Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

***Brace yourself for my customary sentence saying that it's been a while since my last post***

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I really wanted to write something brief (<<<lol) as a way of keeping this blog fresh, sharing any writer-related updates and also mention some resolutions I have for the new year. This blog is, after all, essentially my writing diary - a way for me to keep track of everything I have done up until now, and naturally be able to look back at all the hilarious mistakes I've made along the way as I try to make writing my full time career.

I think you could say that, all things considered, it's going rather well. I mean, I still have a day job but I'm going in the right direction and am now making a small income from the words I put out there. Life forces us sometimes to meander all over the place but I do feel as if I have a pretty solid path I am slowly but surely treading, whilst tripping and grazing my knees along the way. After releasing my new short story, Fancy That on 24th November, I was planning to move onto something new straight away but after a day or so of publication, I had a momentary panic that I needed to do some marketing for it so I spent a rather intense few days emailing what felt like every single booktuber and blogger under the sun... before very quickly (again) deciding I was going to leave it all to chance and rather concentrate on writing and not marketing.  I am in such an oversubscribed market as it is that my gut is telling me what I need to do is just keep writing and publishing stories and leave the rest to fate. Back to all things Fancy That, I have to say that the reaction has been rather lovely but it's a shame more people weren't able to read it before Christmas... there is always next year.

After once more remembering that book marketing is not for me, I worked again on the other short story I talked about in my last update post whilst concurrently working on the BIG project I have been banging on about since the dawn of time. I have got to the point with the BIG one that I now need to go back to the very beginning of the book and do a deep edit of the whole thing and I can't tell you how excited I am to get stuck in. The short story is already in very good shape and just needs some general tinkering before I can publish it. I also have ideas for two more short stories that I will be working on straight after that so I definitely won't run out of things to do in 2019. Yesterday, I also thought I'd add to the workload and reread a short story I initially self-published when I was using the pen name Lily Divine called Circle. It was amazing to see how much my writing has changed (and hopefully improved) over the years and whilst a lot to has to change, it's actually pretty good and so I plan on rewriting that when I have discovered how to buy time or fashioned my own time machine.

In a bid to keep this post from getting way too long (already happened mate), I will end by sharing a few of my writing-related goals for 2019. I have done this previous years on the blog and every time I have, I've managed to pretty much achieve everything I wanted to... so here goes nothing:

- Finally finish, once and for all, the BIG project, knowing I have written it to the best of my ability.
- Finish and self-publish the short story I have been working on recently.
- Write and self-publish the other two short stories I have ideas for.
- Rewrite and self-publish Circle.
- Be working as a successful writer by the end of the year (yikes).

I don't care how daunting or big these goals might be but if I work hard, whatever happens, it will simply have meant that I spent time on something I love which will inevitably lead to a positive outcome.

2018 was an interesting year. I really worked myself into the ground at times but as a result, I ended up learning a lot about myself and set up a lot of things that will hopefully make 2019 a good one. I have a lot of work ahead of me and plan on really knuckling down for the next three months so I am not exactly sure how many posts there will be in that time - which basically means see you in three months...

Until next time,
Cara x