Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Memory's Smile...

As I look back on this year the question comes up, was it a good year of writing? Life was busier this year than nearly any other I've lived in my 19 1/2 years. What time did I have for writing? Did I uphold my personal goals as a writer to write things worth reading and read things worth writing? Should I hang up my apron and lay aside my pen? I guess success, in a way, is measured by results, so I sought to lay out exactly what I have written this year. The consensus puzzled me. How in the blue blazes did I manage to write all of this in one jam-packed year? Beats me. But here's the list:
Puddleby Lane (unfinished as of yet, but something to the tune of 44,927 words)
The Scarlet-Gypsy Song (somewhere near 17,000 words right now) 
"Nazarene Noon": a short story
"The Master of Delgrade Heath": (a longer short-story, over 17,000 words)
"How About Coffee?" (a short story)
"A Fool's Hope" (A short story)
"A Roguish Scheme" (A short story)
"My Pale Rose Trembling" (a short story)
"Marcella Grey" (a short story)
"A Duel of Wits" (a sketch)
"I am Levi" (a sketch)
And numerous poems and scribblings besides.

Not half-bad, is it? I felt rather pleased with myself after I read all that. My inspiration applauded me and told me I had done well during 2011.  It's nice to be on terms with one's memory and writing. :P



7 comments:

Jenny Freitag said...

Dear goodness, you have been busy. You seem proficient in short stories, something that I am dreadful at - I think I am too verbose, and my plots are always too large and too tangled to be condensed. And I dare say "My Pale Rose Trembling" is a title which strikes a chord in me, even if I have no idea what it is about.

I am selfishly glad that Puddleby Lane is around 45,000 words. It makes me feel better about Plenilune, which is not much larger. Both my sister and my sister-in-law (who have, admittedly, been working on their novels longer than I have been working on mine) are much farther along and my little numbers were beginning to feel lonely.

Unknown said...

Good job Rachel! Those short stories sound lovely.

Rachel Heffington said...

Haha, Jenny! :) It makes me feel glad that the Penslayer herself boasts a similar word-count to me. ;) As for being proficient at short-stories, I went on a short-story kick this summer, having never written a single one outside of school assignments in my entire life. I found I can manage them if I don't say anything too definite about the ending of them in the course of the story! :D And thank you, Londongirl!

Always Narnian said...

wow....I could never get that much done :P I need to write, terribly

Stephanie Ann said...

You've been productive! I can't ever write that much.

Unknown said...

You're welcome, Rachel!

Anonymous said...

Ah, you Jenny and you Rachel, you. You think that wonderful wordcount small? Ah! What I would give to have mine be as large!

Anywhoo, Rachel, dear, I loved looking through this. It brought to mind how I first came upon your little blog, and how deeply I fell in love with your prose. What a wonderful year of writing for you. What wonderful memories for you and yours to look back on. ^.^