. To be fair, I also experienced some not-so-fun firsts such as my first ride in an ambulance.

At the beginning of 2020, my husband and I both took the Jeopardy! online test. It was the last of their scheduled tests (right before they launched the Jeopardy! Anytime test). I only took it because my husband said he wouldn’t take it otherwise, and I really wanted him to be on Jeopardy. We’d been fans of the show for a very long time (my daughter loves the Jeopardy! final question music), so it was also something fun to do together, a date night of sorts.

Months later, I get an email inviting me back for an audition, and long story short, I was able to add “being a Jeopardy! contestant” to my list of firsts for 2020. The whole process was a really interesting experience (especially in the midst of the COVID pandemic).

What does any of this have to do with writing? It’s not like you’re only allowed to write what you know, right? Yes, however, instead of breadth, I would say that new experiences give more depth to my writing in the following ways:

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