#loveanauthor2019

A challenge is happening, my friends.

*barely resists the urge to shout "Gondor calls for aid!"* ;D

INTRODUCING: THE #loveanauthor2019 CHALLENGE 

It's February, my friends! Which, if you tilt towards the side of insanity called "bookish", means the chance to love on your favorite bookish people: AUTHORS.

So I and my great friend Soleil Marie (on Instagram, @book_dragon17) have decided to host a #loveanauthor2019 challenge. It's going to be two tons of fun, and I hope some of y'all will join in! Let me give you the handy little graphic we made for it...

And there it is, my friend! The challenge is pretty cut and dried - twenty-eight prompts, one for each day, to spread the author-love the entire month long! A lot of them are open to interpretation, so I'm excited to see what you guys come up with. Most of the fun will be happening over on Instagram (my handle is @savannahgraceauthor), but you're absolutely welcome to use the prompts for your blog, twitter, YouTube, or other social media! (leave a link to whichever social media you plan to use down in the comments!)

I'll be sharing some of the best Instagram pics taken + posts/video/whatnot posted in a recap post at the end of the challenge, so make sure to let me know down in the comments if you join in the challenge, and leave links to posts! I can't wait what your creative minds come up with ;).

Keep being epic, my friends - I can't wait to spread the author-love with y'all! <3

~ Savannah Grace

so - will you join us? ;)

How I'm Bullet Journaling (as a writer and student) In 2019

Spoiler alert: I was very much not into the idea of bullet journals when they first became cool. I mean, a journal that's supposed to help you plan things and be organized and save time, and yet you spend so much time making it look pretty that you actually end up wasting time?

*is suspicious*

But then...I started my own bullet journal. I may or may not be addicted now ;D. So I thought I would give y'all a peek into my bullet journal today, and show you how I'm utilizing it as both a writer and a student.

- The Index Pages -

(which I don't have a picture of because they're blank and boring ;D) 

I'm not using the assigned index pages as an actual index (*cough* like normal, sane people*cough*) I decided to use it as an acquisitions tracker for 2019. Like I said in my Hello 2019 post, I want to get more serious about submitting my work this year, so I decided that it would be nice to have a page where I can track everything that I publish this year. Very excited to start filling this in! 

- Title Page -

(you can click on any of these pics to blow them up, just fyi) I don't know what I was doing here, you guys. That design? What even is it? SO SPINDLY. But I wanted to do a bit of a nautical sketch, so this strange mash-up of ship's wheel and anchor was born. I need to be more creative, y'all ;D.

- 2019 at a Glance -

This is super helpful so that I don't have to pull out my phone and go scrolling through calendars when I'm planning out what's going to happen in future months/weeks (and for when I'm making my new bullet journal layouts and need to remember what day is what).

- Future Log -

The color scheme though. Savannah, darling - creamsicle orange and lime green DO NOT GO TOGETHER. Not even in alternate universes. Sheesh ;D. But the future log (I have the other months written on the subsequent pages) is where I'm going to be writing stuff like upcoming deadlines or other events I need to remember. Because my brain can't hold onto everything ;D.

- 2019 Goals / Important Dates -

This is helpful for all those birthdays I keep forgetting about xD. I don't know how much the goals page will get used, but I suppose we'll see. (however, again, that color scheme. Why, Savvy. Why even)

- Social Media Tracker -

I thought it would be fun to have a tracker so that I can see the growth I have on all my social media platforms during this new year. I'm curious to see how it turns out in the end!

- JANUARY LAYOUT -

I actually just did a YouTube video on my entire January bullet journal layout (*cough* which looks way better because I learned to use better colors *cough*), so I won't bore y'all with it again (you can check out the video right here if you haven't seen it yet!), but I thought I'd still show you one of my favorite layouts. Because I can't help it ;).

- Timetable and Sketch Page -

I've only started using a timetable to keep track of what I'm doing with my time in 2019, but I LOVE it. It's super helpful when I'm trying to figure out what I need to change to give myself more time for a project, and when I'm trying to figure out if I have time to fit in another project. Highly recommend. And this art piece was just really fun to do <3. (also, I rather think my massively blue theme for January is way better than ... whatever colors were happening in my beginning-of-the-year layouts xD)

And there's a peek into my bullet journal for this year! I'm having way too much fun using it and doodling around in it (it's seriously SO helpful for keeping everything organized and helping me be more productive!). Do any of y'all bullet journal? Let me know in the comments!

Keep being epic, y'all <3. 

~ Savannah Grace 

do you bullet journal? 

how do you stay organized?
 

Hello 2019! + 2018 Wrapped

In my opinion, 2019 swept in with less of a "I'M READY TO GO" feeling and more of a "oh look, Savannah is somersaulting into the New Year IS SHE ACTUALLY READY THOUGH, WHO CAN TELL?"

(hint: she wasn't ready)

But I'm super excited to get into the swing of 2019, with all it's bright and shiny new-ness. Which means new things will be happening on this blog! So I thought I would do a quick wrap-up of 2018 before waving hello to 2019 and getting your opinion on what's going to be going down here this year. Ready?

Let's do this.

2018 WRAPPED 

Bookishness

I read 85 books this year! Which is teensy compared to what I read in 2017, but this year was much busier, so I suppose it makes sense. Only 6 of them were five-stars reads (Circus Mirandus, Siren's Song, A Thousand Perfect Notes, Fawkes, The Dire King, and Reclaiming Shilo Snow) - but I'm SUPER picky about handing out five star ratings, so I'm pretty good with those 6 five star ratings. 67 of those books were new to me, which I'm super happy about - 2017 had a lot more rereads, so it was awesome to find some many new favorite authors and books in 2018. (was this possibly because I delved deeper into bookstagram and blogging? Perhaps. My TBR is suffering GREATLY ;D)

The Writing World

I was published six times in 2018 (seven, if you count the small piece that went up on Writer's Digest), and wrote WAY more short stories, novellas, and flash fiction than is good for anyone xD. I also delved deeper into the writing/publishing world by becoming the submissions manager for Illuminate YA, the creative writing columnist for Pursue magazine's website, and the associate editor for Havok Publishing (and part of the web content team for the same).  

I expanded my Snow White retelling novella, Forgotten, into a full novel, submitted it to an agent, and did too many rounds of editing on it to count. Still not done with it, either ;D. I did some work on a few other novels, too, but none so much as Forgotten. I co-wrote my first story with the ever-amazing Soleil Bourdon, which was so much fun. I did the Go Teen Writer's 100-for-100 challenge again, too...and it kind of turned into the 1,000-for100, but I mean, what can you do? xD I participated in and won Camp NaNoWriMo in April, which is always a ton of fun, and I also went to my first writing conference! Which was definitely the best experience of the year. Definitely.

On the blog (and other places)

The five most popular posts on Inspiring Writes posted in 2018 were the Silmaril Awards posts (that event is always so fun) the Get To Know Me Tag: Writer's Edition, and April's edition of Ask the Author. But my personal favorite posts that I did in 2018 were all the Featured Creator/Author posts - it was so awesome to get to chat with all the amazing authors and creators that were kind enough let me interview them. So much fun. 

I also started up on Instagram and YouTube toward the end of 2018. It's been so cool connecting with another side of the writing/bookish realm, and I've been having a blast! Definitely looking forward to expanding things over in both those places.  

How did I do on 2018's goals?

- comment on blogs more often + post more consistently  ✓ ❌  

So I did a good job with this at the beginning of the year? But then stuff started sliding towards the end of it. I honestly feel bad about how many comments have gone unanswered *hides under the smol rock of shame*. But I intend to do MUCH better on this in 2019!

- read 150 books ❌

HAHAHA *dies*

- publishing something ✓✓✓✓✓✓

Kind of laughing at beginning-of-2018 Savannah right now, who had no idea that she wouldn't only have something published, she would have six somethings published. That was really cool.

- pitch a project at Realm Makers ✓

I did it! I did it, and I didn't die! xD It wasn't the best pitch ever, but it was a pitch, so I'm proud that I accomplished this one (and didn't chicken out xD).

 2018 In Overview

- January: rewrote some of Killing Snow and buckled down hard on schoolwork (not that I can remember how much I actually got done because that was LAST YEAR)  
- February: lots of card games (I think my sisters and I were going through a phase?) and started writing The Chained Circus
- March: finally saw Fantastic Beasts and got published for the first time (in Splickety's Dystopian Disasters issue) and read my first Stiefvater book
- April: went to an orchestra concert and got to meet up with a writing friend. Was published in Havok (the Extraordinary Exploits issue) , and worked on some novellas for a SpringSong Press contest
- May: lots of driving practice, got a beautiful bookish gift from one of my dearest internet friends (Legendary!), worked a ton on the expansion of Forgotten
- June: visited with relatives, celebrated some birthdays, submitted The Genie Bone to the SpringSong contest and Forgotten to an agent, was published in Splickety (the Heirs and Spares issue).
- July and August: I. WENT. TO. REALM. MAKERS, dove deeper into my sketching hobby, became the creative writing columnist for Pursue and the submissions manager for Illuminate YA, got my first reply email from an agent, and finished the first round of edits on Forgotten.
- September: celebrated my birthday (and my parents gave me the gift of RM 2019!!!), did more edits, and the illustrated version of Uncharted went up.
- October: finally saw Infinity War, took a chill from writing
- November: went to a Rend Collective concert, started bullet journaling, had a small piece of mine posted on Writer's Digest, and was published in the Project Canvas book
- December: visited with relatives, was published in Splickety (the Christmas abroad issue), became an associate editor for Havok, and sent off more submissions and did some editing    

2018 was seriously a GREAT year. So much happened that I never thought would (or could!) happen for me at this age, and if I could sum up 2018 in one year it would probably be "growth". But I'm also totally ready to bring in 2019 and see what surprises are hiding up its sleeves. So I guess it's probably time I say...   

HELLO 2019!

 Goals for 2019

- comment more consistently

Because you guys always make me grin when you leave your lovely comments on my posts (like clockwork!), and so I'm making it a goal to reply back (and comment on other blogs) more consistently. This will happen. xD I miss connecting with y'all as much as I used to! 

- read 80 books

2019 is gearing up to be a VERY busy year, so I bumped my reading goal down a little bit. But I've found that my writing suffers when I don't read enough, so I'm not bumping it down too much. And I mean, my TBR is so high right now that if my goal is anything below 80... *sounds of Savannah being drowned by books can be heard*  

- attend Realm Makers 2019 

I get excited just looking at that goal ;D. Realm Makers 2019 is in only 7 months, and it both feels REALLY far away and way close? I'm INSANELY STOKED to go back and get to learn more and see more people. It's going to be a blast!

- publish more stuff 

Six pieces published in 2018, and I really want to beat that in 2019. We'll see what happens!   

- bullet journal consistently

I think bullet journaling is really going to help me stay organized and juggle life + writing stuff. It's a new thing I'm trying in 2019, but I'm hoping to keep up with it and do it consistently. 

- start college (and not die)

It's insane to type out (or even think) that I'll be starting college this year, but there it is. Hopefully I won't die in the process, yes?

- query agents

This one is slightly more tentative, but I'm hoping to be able to start querying more agents for Forgotten in 2019. Forgotten still has a ways to go, but I'm ready to take it there.

- start a newsletter 

Because apparently these are important for aspiring authors seeking publication xD. Even though this year will be busy, I'm going to try and carve out the time to do this.  

What's coming in 2019? 

Well, I have a LOT planned. Tons of fun stuff coming. But before I make anything set in stone, I want to get your opinion on what should go down here on Inspiring Writes in 2019. So I put together a quick survey (am I the only one who loves filling out beginning-of-the-year blog surveys? Yes? No?) that you can take RIGHT HERE. I'd appreciate it greatly if you would! Your feedback is always super important to me and helps me make the blog what you guys want it to be.

THANK YOU guys for helping to make 2018 the epic year that it was, and thank you for sticking around even when life gets busy and I can't be here as much as I'd like to be. I'm looking forward to sharing more posts with y'all in 2019!

Keep being epic, my friends! <3

~ Savannah Grace 

what was your biggest accomplishment in 2018?

what's your biggest goal for 2019?