Happy 2017 everyone! I’ve been thinking about this post for a while, wondering what exactly I’m going to say. 2016 was a very eventful year for me writing-wise, as well as in my personal life, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. The world went kind of insane, but for me individually, I think 2016 was one of my best years so far. And I think it was definitely my best year in relation to writing.

I did some edits on Colonized– just a bit, but I did! I didn’t keep track of the stats for last year, but this year my book has over 9000 reads, over 1000 votes, and 0ver 1400 comments. There was only one day in December where I didn’t have any readers at all. Wattpad lets you see where in the world percentages of your readers live in, and this is the map it gives me currently.

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53% of my readers are in the US, but the other 47% are in other countries, and I think that’s just so amazing!

Over the summer, I posted the sequel to my first Doctor Who fanfiction on Wattpad. Texting the Doctor was the first one, and Finding the Doctor was my sequel. I don’t really write fanfiction much anymore, and I don’t know that I will again, but I enjoyed writing that story. It took a lot of time, but I finished it, and I shared it so that people could enjoy it. I learned more about writing a plot from that, and I experimented with different, non-chronological ways of telling a story, which I found entertaining. It’s always good to try new things with writing, and that fanfiction gave me the opportunity to do that, even if I don’t love the show I based the book off as much as I used to.

I started Colonized‘s sequel, Pioneered, this year. That was huge. I’d been putting it off for a year or two, and I finally had a good enough idea of what I wanted to happen that I decided to start. It was difficult at first, but I’ve had some really productive writing days, and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s currently around 53,800 words, and while I’ve still got some ways to go before it’s done, I’ve made a lot of progress in less than a year! I’ve gotten to know my characters more, and I have a better idea of what I want to happen in the book than I did when I wrote Colonized. I’m still not entirely sure how I want Pioneered to end, but I’m confident that I’ll figure it out, and I’m loving getting to write it. I think it’s one of the best things I’ve written so far, and I’m very proud of my work.

Of course, I started querying for Colonized, which I talked about last week. That was completely terrifying, but an important experience, and hopefully it will have good results! Even if I don’t get a reply from any of the agents I sent queries too, though, I still get to have the pleasure of knowing that I’m at a point where I can send those queries, that I’m proud enough of my work to try to get it out there, even if it means facing rejection.

And I started this blog! I’d been thinking about creating a writing blog for a few years, but in my imagination, it was always going to be after I got published (if I get published.) I was dreaming about being successful and sharing my success with others, looking back. I originally started this blog thinking that I was going to share tips on how to write- as though I actually know what I’m doing! But I realized that, really, I don’t know what I’m doing, but that sharing it and the lessons I’m learning along the way might be even more fun, and maybe even more helpful to other teen writers.

I hope 2017 is as productive for me as 2016 was! I’d like to finish Pioneered, and do a better job with blogging! Hopefully I’ll get a response from an agent, and if I don’t, I’ll send more queries- hopefully someone will respond eventually! I’m going to keep trying to get my book out there, and I’m going to keep writing.

I think this next year is going to be a good one.