As I mentioned in my last post, this February to February stretch has been a big, prolific writing year for me. Here are 12 things I’ve learned in those 12 months (see, see what I did there? yeah…)

1. I’m going to have to cry at least once in the process of meeting any deadline. Might as well just put on waterproof mascara now.

2. Telling my friends/boyfriend/family that something I wrote sucks too often really diminishes the impact I have when I actually mean that something I wrote totally sucks during those times when I need to curl into a ball and assume the fetal position.  

3. Don’t be afraid of having fun with the details.

4. Sometimes I get more done when I give myself the entire day to write, sometimes I get more done when I only have a couple hours to make the most of, but I’ll never know which is going to work better which day and that’s just how it is.

5. The fear of a time crunch significantly reduces the fear of a blank page.

6. I really can’t work at coffee shops. No matter how much I want to be J.K. Rowling.

7. You can write in third person and still have voice.

8. I’m not very good at explaining to people what I’m working on. For instance, when on deadline, I told Boyfriend exasperatedly (a word? surely not) that my editor told me to “Add more bears throughout” and was upset when met with a blank stare. Why the heck wouldn’t someone add more bears throughout?

9. Everyone needs downtime. Feeling guilty for every minute spent away from work, but not writing doesn’t do anyone an ounce of good.

10. Sometimes you have to turn down projects to open up your schedule for potential new projects. When you don’t…there’s a lot more of #1.

11. I could not write without my writing friends.

12. Holding a finished product in book form truly makes it all worth it.